C-DRONE GUIDE · 31 JULY 2026
Flare stack drone inspection at a refinery: method, ATEX and price
A flare burns continuously, often more than 40 m up, and taking it out of service for inspection idles part of the unit for the duration of the check — a production cost every operator wants to avoid. Traditional inspection also requires rope-access or man-lift work right next to a live flame and an explosive atmosphere. The drone documents most of that condition survey from a safe distance, flare still lit, without shutting down the unit or putting a technician at height. Here is what it records, how the flight is prepared in an ATEX zone on a Seveso site, and the prices observed in 2026 for this type of mission.
Published on 31 July 2026, reviewed on 15 August 2026 — regulations in force as of August 2026.
Why inspect a flare without shutting it down
A flare is a safety device: it continuously burns off excess or over-pressure gas from a refining, petrochemical or biogas unit, to avoid any direct release to atmosphere. Its periodic inspection — condition of the stack, feed lines, pilot burners and flare tip — traditionally requires rope access or a large man-lift, prepared several days in advance and sometimes conditional on a reduced flow rate, if not a full unit shutdown for the duration of the check. On a continuous industrial site, every hour of downtime has a direct production cost, on top of the risk to a technician working at height next to a hot structure.
The drone changes that equation: piloted from a safe distance, it documents almost all of the visual and thermal inspection without needing to reduce or extinguish the flame. A study by Kon published in 2024 in Petroleum Science and Engineering notes that traditional inspection methods in the oil and gas industry are time-consuming, costly and expose personnel to hazardous conditions, and that the shutdowns they impose cause considerable productivity losses — whereas drones offer a safer, faster and more cost-effective alternative (see the study on Google Scholar). That is exactly a flare's equation: a structure operators increasingly prefer not to shut down just to look at it.
What the drone records on a live flare — and what it does not do
On a visual flight, the drone documents the general condition of the stack and its supporting structure (lattice, guy wires, caged ladders, platforms), corrosion and staining on the shell, the condition of the feed lines for flare gas and assist steam, the fixing of the pilot burners and their piping, and the general appearance of the flare tip at the top — within the limits of what is visible from a safe distance with the flame lit. A thermal pass completes the inspection: it reveals the flame's own thermal signature, any abnormal hot spots on the stack or lines (a sign of a leak or lost insulation) and whether the pilot burners are working properly, hard to confirm visually from afar in daylight.
A standard drone is not ATEX-certified equipment: it never enters a zone classified 0 or 1 and stays at the safety distance agreed with the HSE department, clear of any gas release. A review by Shukla and Karki published in 2016 in Robotics and Autonomous Systems, devoted to robotics applications in the onshore oil and gas industry, positions unmanned aircraft precisely among the tools that complement — without replacing — human intervention on hazardous installations (see the study on Google Scholar). The drone does not measure the tip's residual thickness or the state of the internal refractory lining: those checks still require a shutdown and direct access, but the aerial pass lets the operator target precisely where they are needed instead of opening up the structure blind.
Flying on a Seveso site: preparation with HSE and the fire permit
A flare almost always sits on a site classified ICPE (regulated industrial facility), often a higher- or lower-tier Seveso site: the flight is prepared with the HSE department and the operator, never on the pilot's own initiative. An ATEX fire permit is drawn up before any intervention: precise identification of classified zones, an analysis of combustible properties, a defined safety distance to the stack and vents, and continuous monitoring during and after the flight. On nearly every Seveso, chemical and petrochemical site, a Level 1 or Level 2 safety induction is required of the pilot before site access, on top of their UAS operator registration with the French civil aviation authority and their aerial third-party liability insurance.
Depending on the site's layout and its proximity to controlled airspace or an aerodrome — checked on the Géoportail drone map — the flight is conducted in the open category above an installation closed to the public, or in the specific category under a European standard scenario if the configuration requires it. Coordination with the operator also covers the flare's operating regime at the time of the flight: a sudden combustion peak (a safety valve lifting, for instance) is a reason to postpone the pass. This preparation follows the same logic as our ATEX-zone storage tank inspection and methane gas leak detection guides, also conducted on industrial-risk sites.
Prices observed in 2026
Ranges observed in 2026 (excl. VAT), excluding a joint campaign with other structures on the site:
- Visual and thermal inspection of one flare stack (geolocated photo and thermal report): €900 to €2,200.
- Campaign on a site with several flares or associated pipe racks (coordinated with HSE): €2,500 to €6,000.
- Detailed shutdown-preparation report (precise location of zones to check once opened up): €1,500 to €4,000.
- Periodic monitoring programme (regular passes, visit-to-visit comparison): quoted.
These amounts depend mostly on the flare's height, the complexity of the supporting structure and the site's ATEX constraint level. The same thermal pass follows on from our aerial thermography missions, also deployed on a cooling tower or an industrial rotary kiln. Request a quote stating the flare's height, the site classification (higher- or lower-tier Seveso), access constraints and the mission's goal — routine check or preparation for a planned shutdown.