1.
Best Storage Tank Inspection Drones
1.1.
Voliro T
1.2.
ScoutDI
1.3.
Energy Robotics Drone
2.
Best Drones for Oil Rig Inspections
2.1.
Noa Hybrid
2.2.
Perimeter 8 and 8+
3.
ROVs for Oil Rig Inspection
3.1.
Seaeye Lynx
3.2.
Deep Trekker DTG3
4.
Best Drones for Oil and Gas Pipeline Inspection
4.1.
DJI Matrice 350 RTK
4.2.
Anafi AI by Parrot
4.3.
SwitchBlade-Elite by Vision Aerial
5.
Oil and Gas Drone Inspection Is Getting Better
The energy industry is booming. By 2025, liquid fuel consumption is set to rise by 1.5 million per day, and natural gas consumption – to over 4370 bcm. Such dynamic growth requires reliable infrastructure. The key to achieving this durability is regular asset inspections.
Using industrial-grade drones, you can inspect assets at height and access remote, potentially dangerous areas without putting personnel at risk. By combining advanced sensing technology with specialized testing tools, drones can reduce inspection times in half and provide you with a continuous stream of asset condition data.
If you want to expand your fleet, here are the best drones for oil and gas inspections, available today.
Storage tanks are susceptible to corrosion and cracking due to accumulated sludge, condensation, pressure fluctuations, and bio-agents in some fuels. Monthly and yearly storage tank drone inspections help detect issues early and avoid costly downtime.
Drones can survey external walls and easily enter confined spaces, eliminating the need for
rope access, scaffolding, and asset shutdown. The advanced imaging technology and mountable NDT probes make tank drone inspection more thorough, cost-effective, and rapid.
Here are our top three tank inspection drone picks.
Voliro T’s specialty is non-destructive testing of assets at height. A three-tiltable motor design, allows the drone to approach structures from any angle and apply stable force during interactions. Thanks to a robust body design, Voliro T remains stable even with wind up to 8 m/s and operational in temperatures between -10 °C to +40 °C.
The drone features a 17K lumen light, an inbuilt 4K inspector camera with a horizontal FoV of 80°, and AI-assisted flight controls, plus 6 LiDAR and vision-based velocity sensors to prevent collisions and operate even without GPS. So you can safely cruise around complex structures and access the insides of the storage tanks.
Voliro’s main competitive advantage is the unmatched selection of NDT payloads, six in total — all available as part of the subscription. The three top picks for storage tank inspections are ultrasonic testing probes:
With Voliro’s technology, you can collect over 200 accurate readings of walls, roofs, and floors per hour during the drone tank inspection — much more than with conventional NDT tools. Fast setup time, AI-assisted inspection modes, and high accuracy also cut down inspection times. Our customers can fully inspect 5-10 storage tanks per day.
Key Features
If you want to do an internal tank inspection by drone, ScoutDI is a reliable partner. It’s purpose-built for inspecting confined, dangerous spaces — toxic and deoxygenated environments that pose risks to your workforce. Thanks to onboard 3D LiDAR sensors, the drone maps its surroundings in real time with high accuracy. Spatial Localization and Mapping (SLAM) and location-tagging of all captured images enable 3D storage tank model generation. Laser-assisted distance tracking and AI-assisted flight mode further help with safe cruising below the visual line of the site.
Tethered to the ground station with a thin, 40 m cable, ScoutDI is restricted in mobility but offers unlimited flight time. Your teams don’t have to rush with the planned drone oil and gas inspection and double-check the readings. The only time you might need to return the drone to the base is to refill its couplant container for UT testing.
ScoutDI features a 4K camera with a tilt-stabilized gimbal that can be adjusted up to 90 degrees. The drone also has two payloads:
All collected readings are instantly transmitted to the proprietary cloud-based inspection data management tool or can be exported to another software.
Key Features
The maximum flight duration is 90 minutes, enough to cover an equivalent of 10+ km/6.2 miles. You can follow a pre-suggested automated inspection path for tank inspection: check the tank roof seal, check for rainwater, and examine the grounding cable. Or program a custom workflow. The 4K camera captures HD video, RGB, and thermal images.
Energy Robotics enables ongoing asset integrity management by offering seamless connectivity with other robotic equipment — legged or wheeled robots — through hardware-agnostic proprietary software with advanced data analytics. You can also use the available API to stream data to another tool.
Key Features
Offshore structures sit hundreds of kilometers off the mainland. Salty water, algae, high humidity, and UV light up above create the ideal conditions for corrosion, surface degradation, and coating breakdowns. Regular oil rig inspections are necessary to avoid dangerous industrial accidents.
A rugged drone for oil and gas rig inspection reduces the toll of inspecting flare booms, drilling decks, nuts, and bolts above water or just near the surface. The best models have extended battery capacity and omnidirectional flight capabilities, enabling comprehensive structural assessment and ongoing environmental monitoring.
Noa Hybrid is Acecore’s hybrid-power drone for long-range missions. Featuring a gas-electric powertrain, Noa can stay in the air for up to 265 minutes at a temperature of -15 °C to +50 °C. The drone first runs off the battery and then switches to gasoline. A backup battery is available for extra safety. Such a setup, along with built-in liquid coolers and an exhaust system, allows for 2–4 hours of flight time and safe landing even during a power failure.
With its large size and powerful engine, Noa Hybrid can pick up up to 6 kg in payloads. You can mount a selection of third-party payloads including Sony, Workswell, or Phase One inspection cameras, Regal lighters, LiDAR systems, and even an emergency parachute. Moreover, Acecore can integrate specialized payloads on demand.
A dual GPS antenna, incorporating anti-spoofing and anti-gemming algorithms, ensures reliable connectivity up to 16 km/ 9.9 miles. You can also mount a LiDAR system for improved situational awareness for more challenging oil rig drone inspection missions.The extra benefit is ongoing maintenance. All Accecore drones come with regular factory-certified maintenance and part replacements, so your gear is always in top shape.
Key Features
Perimeter 8 is a lightweight, long-endurance drone, suitable for over-water inspection. With an internal combustion two-stroke engine, the UAV can stay airborne for five hours without payloads, and for an hour with up to 7.5 kg in payloads. Similar to Noa Hybrid, Perimeter 8 features a modular payload bay, compatible with a range of LiDAR units and magnetometers for visual, thermal, and multispectral camera systems.
The drone takes five minutes to unbox, assemble, and fly. The engine starts automatically and only needs periodical refueling (fuel levels will be displayed on the screen). Perimeter 8 has an incredible 100km video and control transmission range, making it ideal for approaching oil rigs from shore or accessing remote structures. Safety during long-distance flights is ensured by proprietary Pixhawk/PX4-based autopilot firmware. The GPS signal is protected with anti-jamming technologies.
A radar altimeter provides precise control over altitude above ground level and RTK GNSS module — centimeter-level positioning data and geotagging. Moreover, the drone supports radio systems such as Silvus Technologies, Doodle Labs, Persistent Systems, and RFD, allowing seamless connectivity.
Key Features
Since many structural components on oil rigs are submerged, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are also frequently deployed for inspection. The best platforms can operate at great depths thanks to high durability, which makes them an excellent tool for inspecting foundation piles, braces, joints, and underwater piping.
Seaeye Lynx is the most advanced observation and inspection ROV in the oil and gas industry, capable of diving up to 1500 meters/0.9 miles below the surface. Featuring two vertical and four horizontal thrusters, it can operate in turbulent waters and harsh weather conditions. The ROV can be deployed for free swimming with an electric winch or operated with a Tether Management System (TMS).
Fiber optic data transmission allows the drone to support four simultaneous video channels, including an HD video stream. You can also mount specialized payloads — an acoustic tracking system, video recording system, sonar scanner, CP probe, cameras, ultrasonic thickness gauge, altimeter, and other specialized equipment.
Deep Trekker DTG3 is a more compact system, enabling visual inspection at 200m below the surface independently or 700M with a tether. This ROV swims in any direction and observes underwater in full detail. With the precision thruster, you can move the ROV higher or deeper without having to rotate it. Additionally, a built-in 4K camera supports a 270-degree viewing angle and lets you capture HD footage.
Deep Trekker DTG3 can be further customized with payloads, like imaging sonars, NDT probes, grabbers, manipulators, water samplers, extra cameras, Cygnus thickness gauges, and several other options.
Oil impurities, microbial activity, mechanical wear, and environmental exposure cause pipelines to corrode and, in the worst case, rupture. Pipeline inspection with drones enables more frequent assessments to ensure asset integrity.
With long battery life, high-resolution photogrammetry, LiDAR scanners, and advanced emission sensors, drones can map out miles of pipeline, test large surfaces in one time, and timely locate gas and oil leaks.
DJI Matrice 350 RTK is a long-standing leader in the commercial drone market. Even in dust, rain, 8 m/s winds, or 50°C heat, it can fly for 55 minutes and carry 2.7 kg of payload. The new dual-battery system facilitates hot swapping, which further extends your flight time.
Thanks to a 4-antenna transceiver system, Matrice 350 RTK has a steady 20km transmission range for HD live footage. A great security bonus is AES-256 video transmission encryption. You can choose between a single downward gimbal or dual downward gimbals to mount a Zenmuse H20 or H20N four-sensor system of zoom camera, wide camera, thermal camera, and laser rangefinder.
Additionally, you can equip the drone with a gas detector, speaker system, stabilized spotlight, spectrometer, and other payloads from DJI’s ecosystem. Especially valuable for pipeline inspections is DJI’s third-party methane detection payload for gas leak detection, based on the TDLAS technology. With this detector, methane concentrations as low as 5 ppm can be measured from up to 150 m away.
Key Features
Anafi AI by Parrot has stellar imaging gear for industrial photogrammetry — a 48 MP CMOS sensor with 6x zoom, 4K video resolution, and a Quad Bayer color filter. Camera modes include single capture, bracketing, burst, panorama, timelapse, and GPS lapse.
A 6-axis hybrid stabilization system reduces flight vibration and improves image quality. With a gimbal tilt range of -90° to +90°, drones Anafi can inspect curved and angled surfaces (like the underside of elevated piping). Its 4G module covers more than 28 frequency bands, providing a very low latency (300 ms) for video transmission in 1080p. Through the combination of these capabilities, you can create detailed pipeline maps and 3D models of your infrastructure.
Anafi has a maximum of 32 min of flight time and can propel itself at almost 10,000 rpm — great when you need to cover larger distances. The stereoscopic sensing system, obstacle avoidance algorithms, and 22.5 km transmission range allow for reliable BLOS flights.
Key Features
Vision Aerial recently transformed its SwitchBlade-Elite tricopter into a gas detection drone. Equipped with an Aerial OGI sensor, it can detect 20 kinds of gases and even colorize them for better visibility with a Gas Enhancement Mode (GEM). The sensor is mounted on a Gremsy Pixy U gimbal and can be replaced with another payload — an inspection camera, thermal, or LiDAR sensors. The drone can carry a payload capacity of up to 2kg.
A 22,000 mAh 6S Solid State Lithium-Ion battery can sustain up to 50 minutes of flight time. Although, by design, the drone is programmed for automatic return to home when the battery is depleted to 30%. Users can change the settings manually. That’s enough to cover roughly 20 km / 12.4 miles during one mission.
The body design enables powerful yaw authority, leading to better performance in windy conditions. SwitchBlade-Elite can provide readings even under wind gusts of 40 kph. The operating temperature range is -10ºC to 50ºC (14°F to 122°F) — great if you’re out in the field.
Key Features
Predictable operations, lower inspection costs, and better quality control are just some of the benefits of drone inspections in oil and gas. Yet, each year inspection drones get longer operating ranges, extended battery life, and better payload technology.
Consider subscription-based providers, like Voliro, if you want to benefit from the latest innovations and have the latest hardware. Apart from all-cover insurance, regular maintenance, and pilot training, we offer access to the latest updates to NDT probes (and the newest releases), as well as the latest inspection software.
