The Future Tech­nolo­gies That Can Help Opti­mize Oil and Gas Production

The oil and gas (O&G) indus­try is dri­ven by volatil­i­ty, com­plete­ly depen­dent on the glob­al price of its name­sake prod­uct. This unpre­dictabil­i­ty has forced indus­try play­ers to look for new busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties and new tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tions to gain an eco­nom­ic advantage.

In 2023 and beyond, O&G com­pa­nies must strike a care­ful bal­ance between invest­ing in cur­rent and future pro­duc­tion and refin­ing capac­i­ty, while posi­tion­ing their com­pa­nies and oper­a­tions for the net zero future.

A hotbed of innovation

Tech­nol­o­gy has always played a sig­nif­i­cant role in the O&G sec­tor. ICT is of great impor­tance to almost all aspects of O&G oper­a­tions, from upstream to down­stream oper­a­tions. ICTs help to opti­mize O&G process­es, thus improv­ing the effi­cien­cy and via­bil­i­ty of oper­a­tions in this sector.

Addi­tion­al­ly, advances in data ana­lyt­ics and the Indus­tri­al Inter­net of Things (IIoT) have helped play­ers in this sec­tor to opti­mize com­plex process­es; track down elu­sive sources of loss and inef­fi­cien­cy; and respond more effec­tive­ly to volatil­i­ty, shocks, and disruptions.

Let’s look at some of the tech­nolo­gies active­ly being used in the O&G sector:

1. Explo­ration and Production
   Seis­mic imag­ing tech­niques have allowed for more accu­rate map­ping of sub­sur­face geo­log­i­cal for­ma­tions, enabling com­pa­nies to iden­ti­fy poten­tial hydro­car­bon reser­voirs. Advanced drilling tech­nolo­gies such as hor­i­zon­tal drilling and hydraulic frac­tur­ing (frack­ing), have made it pos­si­ble to access pre­vi­ous­ly inac­ces­si­ble resources.
2. Reser­voir Management
   Advanced reser­voir mod­el­ling and sim­u­la­tion soft­ware enable engi­neers to analyse and pre­dict reser­voir behav­iour, opti­mize pro­duc­tion strate­gies, and max­i­mize recov­ery rates. Real-time mon­i­tor­ing sys­tems and sen­sors pro­vide valu­able data on well per­for­mance, allow­ing for proac­tive decision-making and improved pro­duc­tion efficiency.
3. Refin­ing and Processing
   Cat­alyt­ic crack­ing and hydro pro­cess­ing have increased the yield of high-value prod­ucts like gaso­line, diesel, and petro­chem­i­cals. Enhanced process con­trol sys­tems and automa­tion have opti­mised oper­a­tions and reduced ener­gy consumption.
4. Safe­ty and Envi­ron­men­tal Protection
   Auto­mat­ed sys­tems, robot­ics, and remote­ly oper­at­ed vehi­cles (ROVs) are used in off­shore oper­a­tions to reduce human expo­sure to haz­ardous envi­ron­ments. Advanced drilling and well con­trol tech­nolo­gies have improved well integri­ty and blowout pre­ven­tion mea­sures. Tech­nolo­gies like car­bon cap­ture and stor­age (CCS) are being explored to mit­i­gate green­house gas emis­sions asso­ci­at­ed with fos­sil fuel use.

AI: The game-changer for oil and gas

The O&G indus­try has already active­ly embraced dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies and data ana­lyt­ics to opti­mise oper­a­tions and make informed deci­sions. Big data ana­lyt­ics, machine learn­ing, and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence are cur­rent­ly used to analyse vast amounts of data col­lect­ed from sen­sors, pro­duc­tion sys­tems, and oth­er sources. This enables pre­dic­tive main­te­nance, real-time opti­miza­tion, and improved asset management.

But there’s more on the hori­zon. A recent EY sur­vey report­ed that 92% of O&G com­pa­nies are either cur­rent­ly invest­ing in some form of AI, or at least plan to in the next cou­ple of years.

With AI, the pos­si­bil­i­ties for data col­lec­tion and analy­sis are end­less, offer­ing a sig­nif­i­cant com­pet­i­tive advan­tage to com­pa­nies that choose to adopt this tech­nol­o­gy. For exam­ple, AI soft­ware can help O&G com­pa­nies obtain vital infor­ma­tion to improve their upstream process­es. This process can involve col­lect­ing and feed­ing record­ed data from var­i­ous sources such as struc­tured doc­u­ments, PDF files, hand­writ­ten notes, audio or video files into the AI soft­ware. Com­pa­nies can then use this data to opti­mise oper­a­tions and improve long-term results.

One area where AI can have a sig­nif­i­cant impact is in reduc­ing green­house gas emis­sions. Dig­i­tal tools enabled by advanced ana­lyt­ics, arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, and machine learn­ing can help com­pa­nies uncov­er the fastest and most effec­tive path to abat­ing the O&G industry’s green­house gas emis­sions. Using AI for envi­ron­men­tal appli­ca­tions has the poten­tial to boost glob­al GDP by 3.1 – 4.4% while also reduc­ing glob­al green­house gas emis­sions by around 1.5 – 4.0% by 2030.

How Renoir helps organ­i­sa­tions pre­pare for the future

Big data, advanced ana­lyt­ics, and AI are unique­ly valu­able assets that can offer O&G com­pa­nies tremen­dous oppor­tu­ni­ties to accel­er­ate growth and increase effi­cien­cies. Renoir is unique­ly suit­ed to help O&G com­pa­nies in the fol­low­ing ways:

1. Cen­tre of Data Excellence
   We have estab­lished Cen­tres of Excel­lence world­wide with in-house Data Engi­neers, Data Ana­lysts, Data Sci­en­tists, Solu­tion Archi­tects, Dig­i­tal Pro­gramme and Project Man­agers. We utilise the best-in-class data ana­lyt­ics and visu­al­iza­tion solu­tions that best fits the needs of your operations.
2. Beyond mere implementation
   We will analyse what val­ue your busi­ness needs to deliv­er from its data, and how to best adopt to the changes required. We then help you to deliv­er the tech­ni­cal imple­men­ta­tion and adop­tion of it.
3. Experts in adoption
   As part of the engage­ment, Renoir has more than 25 years’ expe­ri­ence in tak­ing projects to full adop­tion using our behav­iour­al and cul­tur­al change method­olo­gies. This guar­an­tees that we leave the organ­i­sa­tion and your peo­ple with the abil­i­ty to con­tin­ue to grow val­ue long after the project is delivered.

Renoir begins every project with a thor­ough eval­u­a­tion to deter­mine root caus­es, then designs the opti­mum strat­e­gy to bring the high­est returns before help­ing busi­ness­es imple­ment it.

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