Industry experts discuss potential challenges to the expanded use of drones in upstream oil and gas operations. Regulations and technology are two areas that must be addressed to create further opportunities for the use of drones in upstream oil and gas. New U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules governing drones took effect Aug. 29. The new rules represent a major step by the FAA to implement a series of rules that opens the door a bit, but not all the way, Steven Fargo, president of DataWing Aerial Analytics, told Rigzone. In the United States, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) operators had been required by law to stay within visual line-of-sight. To honor the spirit of the law while flying further than visual line of sight, companies have had to use drones in a daisy chain manner, Dyan Gibbens, CEO of Trumbull Unmanned, told Rigzone. This sometimes can create inefficiencies in […]