China's Kenli 10-2 oilfield comes online on July 22, 2025. Photo: screenshot of CMG's report

The drone operations system project for oilfields in the Beibu Gulf, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, was officially launched over the weekend, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Sunday. 

It marks the first time in the country that large-scale drone operations have been implemented in offshore oilfields, providing a practical example of the integration between marine energy development and developing the low-altitude economy.

At the Weizhou 12-1 oilfield platform in the Beibu Gulf, approximately 50 nautical miles from the mainland, an industrial-grade drone equipped with a high-definition camera and infrared thermal imager was in full swing on Saturday. 

The drone is capable of conducting all-weather intelligent inspections in wind conditions up to Beaufort scale 7, and can complete in one hour the inspection workload that previously required an entire day for a tugboat, the report noted.

"Through on-site inspections with this drone, it can transmit real-time footage directly to our central control room from a remote location. Whether there are fishing vessels illegally anchoring on the sea surface or tiny leaks along the pipelines, we can see everything clearly from afar. This has significantly increased our on-site inspection efficiency by 30 percent while greatly reducing safety risks associated with manual operations in the field," Li Yanchuang, director of the Weizhou 12-1 Oilfield at CNOOC Zhanjiang Company, was quoted as saying in the report.

The Weizhou 12-1 oilfield central platform is responsible for crude oil processing and export from 13 surrounding production platforms. It is supported by 18 subsea pipelines with a total length of 238 kilometers.

At present, the low-altitude economy demonstration zone for offshore oilfields in the Beibu Gulf has rolled out drones across 41 offshore platforms and 2 onshore terminal plants. The drones cover multiple scenarios, including subsea pipeline inspection, logistics delivery and emergency security, according to the CCTV report.

Drones can conduct high-altitude rapid inspections of more than 500 kilometers of subsea pipelines, efficiently identify anomalies such as oil leaks and initiate emergency responses, while assisting in search and rescue operations for out-of-control vessels and persons overboard. 

Global Times