Angolan petroleum company Sonangol and its French counterpart TotalEnergies will be soon be deploying drones around Angolan oil fields to help keep tabs with the clean energy initiative that the two companies have embarked on.

The two oil entities signed a cooperation agreement to launch a campaign to identify, quantify and reduce methane emissions from their activities, using a drone, in support of the decarbonisation of the Angolan oil industry and contributing to cleaner energy.

The pilot campaign is set to start this month in Block 3/05 – an oil production complex in the shallow Atlnatic Ocean waters in northern Angola and will involve the use of the AUSEA (Airborne Ultralight Spectrometer for Environmental Applications) technology developed by TotalEnergies and the French National Scientific Research Center (CNRS).

Launched last year, the technology comprises a drone-mounted ultralight carbon dioxide and methane sensor for ensuring access to hard-to-reach emission points while delivering readings with the highest precision.

“AUSEA consists of a miniature dual-sensor mounted on a drone, capable of detecting methane and carbon dioxide emissions, while at the same time identifying their source,” TotalEnergies said at the product launch last May. 

“Measurements can be taken at all types of industrial facilities, whether onshore or offshore, using this technology. It supplements measurements taken using traditional techniques such as infrared cameras, ground sensors, and satellite.

“After being successfully tested at sites in Nigeria, Italy, the Republic of the Congo, and the Netherlands, AUSEA technology is being rolled out this year at all upstream Oil & Gas sites operated by TotalEnergies.

“The campaign began in early March for African offshore sites, has now been launched in South America and will reach Europe this summer. The campaign is an important step towards achieving a reduction of 50% in methane emissions at company-operated sites by 2025 and of 80 percent by 2030 (targets in relation to 2020).”

Now the technology has been extended into Angola.

“With the technology provided by TotalEnergies, we will do our best to ensure that methane and carbon dioxide emissions are controlled more precisely”, said Gaspar Martins, Sonangol CEO.

“We take on this responsibility with an open heart with the certainty that together, in addition to this pilot project, other important partnerships will come.”

While for her part, the managing director of TotalEnergies in Angola, Martin Deffontaines, stressed that the company she heads was proud of the signing of the agreement, which showed that the oil industry had the collective ambition to work towards zero methane emissions.

“It is a common duty for international and national companies and TotalEnergies wants to be at the forefront of this ambition by proposing concrete actions,” Deffontaines said.

“We are very pleased to share our experience and our highly recognised technology with our strategic partner, Sonangol P&P, to support efforts to decarbonize their operations and, together, contribute to providing cleaner energy to Angola.”