During the past few years, digitalization has been taking over businesses like a storm. Energy companies are no exception. In fact, digitalization in this industry presents a promising venture as digital technologies can be used to maximize productivity, reduce costs and minimize on-site risks.
Oil and gas companies, in particular, have been slower in catching up with the trend. However, the few advancements that have already been achieved show optimistic results. Let’s talk about Smart Oilfield Technologies.
How does it work?
Simply put, digital oilfield technologies replicate an oilfield’s performance on a computer. This allows technicians and engineers to gather operational data and monitor production through a tablet or mobile device. At the end of the day, this data provides key indicators of the oilfield well-being and performance, which improves and simplifies accurate decision-making.
Case studies:
Nibras: Oman has complex reservoirs with heavy oil difficult to extract. This has called for the development and acquisition of some tools to boost production. Among them, Nibras has stepped in. Nibras is a data tool that collates 1 million data values every couple of minutes from its 10,000 wells. Prior to this tool, gathering this information to get insight on the state of the wells was a time-consuming task. However, now measuring the performance, identifying problems and solving them is easier and faster than ever.
Geosteering Technologies (GTI): ZYFRA invested 9 million USD in controlling stake in GTI, one of the front-runner vendors for ‘smart drilling’ software. The core product of this software, named Geonaft, determines wells’ strati-graphic position while drilling and forecasts changes in the structure formation. In short, it gives insights on the optimal position of the well within the target horizon. It has already been predicted that the economic impact of drilling with Geonaft could be of 1.5 million USD per year in a single well.
Who is using oilfield technologies?
Baker Hughes – GE: upon their merge in July last year, they are looking into capturing and analyzing growing data volumes
Shell: employs a data-driven approach to streamline its operations and improve safety.
ConocoPhillips: utilizes big data to drill wells quickly
Other companies include BP, Chevron, Equinor, Schlumberger and Halliburton.
Digitization is transforming the way we work. And it is happening everywhere. We are still to witness the full extent of Smart Oilfield Technologies.
