Pre­dict­ing — And Prepar­ing For — The Future of Oil and Gas

Pre­dict­ing the future of oil and gas (O&G) is a con­stant chal­lenge. The indus­try has always been volatile, but there used to be a com­fort­able pre­dictabil­i­ty to the boom-and-bust pendulum.

How­ev­er, these days appear at an end for now. A com­bi­na­tion of com­mod­i­ty price fluc­tu­a­tions, ambi­gu­i­ty on the future of fos­sil fuels, and con­tentious glob­al trade nego­ti­a­tions are upend­ing tra­di­tion­al sup­ply and demand fun­da­men­tals. This is gen­er­at­ing a host of new chal­lenges with no clear answers.

NAVIGATING THE VOLATILE MARKETPLACE

here are sev­er­al chal­lenges fac­ing the oil and gas indus­try today. One of them is to pro­duce more ener­gy at low­er cost with less emis­sions. The glob­al pop­u­la­tion is increas­ing, and ener­gy demand post COVID-19 will not only recov­er but also increase. At the same time, the world is demand­ing clean­er ener­gy so O&G com­pa­nies must sup­ply this ener­gy with less emissions.

O&G com­pa­nies are also spend­ing big bucks to keep them­selves rel­e­vant in the field. The indus­try is col­lec­tive­ly invest­ing approx­i­mate­ly US$500 bil­lion each year just to keep up with demand. What makes this par­tic­u­lar­ly dif­fi­cult is the strong head­wind of ris­ing cap­i­tal costs.

Oth­er chal­lenges include:

1. Tech­no­log­i­cal advancement
   Advances in tech­nol­o­gy, such as renew­able ener­gy sources, elec­tric vehi­cles, and ener­gy stor­age solu­tions, are increas­ing com­pe­ti­tion and reduc­ing the demand for oil and gas.
2. Reg­u­la­to­ry changes
   Gov­ern­ments around the world are imple­ment­ing stricter reg­u­la­tions on O&G pro­duc­tion and con­sump­tion, which can increase costs for com­pa­nies and lim­it their operations.
3. Envi­ron­men­tal concerns
   The indus­try is a major con­trib­u­tor to green­house gas emis­sions, and com­pa­nies are under increas­ing pres­sure to reduce their envi­ron­men­tal impact.
4. Geopo­lit­i­cal risks
   The O&G sup­ply chain is often sub­ject to polit­i­cal insta­bil­i­ty, con­flicts, and sanc­tions, which can dis­rupt pro­duc­tion and sup­ply chains.
5. Aging infra­struc­ture
   Many O&G facil­i­ties are decades old and require sig­nif­i­cant main­te­nance and upgrades to remain oper­a­tional and safe.

IMPROVING EFFICIENCIES WHILE LOWERING COSTS

O&G com­pa­nies can improve effi­cien­cies by using man­age­ment prac­tices and dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies deployed by oth­er indus­tries to boost capital-project pro­duc­tiv­i­ty. Project Pro­duc­tion Man­age­ment (PPM), dig­i­tiz­ing process­es, advanced ana­lyt­ics, and agile ways of work­ing can all yield sig­nif­i­cant improvements.

Dig­i­tal technologies

Digi­tis­ing process­es can sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve effi­cien­cies and pro­duc­tiv­i­ty for O&G com­pa­nies. By col­lect­ing, analysing, com­mu­ni­cat­ing, and act­ing on data, dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion allows com­pa­nies to auto­mate high cost, dan­ger­ous, or error-prone tasks. This can help max­i­mize asset and well integri­ty, increase field recov­ery, and improve oil throughput.

Advanced ana­lyt­ics

Advanced ana­lyt­ics can help O&G com­pa­nies improve effi­cien­cy and low­er costs by har­ness­ing Big Data. Har­ness­ing Big Data with ana­lyt­ics in could help com­pa­nies improve pro­duc­tion by 6% to 8%. Bet­ter data ana­lyt­ics can improve the abil­i­ty to find the prod­uct, reduce the cost of devel­op­ment and pro­duc­tion, and make ener­gy more afford­able and safer to extract.

Project Pro­duc­tion Man­age­ment (PPM)

PPM is a man­age­ment prac­tice that views a project as a col­lec­tion of dis­crete pro­duc­tion sys­tems, each with its own set of process­es. Man­ag­ing each sys­tem sep­a­rate­ly makes it eas­i­er to opti­mize per­for­mance. PPM gives O&G com­pa­nies con­trol over the over­all project-production process, allow­ing them to adjust capac­i­ty, inven­to­ry, and response time to mit­i­gate unfore­seen changes in sup­ply or demand.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING THE RIGHT IMPLEMENTATION PARTNER

For O&G com­pa­nies to effec­tive­ly trans­form its oper­a­tions to improve effi­cien­cy while low­er­ing costs, they need the right tools and pro­fes­sion­al sup­port to get there. Renoir is able to achieve this, by pro­vid­ing ser­vices and solu­tions that work toward goals at every lev­el of the organisation.

Under­go­ing a busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion to devel­op more effec­tive sys­tems and process­es can reduce pro­duc­tion loss­es and ensure opti­mal cost-effectiveness. We can help you cre­ate a cul­ture of dis­ci­pline and struc­ture that ensures tar­gets are met and exceed­ed. We also pro­vide a wide range of dig­i­tal tech­nol­o­gy solu­tions that will enhance the impact of your oper­a­tional and busi­ness processes.

You can talk to one of our con­sul­tants today to see how our solu­tions can help your organ­i­sa­tion address the unique chal­lenges effi­cient­ly and sustainably.