How Blockchain Affects on Oil & Gas Industry?
The oil and gas industry has already begun to set foot into the blockchain revolution, but the question on everyone’s mind is how fast it can take advantage of the opportunities blockchain can provide.
Blockchain can reduce errors and invalid transactions in energy trading. This results in more efficient financial transactions and allowing interoperability. Blockchain can also handle a vast amount of data. This is why data is proving to be the “New Oil” for oil and gas operations.
Blockchain provides a single, immutable record of transactions and documentation between multiple parties. It’s already proving its capability to detect any early signs of equipment failures or degradation. On top of that, it can even plan and implement the correct maintenance measures before the failure occurs at a much cheaper cost.
This cheaper cost along with modeling drilling and extractions can determine the feasibility of virtual equipment designs. The exact condition can be determined wherever it’s located by gathering real-time data feeds from sensors in an operational asset.
Digital Disruption
Simultaneously improving productivity, optimising cost, as well as dynamic remote asset monitoring is only possible if the ‘smart oilfield’ technology is deployed. It’s to provide every critical data continuously in real time without any downtime.
The ideal solution is to connect all the systems and hardware platforms across the operations of drilling, exploration and production facilities. It has to ultimately fulfil the purpose of delivering useful data to Real-time Operation Centers (RTOC) and thereby enabling operators to make better decisions quicker.
Rig Decommissioning Issue
The global decommissioning cost of outdated and inefficient rigs are one of the biggest challenges oil and gas companies are facing. It’s estimated that more than 500 ageing rigs are to be decommissioned by 2022. Because of this, oil companies have to find out an eco-friendly, regulatory-compliant way to dismantle the platforms.
The issue arises when they have to predict and address the environmental impacts of various decommissioning methods. It’s very complicated.
Digitalisation of Oil & Gas Industry
The legacy systems of conventional technologies helped the oil and gas industry function for a long time. So much so that it defines them now. However, with the advent of digitalisation, more and more organisations are on the lookout for common technologies
that can balance their requirements for uptime, security, and safety with the need to take advantage of digital innovation.
The transformation into the digital realm requires organisations to view it as an opportunity to shift to a new software environment and improve the functional capabilities of their facility. One benefit to changing to a new software environment is that it can extend the life of traditional legacy systems.
If you think about it, the new digital technologies can help the oil and companies with achieving significant cost savings and efficiency improvements. This can open tremendous opportunities to both suppliers and technology users.
What are the most interesting uses of Artificial Intelligence in the Oil & Gas Industry?
With the increasing challenges faced by the oil and gas industry for the exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons, a cross-disciplinary approach is being followed and this requires some of the processes to be semi-automated or even automated. Artificial intelligence has been introduced in almost every part of the exploration procedure (geology, geophysics, reservoir engineering).
With the dynamic landscape for energy production, AI provides powerful benefits across the entire value chain. AI helps oil and gas companies assess the value of specific reservoirs, customize drilling and completion plans according to the geology of the area, and assess risks of each individual well. In addition, downstream operations can be optimized to minimize costs and maximize spreads.
Exploration and Production
● Forecast total recoverable reserve volumes
● Analyze exploration and reservoir data
● Model well spacing and field development plans
● Optimize lateral and frac design
● Model and simulate various proppant and fluid loading options
● Create lifetime well production models and more effective production forecasts
● Set bidding strategies for lease blocks based on market behaviors
Midstream and Refining
● Forecast long-term commodity input and product market price
● Provide capital planning and risk evaluation for better long-term decisions
● Optimize commodity trading and hedging strategies
● Improve reliability risk modeling for refining and processing assets
● Maximize labor productivity and wrench time
● Enhance asset scheduling for refining and processing operations
● Optimize pipeline scheduling for product flows
Oil Field Services and Equipments
● Optimize drilling, completion equipment scheduling, and fleet management
● Manage and optimize supply chains
● Optimize procurement strategies for proppant, water, and other consumables
● Identify root causes and drivers of non-productive time
● Forecast customer demand and drilling activity in the medium- and long-term
● Enhance back-office and invoicing/billing processes
● Automate financial controls for high-volume transactions