Could drones be coming to the Bakken oil patch? It’s not such a far fetched idea. According to the Bismarck Tribune , the Federal Aviation Administration and six other states, including Texas, home of the Eagle Ford Shale , have recently been selected as test sites for integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAV) or drones into the general population. Modern drone technology can trace its origins back to the U.S. military in the late 1950s, but the concept of drones has been around since the 1800s. The commercial use of drones has been met largely with resistance from the FAA, however, the agency did grant ConocoPhillips permission to use drones in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay oilfield, and in June of this year, granted a similar permission to British Petroleum. How Drone Technology Could Be Used in the Oil Patch With the green light from the FAA for testing in North Dakota, which for now is limited to agricultural applications, the […]