This oil and gas report follows the analyses of the advance of digital operations in the power and utilities and the chemicals sectors, and concludes our surveys of the status of digital operations in the EU&R industry.
Oil and gas companies had faced formidable challenges to their efficiency, sustainability and profitability before COVID-19. As a result of the pandemic, prices have collapsed so severely that the urgency to tackle these issues has increased dramatically. One of the clearest and most viable responses to these systemic challenges is to accelerate digitization strategies to help improve resilience and remain attractive to investors.
Of more than 200 oil and gas companies surveyed, only 7 percent identified themselves as Digital Champions (see exhibit) while more than 70 percent of respondents considered themselves to be in the early stages of digital maturity – that is, either Digital Novices or Digital Followers.
Our study highlights a number of digital technologies and applications that have the potential to transform operations from back office to plants and production sites. These include manufacturing execution systems (MES), cloud computing, energy analytics, the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning. These digital applications integrate real-time data and advanced analytics for better decision-making, and underpin applications that can dramatically improve efficiency and sustainability.
Interestingly, our survey found that O&G executives see the most potential in precisely those technologies that combine data and analysis. The top five technologies or planned technologies they identified include:
By analyzing the challenges of oil and gas companies (download the report) we can summarize a pathway to becoming a Digital Champion more clearly.