WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

  • Flylogix completed a round trip drone mission from Tingwall in the Shetland Islands to Equinor’s Statfjord B platform.
  • The 4 hour and 50 minute program covered 290 nautical miles and included a methane emissions survey.
  • Flylogix called it the first civilian cross border drone flight from the UK and one of Europe’s first operations of its kind.
  • Flylogix and Equinor worked with UK and Norwegian aviation authorities to meet both countries’ regulatory requirements.

Autonomous offshore inspection technology has advanced beyond pilot projects with a round trip drone mission between the UK and Norway. Flylogix has released details of the operation, which carried an aircraft from its UK base to Equinor’s Statfjord B platform in the Norwegian North Sea.

The mission was completed during the summer and combined a lengthy offshore flight with a methane emissions survey. Its route crossed the North Sea and brought the drone close to the maritime boundary separating the UK and Norway.

The aircraft departed from Tingwall in the Shetland Islands on July 11. Its destination was Statfjord B, an offshore production platform operated by Equinor in the southern section of the wider Statfjord field.

Flylogix said the complete program lasted 4 hours and 50 minutes. During that period, the aircraft covered a total distance of 290 nautical miles while carrying out the journey and inspection assignment.

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The company described the operation as a round trip from its UK base. The flight therefore combined the transit to Statfjord B with the methane emissions survey and the journey associated with completing the mission.

According to Flylogix, the operation was the first civilian cross border drone flight originating from the UK. The company also characterized it as one of the first drone missions of this kind completed in Europe.

That distinction makes the regulatory work surrounding the flight a central part of the operation. The aircraft traveled between the UK and Norwegian sides of the North Sea while conducting an industrial inspection for an offshore operator.

Flylogix worked with Equinor’s operating teams as preparations moved forward. The companies also liaised with aviation authorities in both the UK and Norway to address the regulatory requirements applying in each country.

The coordination was intended to ensure that the flight complied with requirements on both sides of the route. That process accompanied the technical work involved in sending the aircraft from Tingwall to the Norwegian North Sea installation.

The mission focused specifically on surveying methane emissions from Statfjord B. Flylogix provided no additional survey results in the released account, but identified the emissions inspection as the purpose of the aircraft’s visit to the platform.

Statfjord B is positioned in 145 m of water in the southern part of the Statfjord field. The platform began production in 1982 and remains under Equinor’s operation, according to the details accompanying the drone mission.

The platform’s location close to the UK and Norway maritime boundary made the journey a cross border aviation operation as well as an offshore inspection. Flylogix consequently had to work within the regulatory frameworks of both countries for the flight.

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The aircraft’s 290 nautical mile total illustrates the distance covered during the 4 hour and 50 minute program. The mission linked a base in the Shetland Islands with a producing offshore platform in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea.

The operation also connected autonomous flight technology with methane emissions monitoring. Rather than limiting the aircraft to a pilot project, Flylogix and Equinor’s operating teams used it for a defined inspection assignment at an established offshore production facility.

Flylogix presented the completed flight as a notable civilian aviation milestone. Its claim rests on the mission’s departure from the UK, its cross border route and its arrival at an Equinor operated platform in Norwegian waters.

The company’s account places regulatory coordination alongside aircraft range and inspection capability. UK and Norwegian aviation authorities were involved because the mission needed to satisfy requirements in both countries before the round trip operation could proceed compliantly.

The flight provides a practical example of how autonomous inspections could reshape North Sea asset management. In this case, the technology performed a methane emissions survey after traveling from Tingwall to a platform that has produced since 1982.

By completing the 290 nautical mile program in 4 hours and 50 minutes, Flylogix moved autonomous offshore inspection beyond a limited pilot setting. The company’s claimed first also brought cross border civilian drone operations into a working North Sea production environment.