Online Feature: Satellite analytics for oil and gas production and large-scale pipeline monitoring
Ask any operator what worries them most, and it is rarely the well or the pipeline itself, but the three weeks between inspections when nobody’s monitoring the infrastructure. Ground crews and helicopters can only cover so much distance, and problems do not wait for the next scheduled check to show up.
Today, satellite mining data lets you monitor the entire asset base from orbit.1 It flags ground movement or leaks automatically, giving you the exact coordinates of the issue. You know what’s happening in the field without having to wait for a patrol to stumble across it (FIG. 1).
FIG. 1. Monitoring all assets with satellite analytics from a single view: pipelines, dams, mines, wells, equipment and facilities.
Optimizing oil and gas exploration and production. Satellite data proves useful long before a well is drilled. Multispectral and hyperspectral sensors can spot surface signs of hydrocarbons, such as small changes in rock, soil or vegetation that often point to deposits below. When this satellite mining information is combined with seismic surveys and terrain models, teams can choose drilling locations with more confidence. This means companies see fewer dry wells and can move through pre-drill assessments faster, which improves how capital is allocated.
After a well starts producing, satellite radar (SAR) can track ground movement above a reservoir with millimeter-level precision. This helps engineers spot subsidence risks early and adjust injection or production rates. Thermal imagery allows estimating how much gas is being flared, a figure that regulators and investors both track closely (FIG. 2).
FIG. 2. Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah, U.S., captured in SAR (0.5 m)
Satellite data is also used to watch gas-oil ratios and to help allocate production across several fields. When this information feeds into integrated production management systems, it connects the reservoir, individual wells and the pipeline network into a single operational view.
Consistent pipeline monitoring. A pipeline can run for hundreds of kilometers (km) through terrain no one checks more than once a month. Helicopters and ground crews can only cover so much ground, and by the time someone spots a problem, oil may already be in the soil or gas already in the air. Satellites change how often that ground actually gets looked at.
With satellites, many aspects of pipeline monitoring become much easier:
● Spotting leaks early: Multi- and hyperspectral sensors can pick up the spectral signature of crude oil or formation water on the surface, sometimes catching a leak before it is visible to a person standing right next to it. Early detection like this can cut preventable methane emissions by up to 70%.2
● Tracking ground movement: Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) measures how much the ground has shifted, down to a few millimeters, which matters a lot in places where permafrost thaws or slopes deteriorate without warning.
● Watching the right-of-way (ROW): Optical imagery catches unauthorized excavation or construction near the line, even in remote stretches no patrol visits regularly.
● Flagging corrosion and wear: High-resolution imagery can catch early signs of coating damage or surface wear along exposed pipe.
The pipeline monitoring still needs boots on the ground eventually, just fewer of them that must be sent to the correct location.
Evidence-based environmental monitoring and environmental, social and governance (ESG) compliance. For years, an operator’s emissions numbers were mostly self-reported, and regulators had little choice but to take them at face value. That’s no longer good enough. Thermal, radar and spectral sensors now let outside parties check flaring, methane leaks and spills across an entire portfolio, whether the company shares that data or not.
ExxonMobil chose to get ahead of this. Through GHGSat, satellites watch its onshore sites in North America and Asia, catching leaks as small as 100 kg/hr and naming the exact piece of equipment responsible. These satellite images, key to measuring mining environmental impact, feed directly into ExxonMobil’s COMET system, running nonstop since 2022, and the results are hard to argue with: emission intensity down more than 60% since 2016, and routine flaring in the Permian Basin gone entirely.
Planet’s Tanager-1 satellite pushes this further, hunting for methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) super-emitters anywhere on the planet. For any company, that means real numbers now beat good intentions in front of investors and regulators, and it is why satellite data is quickly becoming a standard part of measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) systems for carbon accounting.
Saving costs with remote mining monitoring. Most of the upstream digitalization prize, an estimated $73 B, comes from development and production, which is also where satellite monitoring earns its keep.3 One study combining Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data reached 87%−91% accuracy detecting new pads and large equipment across oil-producing regions, all without ground crews driving out to check.4 McKinsey found similar results elsewhere: remote monitoring and predictive maintenance cutting maintenance costs by up to 13%, with one operator reporting a 27% drop.5
Integration into existing pipeline and mine monitoring systems. Satellite data is not meant to stand alone; it slots into the tools operators already use: supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), geographic information system (GIS) and dashboards. Paired with in-line inspection runs and ground sensors, it closes gaps that no single source covers individually. The practical payoff is in prioritization. If a satellite flags unusual ground movement or activity near a pipeline, that’s the section that gets inspected first, not the whole network on a fixed schedule.
Takeaway. Every example here comes down to the same shift: checking things once a month instead of once a year, or once a week instead of once a month. Exploration teams get fewer dry wells, pipeline crews get sent to the right stretch instead of walking the whole line and emissions numbers stop being something regulators just have to trust. None of it works as a one-off purchase. It works when wired into the systems teams already use daily. P&GJ
Note
a EOS Data Analytics’ LandViewer
1EOS Data Analytics, “Satellite imagery for modern mining operations,” online: https://eos.com/products/high-resolution-images/satellite-imagery-for-mining/
2 World Economic Forum, “Pipeline monitoring,” January 2025, online: https://initiatives.weforum.org/future-space-community/case-study-details/pipeline-monitoring/aJYTG0000000SYz4AM
3 Wood Mackenzie, “Sizing up the digitalization prize for upstream oil and gas,” January 2019, online: https://www.woodmac.com/blogs/the-edge/sizing-up-the-digitalisation-prize/
4 Dnipro University of Technology, “All-weather monitoring of oil and gas production areas using satellite data,” January 2020, online: https://www.nvngu.in.ua/index.php/en/archive/on-the-issues/1830-2019/contens-6-2019/5089-all-weather-monitoring-of-oil-and-gas-production-areas-using-satellite-data
5 McKinsey & Company, “The next frontier for digital technologies in oil and gas,” August 2016, online: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/oil-and-gas/our-insights/the-next-frontier-for-digital-technologies-in-oil-and-gas#/
