Land surveyors play an important role in assisting the oil and gas industries. A surveyor must determine exactly where a company should drill for best results, how pipelines should be correctly laid out, and to ensure any demand for a section of land is properly regulated.
Technology has been advancing at a steady pace, and tech items used in the petroleum and land survey industries are no different. Advanced tools and training for professionals are making it easier than ever to set up well sites and gas lines quickly. Jobs that used to take at least three or more weeks to do correctly can be finished within a few days now. Some of these jobs can even be finished within a single 24-hour period.
Land surveyors must stay up to date with newly released technology so their clients can have the work completed as quickly and efficiently as possible. Here are some examples of technology helping land surveyors complete their jobs more quickly and efficiently than ever.
High-Definition Scanning
Laser scanning has been a standard tool for oil and gas surveys since the early 2000s. It allows a surveyor to collect an extensive amount of data in a very short time by using a laser beam over an area to create millions of quick measurements. This information is then transferred to a computer and used to create a full 3D model of the land. No land is too big or small, too hard to reach, or causes too many safety hazards when surveyed using a high-definition laser scan.
GPS Units
Land surveys these days are typically conducted with a laptop computer connected to a Global Positioning System unit, or GPS. These units are far more sophisticated and efficient than those used by the public, with the ability to take measurements within one to two millimeters. The GPS used in surveying for the oil and gas industries is highly accurate, as it uses the triangulation of points between the earth’s surface and up to 24 satellites floating several hundred kilometers above the planet.
The data the GPS unit collects usually is sent directly to a Geographic Information System, or GIS, database. It then digitally maps an area, showing building locations, well sites, laid pipelines, and other features relevant to the oilfield. It also creates boundary lines and inventory and is easily accessible to anyone involved in the project.
Unmanned Aerial Surveys
The first commercial drone conducted a land survey in June 2015. BP received permission to have unmanned aerial systems over the Prudhoe Bay oil field in Alaska. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is prepared to establish regulations for further use of civil and commercial aircraft within the next year, which could increase opportunities for more companies in the industry to take advantage of unmanned drones in land surveying.
Unmanned aerial surveying is already extremely useful in plotting small- to medium-sized areas of land in a quick and safe manner. These aircraft can go where humans can or should not, such as areas too dangerous to traverse and over spaces that are too tightly formed for a person to pass through safely, if at all. Aerial land surveys are more precise than GPS-based ground surveys, which are already very accurate. Aircraft can survey and map more land points from the air than humans on the ground are, allowing them to collect more data at once and more quickly.
What’s to Come?
Land surveying tools and techniques are going to continue becoming more efficient and more time saving. Unmanned commercial aircraft will be more widely available to professionals in the coming years, and the number of errors recorded in surveys will be lessened as accuracy increases.
