CPSTL introduces drone technology to petroleum industry

Ceylon Petroleum Storage Terminals Limited (CPSTL) today introduced drone technology to the petroleum industry for the first time in Sri Lanka. 

While introducing the new system, CPSTL Chairman and Managing Director M. Uvais Mohamed said this technology has been designed in line with the company's effort to modernise its operations as well as the massive infrastructure development projects it is engaged in. 

"The new drone camera unit is capable of monitoring and responding to any sort of petroleum industry emergency, including protecting the assets belonging to Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC) and Lanka Indian Oil Company (LIOC) in addition to CPSTL owned properties," he said.

"CPSTL oil installation in Kolonnawa, a vulnerable location when it comes to security aspects, it is essential to have a reliable means to monitor the premises from the air as well as to keep data for forensic purposes. Similarly, Muthurajawela Terminal, Storage Policy Based Management (SPBM) and the pipelines from Colombo Harbour to Oil Installation, Kolonnawa are also identified as vulnerable locations, "he said.

In addition, it is important to routinely monitor the activities around the premises of Oil Installation in Kolonnawa, Muthurajawela Terminal, and Colombo Harbour- Kolonnawa Pipelines with the capacity to be deployed immediately, with the ability for live tracking, should there be any sort of intrusion, Mr. Uvais said.

Moreover, he said, in the event of a fire or an oil leak, this drone is capable of monitoring the events from the air immediately with a live feed to monitor the stations, with specific crucial information such as temperature, using a thermal imaging camera. 

This information can be effectively used to comply with regulatory guidelines provided by regulatory bodies such as the Marine Environment Protection Authority and the Central Environment Protection Authority, Mr. Uvais said.

This drone is capable of inspecting tanks, identify potential cracks and other repairs with its industrial camera. 

This will mitigate some of the health and safety risks associated with our premises. 

Furthermore, the progress of new engineering tasks, such as pipeline laying, could be monitored by air, increasing the productivity of those in charge of such tasks.

In addition, the drone enables immediate detection of land encroachment along the pipeline corridor from Colombo Harbour to Kolonnawa. 

Both CPSTL and CPC had to bear additional financial costs and administrative effort due to not being able to immediately identify such unauthorised construction and encroachment on the pipeline. Mr. Uvais added, "The primary objective of procuring this drone unit is to eliminate such situations in the future," (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)