Before an oil & gas company can drill, it must obtain approvals from the appropriate authorities. The wellsite survey plan contains the information needed by the authorities to process the application to drill. The wellsite survey plan has evolved over the years to where it is the highly respected document it is today.

Today’s projects are more complex than ever before. Government regulations, environmental concerns and plan requirements have increased significantly over the last number of years.

The land surveyors engaged in the practice of oil patch survey work have, through experience, acquired certain skills and judgments that permit them to carry out these surveys and work through these regulations and procedures under difficult time constraints.

Historically, surveying was a painstaking process involving carrying heavy equipment over countless kilometres of virgin terrain. Years ago surveyors used chains and sextants then theodolites and later total stations to mark out a drilling site or determine the alignment of a pipeline right-of-way.

Today, Alberta Land Surveyors use the latest technologies, such as global positioning systems, LiDAR and unmanned aerial vehicles, to provide surveying services to the oil & gas industry.