Creating a digital future for oil and gas

30/03/2016 11:03 AST

The oil and gas industry is facing a new productivity transformation, where digital technologies help companies discover new ways to drive increased efficiency, says a new report from global consulting services company Accenture.

The 2016 Accenture and Microsoft Upstream Oil and Gas Digital Trends Survey identifies the key trends driving digital investment in the oil and gas industry. Accenture’s Global Digital Energy senior manager, Brian Richards, explores how these trends can help oil and gas companies drive value in their businesses.

Accenture has created a framework to help clients think about how digital technologies will impact their business. It includes the augmentation and automation of both physical and mental processes.

Augmenting physical processes includes wearable computing, whereby workers in the field can see what someone sees, hear what someone hears, and help them with maintenance, training, safety and so on.

“If we take that to the next level, we’re looking at automating physical processes – things like drones and robotics, and using drones for flare stack inspections, pipeline surveillance, inspections at height and even post hurricane analysis,” said Richards.

“If we look at augmenting mental or cognitive processes, this includes analytics or the internet of things, and how companies can use data to make better decisions with the data they have.

“In the fourth quadrant we have the automation of mental processes, and that’s where we’re removing the worker altogether and we’re using things like cognitive computing and machine learning to make decisions with the data we have, which in many cases is beyond human ability.

“Taken together these four quadrants paint a picture of how oil and gas companies can use digital technology to drive increased efficiency in the oilfield,” he explained.

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