How Digital Technologies Reduce Cost And Drive Efficiency In Oil&Gas Project in East Africa

The world is a fast-paced, ever-changing digital-age world. A world unlike any of us has ever experience.

But the harsh truth is that the oil and gas industry has a large lag time. What is a lag time? Well, the lag time is a time an industry take to adopt new idea or technology from the date it has been proposed.

For example, I have been told that a lag time in the automobile industry is 25 years. The lag time in the construction industry is 60 years.

The oil and gas industry is the only slower industry, with a lag time of 80 years. This means that new technologies you see today in the oil and gas industry were conceived 80 years ago. Technology such as 3D seismic, remote sensing technology such as imagery satellite.

But in recent years due to increasing uncertainty, the oil and gas industry was forced to gradually shift to new technology. This help to improve efficiency and safety in the industry operations.

Here are potential areas for digital technologies in the oil and gas industry:

Predict the failure of equipment.

They can also be employed on equipment checks, such on rigs and remote drilling platforms, providing quick and easy eyes on access for engineers who can be remotely placed and checking on several platforms all at the same time. This is a helpful way for oil companies to predict future maintenance before even break down of the piece of equipment.

 

Reducing Operation Costs
Oil and gas companies in the pipeline industry install sensors on entire pipes and other operational assets which predict leaks and oil spills. This helps save on scheduled repair and overall maintenance cost. The oil industry loses billions of dollar each year due to downtime. It reported that digital technologies save 15%- 20% maintenance cots

Improving the safety of the workers
The oil and gas industry is a relatively high-risk working environment – especially at the business end of lofting oil and gas resource to the surfaces. With digital technologies such as the use of robotics, workers have no longer to go to do risky jobs

Crisis Management and Preparedness
The catastrophic events such as oil spills and other disasters can threat company reputation. But with the help of digitization such as the use of social media can help increase the degree of community engagement and help manage the crisis.

Forexampe, BP’s oil spills in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico in the united state that resulted in environmental pollution that could end up cost BP billions of dollars to clean up.

And the social media provided the details of the crisis and help to address the issues.

With the high speed of information dissemination in this digital age, it is no longer possible to do nothing when an accident happens and expect it to go unnoticed.
To win public trust, oil and gas companies should be completely transparent when a bad incident occurs in the company.

They should communicate honestly and openly…Oil companies can utilize social media to let the world know that the accident was just that: an accident, unintentional and not due to saving the cost of production or negligence. That is the best way to maintain the company’s reputation.

We are in the age of ever-advancing technology capabilities. And the oil and gas industry are shifting to digital technology as the way to increase efficiency and safety.

Technology is replacing workers.
Roughnecks and drillers collect data on the rig. With increasing automated technologies, this data is now collected by sensors.
In fact, tools and machines may replace oil and gas workers or might get them to shift the roles.

If you have a question or suggestion reach out to me via hussein.boffu@tanzaniapetroleum.com. I read all the emails.