In June, the U.S. government gave Colorado-based satellite imaging company DigitalGlobe approval to sell images with as high a resolution as it could achieve. Within a month, the company launched its Worldview-3 satellite, which can measure objects on the ground as small as one foot in length, according to the Denver Post.
That enhanced resolution is going to open up the geospatial imaging and data industry to huge growth, said Bud Pope, the co-founder and president of Spatial Energy, a DigitalGlobe subsidiary acquired in February. Pope, who previously worked at DigitalGlobe, founded Spatial Energy to help the oil and gas industry collect and analyze the data that can be derived through satellite technology.
The highest resolution previously available to the geospatial imaging industry was 50 centimeters, but now the government has allowed DigitalGlobe to sell images as high as 25 centimeters.
Worldview-3 can achieve images with resolutions of 31 centimeters; DigitalGlobe CEO Jeffrey Tarr said the higher resolution could bring in $400 million or more in new business.
Using satellite data can help oil and gas companies plot pipeline routes using elevation models, check for leaks, analyze wildlife patterns and map out the competition, among other services. The technology can also allow companies to get a better look at parts of the world where war and civil unrest can make the job of building and inspecting infrastructure nearly impossible.
“It’s certainly helpful internationally, when you can’t get airplanes in to an area,” Pope said. “We can provide images of areas they’ve been wanting to see for years.”
Spatial Energy says it serves 12 of the top 20 supermajors in the oil and gas industry; Pope gave examples like ExxonMobil, BP, Apache Corp., Anadarko and EOG Resources. Since the company was founded in 2005, Pope said unconventional shale plays in North America have been a big driver of revenue growth, and that North America now accounts for about 40 percent of the company’s total revenue. But Pope said there are still opportunities for growth in offshore drilling and state-owned oil companies around the world, like in South America and Southeast Asia.
The new satellite has already produced some incredible images. Click through below to see some of the photos Worldview-3 has already taken in its first two months of activity, including oil and gas facilities and natural and historical landmarks.
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