Sky-Futures takes advantage of 333 exemption to expand in U.S.

Sky-Futures, a provider of drone inspection services for the global oil and gas industry headquartered in England, announced completion of “the first ever oil and gas inspection by drone in the Gulf of Mexico for a leading global oil and gas service and drilling company.” They did not name the client.

Sky-Futures completed the inspection just over 10 months after receiving their Section 333 Federal Aviation Authority Exemption Certificate from the FAA. Sky Futures was the 46th commercial company to receive an exemption which allows them to operate drones in the USA. They opened their first North America office in Houston, Texas.

The inspection scope requested by the client included the Derrick, a heli-deck and 4 cranes on a Drill ship and was completed in 2 days. Current inspection methods would have taken 17 days to inspect the same scope of work. Offshore, Sky-Futures provided a highly experienced crew consisting of an inspection engineer and remote pilot, who had both completed oil and gas drone inspection training at Sky-Futures specialist training center in the UK.

This inspection marks Sky-Futures first inspection offshore in the GOM, following on from highly successful onshore work completed in the USA in September 2015.

Jay Forte, Vice President Operations said: “Since receiving our FAA Exemption 10 months ago we have made considerable progress; opening our office in Houston, growing our team by hiring and training Remote Pilots and Engineers, and completing our first onshore contract in September 2015. We have now established ourselves as the leading drone inspection service provider in the Gulf of Mexico. We have proven that drones can be successfully used for more efficient and safe inspections in the gulf, just as we have already done across the world.’’

The Bloomberg interviewed Sky-Futures executives last fall on their services.

 

Sky-Futures takes advantage of 333 exemption to expand in U.S.