Terra Drone Europe, a group company of Terra Drone Corporation, has completed an aerial 3D survey and produced a 3D model of an offshore oil rig platform in the North Sea for Shell.

According to Terra Drone Europe, the platform complex that was surveyed was positioned several years ago when GNSS survey techniques were neither very advanced nor common. Several coordinates were known and as-build drawings were available, but Shell wanted to know the position of each and every element on the platform to facilitate accurate drill rig positioning.

Terra Drone Europe completed an aerial 3D survey and produced a 3D model of an offshore oil rig platform in the North Sea for Shell. (Photo: Terra Drone)

Thus, the company recruited Terra Drone Europe to capture the as-is conditions through a high-precision oil rig platform survey. According to Terra Drone, the survey was divided into two parts: one part dedicated to creating a 3D point cloud and the second to accurately check the position of the platform using GNSS readings.

Two GNSS receivers were installed at several different locations on each platform and used to log in the raw data which was later processed. When this data was combined with the 3D point cloud created by Terra Drone Europe, the coordinates of each asset on the platform structure were determined.

Terra Drone Corporation recently established new branches focusing on the oil and gas sector in Argentina, Angola, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates. The company also formed a new branch to provide advanced nondestructive testing and inspection services to the oil and gas industry.