Automation for offshore oil & gas platforms

CamIn identified 10 high-impact use cases and assessed 175 vendors, confirming the 7 most credible vendors for initial pilots.

The client is now running pilot projects with a view to rolling out automation solutions across its offshore assets.

CamIn derisked the client's $50 million automation investment, with significant cost savings and safety enhancements anticipated.

What is automation for offshore oil & gas?

Automation for offshore oil and gas refers to the integration of advanced digital technologies, such as robotics, sensors, artificial intelligence, and edge computing, into operational processes on offshore platforms. These technologies enable remote monitoring, predictive maintenance, autonomous inspection, and real-time control of critical infrastructure. By reducing manual intervention in hazardous and hard-to-access environments, automation enhances operational resilience, safety, and efficiency across the full offshore value chain.

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Why is automation important for the oil & gas?

The oil and gas industry is under increasing pressure to improve safety, cut costs, and comply with stricter environmental regulations. Offshore operations, in particular, are exposed to harsh environments and high operational risk. Automation offers a strategic solution by reducing human intervention, streamlining asset management, and enabling real-time decision-making. It also forms the backbone of digital transformation efforts that help companies stay competitive in a volatile global energy landscape.

• Improves safety performance: Automation reduces the need for human presence in hazardous environments, lowering the risk of accidents and improving emergency response capabilities.
• Cuts operational costs: By automating repetitive tasks, equipment monitoring, and maintenance workflows, companies can reduce non-productive time and achieve up to 30 percent cost savings.
• Enables smarter asset management: Automated systems provide real-time insights into asset health and performance, allowing for predictive maintenance and optimized equipment lifecycles.
• Supports regulatory compliance: Automation facilitates consistent data capture, auditing, and reporting, helping firms meet increasingly complex regulatory standards more efficiently.
• Accelerates digital transformation: Automation is a foundational enabler of broader digital initiatives, including remote operations, digital twins, and advanced analytics, which improve decision-making and resilience.

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What impact will automation have on the oil & gas industry?

Over the next decade, automation will transform oil and gas into a more adaptive, data-driven, and efficient sector. As the industry navigates volatile markets, aging infrastructure, and rising sustainability demands, automation will be critical for improving safety, cutting costs, and extending asset life. From drilling platforms to processing facilities, intelligent systems will take over routine tasks, optimise decision-making, and enable leaner, more resilient operations.

• Shift from reactive to predictive operations: Automation will enable real-time condition monitoring and predictive maintenance, reducing unplanned downtime and extending equipment life. This transition is expected to lower operational costs by 20 to 30 percent over the next decade.
• Enhanced safety and risk management: Autonomous systems and robotics will take on high-risk tasks such as inspections in confined or hazardous environments, significantly reducing human exposure and improving emergency response.
• Optimised resource use and emissions reduction: Smart control systems will improve process efficiency and reduce waste, supporting emissions reduction and sustainability goals. Automated flaring control, leak detection, and energy optimisation will become standard.
• Integrated digital ecosystems: Automation will enable seamless integration of subsurface data, production analytics, and supply chain systems. This will support faster, more accurate decision-making and improve asset coordination across upstream, midstream, and downstream operations.
• Foundation for autonomous operations: Over time, automation will pave the way for fully autonomous platforms, with remote operation centers managing offshore fields with minimal on-site personnel. This will redefine how the industry operates in harsh and remote environments.

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What technologies are emerging for automation?

A suite of advanced and converging technologies is enabling the next wave of automation in offshore oil and gas operations, seeking to transform how assets are monitored, maintained, and managed in remote and high-risk environments. Key emerging technologies include:

• Robotic automation (including drones and autonomous vehicles): Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), aerial drones, and autonomous surface/subsea robots are increasingly used for tasks such as pipeline inspection, flare tip checks, leak detection, and maintenance, reducing the need for human presence in dangerous environments.
• Sensor networks and edge IoT systems: Distributed sensor arrays (pressure, vibration, corrosion, gas detection, etc.) provide continuous, high-resolution data streams from offshore assets. Coupled with edge computing, they can allow real-time data processing on-site, minimizing latency and bandwidth needs while enabling faster decision-making.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI subfields such as machine learning (ML), computer vision (CV), and natural language processing (NLP) power predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, and automated documentation. AI-driven systems can identify patterns in operational data to prevent equipment failures and optimise performance.
• Digital twins: These dynamic, virtual representations of physical offshore assets integrate real-time sensor data, engineering models, and operational history to simulate and predict equipment behaviour, asset performance, and safety outcomes, enabling proactive management and scenario testing.
• 5G and satellite connectivity: High-speed, low-latency communication infrastructure, including private 5G networks and advanced satellite systems, enables reliable data transfer between offshore platforms and onshore control centres. This connectivity is crucial for real-time monitoring, remote control, and cloud integration.
• Cloud and edge computing architectures: Cloud platforms provide scalable data storage, analytics, and integration layers, while edge computing processes data locally at or near the asset, ensuring high availability and uptime. Together, they support hybrid deployment models for mission-critical applications.
• Cybersecurity for Industrial Control Systems (ICS): As automation increases connectivity, robust cybersecurity frameworks, including secure IoT protocols, intrusion detection, and encryption, are essential to protect operational technology (OT) environments from cyber threats.

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Excerpts from the Download

Key drivers of demand: Remote inspections in hard-to-reach areas

Adoption of remote inspection in hard-to-reach offshore areas is driven by cost savings, safety imperatives, regulatory compliance, digital integration, and the need for reliable, low-carbon asset integrity management.

• Heath and Safety imperatives: Remote inspection technologies reduce the need for personnel to enter confined spaces, splash zones, or heights, cutting exposure to accidents. Offshore operators face strong pressure to minimize risk to workers and improve safety KPIs.
• Cost reductions and efficiency gains: Minimizing downtime by reducing manual inspection schedules saves millions annually. Remote tools allow continuous monitoring without expensive shutdowns, helicopter trips, or diver deployments.
• Aging offshore infrastructure: Much of the global offshore asset base is beyond original design life. Increased inspection frequency demands scalable, cost-effective remote solutions to extend safe operations.
• Regulatory compliance pressures: Authorities mandate frequent inspection of critical structures such as risers, flare stacks, and subsea pipelines. Remote systems provide verifiable digital records that satisfy audit and compliance needs.
• Decarbonisation and ESG commitments : Lowering the carbon footprint of inspection campaigns (fewer offshore trips, less vessel time) supports corporate climate goals and ESG reporting requirements.
• Scarcity of skilled personnel: Offshore inspection teams are costly and in short supply. Digital and robotic inspection solutions offset labour gaps while ensuring coverage of critical assets.
• Unplanned shutdown and downtime risks: Failures in hard-to-reach areas can trigger costly outages. Early detection with remote systems supports predictive maintenance and reduces lost production.
• Technical maturity and scalability: Advances in robotics, drones, crawlers, and AI-enabled analytics now make remote inspection commercially viable. Adoption is accelerating as platforms prove reliability offshore.
• Extreme environmental conditions: Harsh marine environments accelerate corrosion and fatigue. Remote inspection tools can access areas that are dangerous or impossible for divers and rope teams to reach safely.
• Digital twin and data integration possibilities : Remote inspections generate high-fidelity visual and sensor data, feeding digital twin platforms. This enables long-term integrity modelling, trend analysis, and smarter asset-management strategies.

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Remote inspection technologies leverage drones, crawlers, ROVs, sensors, and digital analytics to enhance safety, reduce costs, and enable predictive asset integrity management in hard-to-reach areas.

• Drone-based flare stack visual inspection : Deploying UAVs equipped with high-resolution and thermal cameras to capture structural and heat anomalies on flare towers. This reduces shutdowns, eliminates rope access risks, and provides auditable image data for integrity records.
• Crawler robots for splash-zone inspection : Magnetic or suction-based crawlers can traverse jacket legs and risers in splash zones, capturing corrosion and fatigue data. These robots avoid diver deployment, lower inspection costs, and provide continuous monitoring capability.
• ROVs with advanced NDT payloads: Remotely operated vehicles fitted with ultrasonic or eddy-current sensors can inspect subsea pipelines and structures. This enables early detection of cracks and wall thinning in environments unsafe for divers.
• AI-powered anomaly detection on video feeds: Computer vision algorithms analyse live inspection footage from drones, crawlers, or ROVs. Automated defect recognition accelerates reporting, reduces human error, and strengthens regulatory compliance with verifiable defect logs.
• Digital twins for structural integrity : Inspection data feeds into 3D digital twin models of platforms, flare towers, and subsea structures. This enables predictive maintenance planning, integrity simulations, and remote regulator audits.
• Autonomous drones for tank and confined-space inspections: GPS-denied drones equipped with LiDAR navigate storage tanks and pressure vessels. They provide real-time imaging in confined spaces without exposing personnel to hazardous atmospheres.
• IoT-enabled corrosion monitoring sensors: Embedded sensors on hard-to-access structures measure corrosion rates, humidity, and stress in real time. Data integration supports predictive analytics and reduces reliance on manual inspection campaigns.
• Robotic arms for ultrasonic testing : Deployed on fixed platforms or ROVs, robotic manipulators can conduct ultrasonic thickness measurements in high-risk areas. This removes the need for human exposure and provides precise, repeatable datasets.
• Edge-enabled inspection data processing: Onboard edge computing units process high-resolution video and sensor data offshore before transmission. This lowers bandwidth needs and enables near-real-time defect alerts to operators.
• Satellite and drone hybrid monitoring : Combining satellite-based change detection with offshore drone surveys provides scalable integrity oversight. This hybrid approach identifies areas of concern early and prioritises targeted inspections.

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Example feasibility analysis

Drone-based flare stack inspection is already commercially proven (TRL 8–9), with developers demonstrating safer, cost-saving alternatives to traditional shutdown inspections, driving widespread adoption within 1–3 years.

Time to commercialisation

• Drone-based flare stack inspections are already at high technology readiness (TRL 8–9), with UAV platforms, thermal cameras, and analytics widely deployed in offshore O&G.
• Unlike traditional rope access or shutdown-based inspections, drones allow flare stacks to remain online, avoiding costly shutdowns that can reach millions of dollars per day.
• Key enablers include advances in high-temperature resistant drones, optical/thermal imaging payloads, and AI-powered defect recognition.
• Regulatory and certification bodies increasingly recognise drone inspections as valid for compliance documentation, accelerating uptake.
• In short: Commercial deployment is already proven, with broad adoption expected to scale further within 1–3 years as offshore operators integrate drone inspections into routine integrity management programmes.

Vendors

• Cyberhawk: Cyberhawk is a pioneer in drone-based O&G inspections, with operations in the UK, US and Qatar. The company have completed >30,000 flare stack inspections globally for majors, including Shell, reducing downtime and enabling online flare surveys.
• Sky-Futures: Sky-Futures provides drone inspection services with HD and thermal imaging for flare stacks and other offshore assets. Case studies, including FPSO flare tip inspections in Africa, have demonstrated reduced inspection costs and faster turnaround compared to rope access methods.
• Percepto: Percepto develops autonomous drone-in-a-box systems used for continuous facility monitoring. Deployed in O&G refineries and terminals, their drones carry out flare and stack inspections autonomously, integrating imagery and emissions analysis into digital asset management platforms.

While barriers like heat exposure, ATEX compliance, and flight limitations pose challenges, most can be mitigated through specialised drone designs, skilled operators, and integration with existing asset management systems.

Barriers to adoption

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Example desirability analysis

Drone-based flare stack inspections present a large and fast-growing opportunity: they cut costs, improve safety, reduce emissions, and enjoy strong political, regulatory, and technological tailwinds, giving the use case a high desirability score.<

Size of Opportunity

Offshore oil and gas operators manage &amp;lt;650 offshore platforms in the North Sea alone, with thousands more globally in the Gulf of Mexico, Middle East, and Asia. Each asset requires regular flare stack inspections to meet safety and regulatory standards, with shutdown-based inspections costing operators up to $1-2 million per day in lost production. The global industrial drone market was valued at ~$3.6bn in 2024 and is projected to reach ~$6bn by 2029, with oil and gas among the top verticals driving adoption. The large number of vendors offering flare stack and live asset inspections underlines both technical maturity and strong demand. In short, drone-based flare inspections represent a multi-hundred-million-dollar addressable service market, driven by cost savings, safety imperatives, and ESG commitments to reduce offshore travel and shutdown emissions.

External Threats and Opportunities

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Example viability analysis

Oil and gas firms are well-positioned to adopt drone-based flare stack inspections due to strong asset integrity and regulatory expertise, but rely on specialist vendors for drone hardware and specialist analytics capabilities.

Capability fit assessment

Oil and gas firms bring deep strength in asset integrity management, regulatory compliance, and offshore operations, making them credible adopters of drone inspection solutions. Where capability gaps exist is primarily in the specialist areas of drone hardware, payloads, and AI-driven defect analytics, which are typically provided by third-party vendors (e.g. Cyberhawk, Sky-Futures, Percepto). Most majors already run digital twin and integrity management programmes, providing a solid integration base. In short, operators are well-positioned in the “why” (safety, cost, compliance) and “where” (offshore asset base), but will rely on vendor partnerships or acquisitions to deliver the “how” (autonomous drones, advanced vision analytics, hazardous environment certification).

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Example Decision Matrix

CamIn has identified and analysed 5 key application areas for automated solutions and identified 56 critical offshore tasks that could be automated. We identified the 10 highest priority use cases and evaluated 175 potential vendors, assessing their feasibility, desirability, and viability relative to the client's needs. Finally, we recommended the 7 most credible vendors for pilot projects focusing on the highest priority use cases.

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