TULSA, OKLA. — Orbital Sidekick, the company which developed the satellites, is based out of San Francisco and offers global monitoring of pipelines.
The two satellites launched into orbit this past weekend from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.
Orbital Sidekick will deploy four more satellites this year aboard the SpaceX rideshare missions to complete the company's initial constellation.
Tulsa based energy companies Williams and ONEOK are customers of Orbital Sidekick and will use data from these satellites to take their monitoring of pipeline emissions to the next level.
I talked to Dan Katz, CEO and Co-Founder of Orbital Sidekick. He explained how the satellites work:
"Basically everything reflects and absorbs light in a unique manner and we're able to pick that up and chemically fingerprint each object on the ground."
He then said how Williams and ONEOK will benefit from the satellite data:
"Now we can really help our customers in the energy sector meet and exceed regulatory compliance and help detect and prevent oil and gas leaks in the future."
Our two local energy companies are ready to use this advanced technology:
"Williams is excited to add Orbital Sidekick to our portfolio of next gen gas solutions, further enabling us to provide industry leading low carbon solutions for our customers," said Chad Zamarin, Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategic Development for Williams.
"We believe the scalability and applicational benefits of Orbital Sidekick's flexible platform will create additional value for our business and the industry," said Greg Lusardi, ONEOK Senior Vice President, Corporate Development.
The satellites can also help reduce wildfire risk by pinpointing different fire fuels. Katz says they could start implementing this by the end of the year and it could be a game changer for Oklahoma wilfire season.
"One way we can help is to work with utility companies and fire agencies to identify the high risk areas for fire risk by identifying the exact tree species that's in a location that might be more prone to fire," said Katz.
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