The Challenge
Saudi Aramco's Yanbu refinery faced mounting challenges with traditional inspection methods that required scaffolding, rope access teams, and facility shutdowns—all while exposing workers to extreme heights and hazardous environments.
- Manual inspections required 2-week facility shutdowns per unit
- High-risk confined space and elevated work zones
- Scaffolding costs exceeding SAR 2M per inspection cycle
- Limited visibility in flare stack and tank roof inspections
- Inconsistent inspection quality dependent on individual technicians
- Compliance documentation taking weeks to compile
Our Solution
We deployed a fleet of industrial-grade inspection drones equipped with thermal cameras, LiDAR sensors, and AI-powered defect detection, creating an autonomous inspection program that covers the entire facility.
Autonomous Drone Fleet
6 DJI Matrice 300 RTK drones with customized payloads for different inspection types—visual, thermal, and ultrasonic thickness measurement.
AI Defect Detection
Custom-trained neural networks identify corrosion, cracks, coating failures, and thermal anomalies with 94% accuracy, flagging issues for engineer review.
Digital Twin Integration
Inspection data feeds directly into Aramco's asset management system, creating 3D models with defect overlays for predictive maintenance planning.
Compliance Automation
Automated report generation meeting API 653, API 570, and Saudi Aramco engineering standards, reducing documentation time by 90%.
The Results
The drone inspection program transformed Yanbu's maintenance operations, delivering immediate cost savings while establishing a new standard for safety-first asset management across Saudi Aramco facilities.
Overview
Saudi Aramco’s Yanbu refinery is one of the Kingdom’s largest petroleum processing facilities, with over 2,400 critical assets requiring regular inspection—from 50-meter flare stacks to pressurized storage tanks and kilometers of elevated pipelines.
Traditional inspection methods meant shutting down production units, erecting scaffolding, and sending technicians into confined spaces and extreme heights. Beyond the SAR 12 million annual cost, these methods exposed workers to significant safety risks and often missed defects hidden in hard-to-reach areas.
Future Intelligence partnered with Aramco’s Asset Integrity team to design and deploy a comprehensive drone inspection program that would eliminate these challenges while exceeding existing inspection standards.
The Challenge
Legacy Inspection Constraints
The Yanbu facility’s inspection program faced compounding challenges:
Safety Exposure: Every inspection cycle required workers to spend over 1,200 man-hours at elevation or in confined spaces. Despite rigorous safety protocols, the inherent risks of rope access and scaffolding work remained.
Production Impact: Traditional inspections required unit shutdowns averaging 14 days per inspection cycle, with direct production losses and scheduling complexity across the facility.
Cost Escalation: Scaffolding rental, specialized access equipment, and contractor fees consumed SAR 12 million annually—with costs increasing each year as the facility aged and inspection requirements expanded.
Inconsistent Quality: Manual inspection quality varied significantly based on technician experience, access limitations, and environmental conditions. Critical defects in hard-to-reach areas were frequently missed.
Regulatory Requirements
Saudi Aramco operates under stringent inspection standards including API 653 for tank integrity, API 570 for piping systems, and internal engineering specifications. Any new inspection methodology needed to meet or exceed these requirements while maintaining full audit trails.
Our Solution
Autonomous Inspection Fleet
We deployed six industrial-grade inspection drones configured for different inspection scenarios:
- Visual Inspection Drones: High-resolution cameras for coating condition, structural integrity, and general visual assessment
- Thermal Imaging Units: FLIR thermal cameras detecting insulation failures, hot spots, and process anomalies
- Ultrasonic Thickness Drones: Contact-based UT sensors for corrosion mapping on tank shells and pipe walls
Each drone operates with RTK precision positioning, enabling repeatable flight paths for trend analysis across inspection cycles.
AI-Powered Defect Detection
Our custom-trained neural networks process inspection footage in real-time, automatically identifying:
- Surface corrosion and coating degradation
- Structural cracks and deformation
- Thermal anomalies indicating process issues
- Weld defects and joint failures
- Foreign object debris and blockages
The AI system assigns severity ratings and generates inspection reports, with flagged items queued for engineer review. This combination of automated detection and human verification ensures both efficiency and accuracy.
Digital Twin Integration
All inspection data feeds directly into Aramco’s SAP-based asset management system, with 3D models generated from photogrammetry showing exact defect locations. Maintenance planners can visualize issues, track progression over time, and optimize repair scheduling based on risk-based prioritization.
Results & Impact
Immediate Cost Savings
The drone program reduced annual inspection costs from SAR 12 million to SAR 4.8 million—a 60% reduction achieved in the first full year of operation. These savings came from:
- Elimination of scaffolding and specialized access equipment
- Reduced contractor requirements
- Shorter inspection windows enabling better maintenance scheduling
- Predictive maintenance reducing emergency repairs
Safety Transformation
Perhaps more importantly, the program completely eliminated worker exposure to high-risk inspection activities. Zero man-hours are now spent at elevation or in confined spaces for routine inspections. This represents a fundamental shift in how Aramco approaches worker safety.
Quality Improvement
AI-assisted inspections improved defect detection rates from 72% to 94%, catching issues that manual inspections historically missed. The consistent, repeatable inspection methodology also enables trend analysis, identifying progressive deterioration before it reaches critical thresholds.
Operational Efficiency
Inspection duration dropped from 14 days to 2 days per unit, dramatically reducing production impact and enabling more frequent inspection cycles. The automated reporting system generates compliance documentation in 48 hours versus the previous 3-week timeline.
Looking Forward
Following the success at Yanbu, Saudi Aramco is expanding the drone inspection program to additional facilities across the Kingdom. The system’s integration with predictive maintenance algorithms is also being enhanced, moving toward condition-based inspection scheduling that optimizes both cost and asset reliability.
Future Intelligence continues to support program expansion while developing next-generation capabilities including automated repair verification and real-time process monitoring integration.
Future Intelligence's drone program has fundamentally changed how we approach asset integrity. We're not just saving money—we're protecting our people and catching problems before they become incidents. This is the future of refinery operations.
