The role of technology in the Oil & Gas industry
Our expert's opinion
"According to Abdul Nasser Al Mughairbi, Group SVP of Digital at Adnoc, one of the biggest petroleum company in the world, the key is the use of big data!
Technology helps the industry a lot, for example, by using drones and robotics. Maintenance is one of the most impacted segments. The use of the human workforce to analyze issues is risky and represents a big challenge for companies. Thanks to AI and deep learning, companies will be able to predict and act when something needs to be repaired or replaced. It means that the human workforces will spend less time in potentially dangerous places.
But the question that keeps arising, is which profiles of engineers will we need for these upcoming challenges?"
- Charles De Wouters, Associate Consultant
Big data, AI and drones will upend oil and gas industry
Abdul Nasser Al Mughairbi said the future of the oil and gas industry is not as bleak as many are predicting it to be.
Technology set to play a major role in how the oil and gas industry is set to evolve
The future of the oil and gas industry is not as bleak as many are predicting it to be, with technology set to play a major role in how the industry is set to evolve, said Abdul Nasser Al Mughairbi, group SVP of digital at Adnoc.
Speaking in a conference session at the 38th Gitex Technology Week exhibition, he noted that the speed of technology development has never been faster or its potential impact as powerful.
"We don't see oil as ending anytime soon; we might not use it as an energy source much in the future, but oil and gas will continue to play an indispensable role in fuelling global energy demand," he said.
He added: "Big data is going to be the foundation of all our future digital transformation strategies. Our studies show that 80 per cent of oil and gas data will be unstructured by 2020. We see opportunities created by new technologies everywhere, ranging from optimising our production capacity to enhancing our drilling performance."
Al Mughairbi also noted that the future of the industry will heavily revolve around autonomous operations. "We are increasingly using technologies such as robotics and drones for surveying and monitoring. Maintenance is the segment that is going to be the most impacted by technologies such as Artificial Intelligence [AI] and deep learning. Traditionally, maintenance has always been a challenge because there is a high degree of risk involved in using human manpower to look at issues such as leaks and weak points."
Today, he revealed that the company practices a form of predictive maintenance that revolves around putting all the data gathered from different verticals in a deep learning algorithm. The algorithm is then able to predict when something needs to be fixed or replaced.
"What we have done is create a digital twin of the entire Adnoc value chain - powered by real time data," he said.
"The future will increasingly involve us reducing the amount of time that the human workforce spends in potentially dangerous locations. We will trust in the data and count on it to help us resolve issues and provide increasing value across all segments."
Source: Khaleej Times
