Oil & Gas Middle East – August 2019

TECH FOCUS

28

AUGUST 2019 oilandgasmiddleeast.com

DIGITAL REVOLUTION

Monitor Deloitte’s managing partner, Bart Cornelissen, on why the oil and gas sector lags

behind in digital uptake despite its importance in monitoring, and how it can jump ahead

The entire world seems to be going digital,

yet the oil and gas industry is lagging behind

all sectors, according to Deloitte’s digital

maturity index. With technology becoming

ever more pervasive and complex, and

external forces putting pressure on revenues

and costs, operating within a traditional and

conventional mindset is no longer a viable

recourse for upstream oil & gas companies.

Standing still is not an option.

The case for digital

With an average score of 1.3 on Deloitte’s

digital maturity index (check image above),

the oil & gas industry scores considerably

lower than most sectors.

While some operators have adopted point

solutions such as agile processes or hiring a

chief digital offi cer, failing to fully embrace

digital with a combination of technical and

people solutions is costing the oil & gas

industry as much as $1.6tn in potential

revenue.

That need not be the case. We are at an

infl ection point in digital technology. Costs

of sensors, data storage and processing are

falling. Algorithms are more sophisticated,

processing power is increasing rapidly, and

reliable access to the internet worldwide has

become ubiquitous. Digital technology allows

for more sophisticated analytics and artifi cial

intelligence, and industries can now benefi t

from signifi cant business and economic value

for customers, shareholders, employees, and

the wider society.

Digitalisation can revolutionise the entire

oil & gas value chain, from exploration to

production (via distribution) and onto

customers (B2B as well as B2C). Within the

upstream sector for example, digitalisation

can be leveraged for the full automation of

production rigs, the consistent monitoring

of the fl ow of crude and its composition,

more certainty in the process of fi nding

new reserves, visual interaction with virtual

representations of the fi eld and all of its

various components, and the continuous

processing of data, with automated decision-

making capabilities.