As the price of oil plummets, drilling companies are looking for new ways to cut costs. Inspecting offshore oil rigs for damage, deterioration or just general condition has traditionally been accomplished by suspending a technician by ropes. Once suspended, the technician has a limited amount of the rig that he or she can inspect from that particular vantage point. It is an arduous process to raise and lower the worker and then re-position them at a different point on the rig. As reported by Anjli Raval in an article in the Financial Times, drones can collect in five days the same data that would take eight weeks by a rope-access technician. Drone inspection company Sky Futures reports business has doubled this year. The article also notes that drones could prove useful in the inspection of pipelines that can span thousands of miles.