The search for digital solutions to the challenges faced in the oil and gas industries intensifies every year. According to BDO Global, it is predicted that the digital oilfield market, consisting of the internet of things, analytics, and cloud computing, will surpass US$20 billion by 2023.
In this scenario, some technological trends stand out among the most necessary in the industrial environment, especially those focused on the optimization of maintenance processes and energy transition. Check below the top 3 trends in the oil and gas industries for the year 2023:
1. Critical Equipments Analytics
Following the problems related to industrial maintenance is the low digitization and contextualization of data regarding the efficiency and safety of critical equipment, leading to a low prediction of asset failure.
With the development of various systems that connect IoT and receive data collected by sensors in the field, the process of analyzing the efficiency and safety of industry has certainly evolved. On the other hand, this has not meant being able to integrate the different sources of information created, let alone develop a real contextualization of the data generated to improve managers’ decision-making.
The use of recent technologies in this context seeks to deepen the digital transformation process and improve the integration of databases (such as ERPs and PIMS). With this, the hundreds of pieces of information collected all the time can be treated and organized in a single place, generating, for example:
- Increase in the safety of the operation, understanding in advance possible equipment failures and preventing accidents;
- Reduce unplanned downtime through more efficient data analysis, thus increasing the mean time between failures;
- Improve industry maintenance planning, reducing the OPEX necessary to correct unplanned failures.
Therefore, for the year 2023, investment in technologies that allow, for example, predictive analysis of failures in critical equipment from historical data and enable constant monitoring of its efficiency is a priority to develop better productivity, lower costs and avoid accidents.
2. Digital fabric maintenance
The first noticeable focus that needs more attention from industries in the sector is the optimization of the fabric maintenance.
Currently, the process occurs in a very analogical way, with the need for several workers on field to perform inspections and evaluate the integrity of structures, piping and equipment. As a result, piles of reports are generated and organized in a diffuse way throughout the several information management systems used by the companies, making it difficult to have assertiveness in the analysis and planning of industrial maintenance.
Thus, there is a need to digitalize this process to optimize time and reduce costs. Currently, some companies are already developing technologies that use Artificial Intelligence to detect anomalies in the field images of the industrial plant and allow the inspection to be performed quickly and remotely. And this is just one example of an application!
During the year 2023, it will be increasingly common to implement these technologies in the Oil and Gas industries, mainly to minimize corrosion problems.
3. Energy Transition
Another very clear movement in the Oil & Gas industry is the beginning of this sector mixing with renewable energy production. Recently, big players in this market have started to develop solar and wind offshore projects, contributing to important sustainable objectives, such as the gradual decarbonization of processes.
Combining this journey with digital transformation, it is possible to implement these ideas in a very optimized way, integrating energy efficiency monitoring technologies to increase results, making the ROI of the investment even more attractive to the various stakeholders involved.
In other words, even though the energy transition is a robust process that requires a lot of time for planning and execution, it is possible to get it off the ground together with the application of cutting-edge technologies for the sector, reducing the financial risks of the project. Thus, as in the previous point, these technologies can enable the integration of diffuse databases, monitor energy production, and predict failures in the most important components of wind turbines and solar panels, such as generators and inverters.
Conclusion
In other words, studying these trends facilitates the understanding of how to keep the operation of the Oil and Gas industries updated and better positioned in relation to competitors. From reducing operating costs by optimizing maintenance, to improving the energy transition process, the biggest growth focuses of these companies will be based on the greater and better use of new technologies during the year 2023.
If you want to learn more about the real value of digital transformation in the Oil and Gas industries, download our whitepaper on the subject in the form below!
