DigitalGlobe recently announced that Apache Corp. has joined the company’s enterprise partner program, a mechanism that streamlines access to geospatial products and provides quick and easy data viewing and ordering in a desktop environment.

For Apache, the company hopes that membership in this program will bring about certain cost savings and efficiencies to its operations in the oil and gas industries.

The company had been using air photos for many years, Apace Director of Public Affairs David Higgins told Satellite News, but then moved to integrating low-resolution satellite images as part of its day-to-day operations. With its deal with DigitalGlobe, “we now have high-resolution satellite image access,” Higgins said.

“It removes the need for purpose-fly air photos, which are impossible in some part of the world,” Higgins said. “With a lot of the remote drilling we do in Canada, we don’t do anything until we have had planes go up and take several air photographs. We spend a lot of money doing that. Now, we get much broader coverage with the satellite photos and achieve some economy because we don’t have to send the planes up. We now have the ability to get high-resolution images anywhere we have operations.”

“With the QuickBird satellite’s 2-foot pixel size providing high resolution imagery, our global operations can now utilize the data for evaluating regional geologic features, locating well spots, planning seismic operations and mapping facilities,” Apache President and CEO G. Steven Farris said in a prepared statement.