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Highlights
- Emerging digital technologies will play a crucial role in managing key challenges in the oil and gas industry—be it personnel safety or cybersecurity.
- The industry needs a well-thought-out strategy to drive these tech implementations to build a more resilient and risk-free environment.
- The impact-investment framework can act as a blueprint for companies looking to assess their next steps in adopting these solutions.
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A resource-intensive sector
As an asset- and resource-intensive sector, oil and gas faces an uphill task of maintaining safety and security.
With assets being vulnerable to cyber-attacks, causing the operational shutdown and leakage of confidential information, to employees getting exposed to harmful emissions or succumbing to fatal accidents leading to lost person-hours, the damages can have long-term implications. Recently, cyber-attack instances from ransomware on Colonial Pipelines, Chevron, and Exxon Mobil have forced them to pay ransoms in billions in addition to the cost incurred for the affected pipelines, servers, and sensitive data leaks. As the increased adoption of IoT devices weakens the IT-OT systems, such activities will rise. On the other hand, employee fatality and injury rates show significant concerns about productivity issues and skilled labor shortages.
Emerging digital technologies, such as predictive systems and collaborative robots will play a crucial role in managing these adversaries. Use cases are being developed around digital twins, AI, IoT, robotics applications, and cybersecurity to create a more resilient and risk-free environment. However, the oil and gas industry needs a well-thought-out strategy to drive these implementations. The impact-investment framework can be a blueprint for companies looking to assess their next steps in adopting these technological solutions.
Figure 1: Emerging technology adoption timeframe for improving safety and security
High impact solutions
Oil and gas companies can implement AI-based high-impact solutions to combat safety and security issues.
Some of the high-impact solutions include:
Hazard predicting and planning – Energy companies can use a pre-incident planning tool that is based on an AI prediction model to proactively assess risks, helping the plant operators and the response team make informed decisions. Shell’s (Pre-Incident Planning) PIPA uses a similar technique wherein it analyzes historical data to assess the likelihood and severity of potential hazards. Proactive awareness has enhanced safety and risk management, making it possible to reduce incidents over the years. This tool can effectively assess the risks upfront, thereby reducing fatal exposures.
AI-led cyberattack prediction – AI’s intervention has opened new avenues for predicting unforeseen circumstances more accurately. Security teams and operators can use AI to create lifelike cyberattack simulations and recognize and address threats. It can also produce fresh data for training machine learning models, enhancing their accuracy in detecting and preventing cyberattacks. The timeframe for adoption might be in the medium term, but it has the potential to create exponential growth in terms of impact.
Robotics-led leakage and spillage inspection – Energy companies have started deploying a fleet of robots to inspect and monitor critical assets for gas leaks, eliminating manual checks and providing valuable insights for operators to act on them proactively. Instances such as the use of Energy Robotics’ solutions by Shell allowing autonomous inspection in explosive environments and Exxon Mobil’s collaboration with Square Robot to deploy a submersible autonomous robot for inspecting the internal surfaces of the tank created a huge impact in building a safer and a more efficient workplace.
Drone-based emission detection and quantification – With the advancements in the UAV space, companies can adopt a drone-based emission management system for faster detection of harmful emissions and redressing of the situation. The breakthrough has been brought about by Total Energies successfully integrating Airborne Ultralight Spectrometer For Environmental Applications (AUSEA) methane and carbon dioxide quantification into a robotics platform for real-time visualization of methane and carbon dioxide concentrations. Due to their cost-effectiveness and ease of use, drone applications can become one of the most sought-after options for emission detection.
Medium impact solutions
To improve resilience, oil and gas companies are exploring a host of safety and security measures based on cutting-edge technologies.
Some of the short- and medium-term solutions are:
AR-VR enabled immersive training – Companies invest in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR)-based simulations to train technicians and operators on real-life experiences, ensuring critical knowledge transfer and mitigating knowledge gaps. Case-based simulations allow staff to assess and react to different mundane and complex scenarios for effective learning. ExxonMobil’s digital garage leverages a similar setup to improve employee productivity and engagement, thereby reducing injury rates and enabling faster decision-making.
Blockchain-based asset authentication - Blockchain has found its application in tracking and management of safety-critical process components. Shell piloted a blockchain-based decentralized digital passport system to authenticate equipment, parts, and products. The system creates a unique digital ID for each piece of equipment and records any digitally verified state changes. With assets being the most vulnerable component in the energy industry, this solution can effectively ensure asset data security and can see wider adoption in the medium term.
Blockchain-based trustable communication – Circulation of financial misinformation and fake news can hinder employee trust and cultural dynamics. Companies are cutting down on these practices by adopting secure platforms. Total Energies’ uses a trust certification platform for corporate communication to filter fake news. However, the recent addition of AI-driven deep fakes can create further worry about misusing employee and company data to hamper reputation.
The digital edge
The proposed framework will aid energy companies in validating their priorities.
Companies can assess their position in the market to identify potential technology solutions to be invested in or to be implemented. The goal is to empower them to decide their call for action items depending on their level of digital maturity and the propensity to spend on different digital technologies. The need for such an impact-driven approach is more prominent at this juncture as the sector is poised to make a transformational shift from a pure-play oil and gas producer and distributor to an energy company with the inclusion of renewables and low carbon solutions. The change in the business model will lead to asset proliferation thereby creating a greater demand for improved IT-OT resiliency and safer operations.
