OIL, GAS & PIPELINES
Drone Inspection Services for Oil, Gas & Pipelines in India
Flare stack and vessel inspection without shutdown, pipeline right-of-way patrol, tank and terminal survey, and thermal leak screening — flown to plant safety requirements.
Refineries, terminals and pipeline networks contain assets that are expensive, slow and hazardous to inspect by hand. Flare tips and stacks conventionally require a shutdown or rope access; a drone inspects them while the unit runs. Pipeline right-of-way that takes a patrol team days to walk is flown in hours, with encroachment, third-party activity and exposed sections captured as mapped evidence. We also fly thermal survey over tank farms and process areas to screen for insulation failure and hot spots. All work is planned around plant safety rules, including intrinsically safe procedures, exclusion zones and permit-to-work.
What We Fly for Oil & Gas
Where It Gets Used
Turnaround planning
Condition data gathered before a shutdown so scope is defined on evidence rather than assumption.
Live-unit inspection
Inspection of assets that would otherwise wait for the next outage window, avoiding deferred maintenance risk.
Pipeline integrity
Routine ROW surveillance across long rural stretches where foot patrol coverage is thin.
Incident response
Rapid aerial assessment after a leak, fire or weather event, from a safe standoff distance.
Why AiRotor Labs for Oil & Gas?
Planned around plant safety
Work is scoped to your permit-to-work system, exclusion zones and hot-work rules — not treated as an ordinary open-air survey.
Inspection without shutdown
The commercial case is usually avoided downtime. Flare and stack inspection while running is where that saving is largest.
Radiometric thermal, properly calibrated
Temperature data captured with calibrated radiometric sensors and reported with emissivity and ambient conditions, so numbers mean something.
DGCA-compliant in sensitive airspace
Refineries and terminals frequently sit inside restricted zones. We handle Digital Sky clearances as part of mobilisation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you inspect a flare stack without shutting the unit down?
Yes — that is the most common reason operators use drones here. We inspect the tip, seal, pilots and structure from a safe standoff while the flare is live, working from upwind with thermal margin planning. It removes the need to wait for a turnaround to see the condition of the tip.
Is drone inspection allowed inside a refinery?
It is done routinely, subject to the plant's own safety case. Practically that means a permit to work, an agreed exclusion zone, coordination with the control room, and equipment and procedures acceptable to the site's HSE team. We work to the operator's requirements rather than imposing a standard method.
Can drones detect gas leaks?
Optical gas imaging and laser methane detection payloads can indicate the presence of hydrocarbon plumes, and thermal imaging can reveal associated temperature anomalies. We are direct about the limits: this is a screening and prioritisation tool that points crews at areas needing investigation, not a substitute for certified fixed or handheld gas detection.
How much pipeline can you patrol in a day?
With BVLOS permissions, 40–80 km per day is achievable for routine ROW patrol depending on terrain and the level of detail required. Within visual line of sight the figure is far lower, because the crew must reposition continually.
Talk to us about your oil & gas project
Tell us the site, the area and what you need measured. We will come back with a method, a timeline and a price.
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