The oil and gas Industry as we know it today has in many ways been a disruptive part to the political, economic and social systems for the last 150 years.
Since the first triggers motivated to the search for hydrocarbon availability, the oil and gas industry have grown to shape the worlds socio-economic landscape as we know it today. But the growth didn’t happen as fast as one would think. The first commercial oil well founded back in 1859, the Drake Well, did not start pumping oil for purposes as we have today, but as a feedstock for kerosene. It was not until 1910 and with the help William Burton of Standard Oil (later Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Sohio, BP, Amoco, Conoco and ARCO) that gasoline sales exceeded kerosene. Since them we have seen tremendous growth in the oil and gas industry and companies are always thriving on finding new techniques to search for oil in more complex environments. But an industry that is over 150 years has become mature. There has been a lack of big disruptions in the oil and gas industry, and it has failed to innovate as fast as other industries when thinking of modernization. The focus have long been on better hardware and improved techniques related to oil pumping, but not on oil and gas software specific. Software to better control, maintain and supply all supply chains in the oil and gas industry is starting to get recognized as a disruptive controlling mechanism, but has not yet been fully embraced. So what is so disruptive about oil and gas software?
14 crucial areas oil and gas software disrupts
1. Asset management
Mobile software delivers the benefit of having the possibility of rapid response to unforeseen risks and timely preventive maintenance. Covering processes relating to maintaining both onshore and offshore activities oil and gas software can be used to improve scheduling and completion, monitor employees and provide better information on parts, tools and furthermore employees needs to do their work as to protocol.
2. Regulatory compliance
Due to the severe amount of regulatory compliances in the oil and gas industry, they are usually handled in discrete categories (geography, business unit, business function etc.). Using oil and gas software, companies can streamline the process because information is transferred and accessed in real-time and therefore providing a large enterprise grade when it comes regulatory compliance because the whole organization access the same information.
3. Inspections, condition monitoring and assessment
As large amounts of data can be captured and correlating activities can be done right away using oil and gas software, oil and gas companies can achieve significant cost savings and improve operations after deployment. Using software supporting bar code scanning, RFID, or GPS to identify an asset and then using features like touchscreen menus, camera with annotation functions and other, makes data-entry and problem identification significantly faster than before.
4. Materials management
Procurement, reorders and order transfers are better handled with an implemented oil and gas software than it has been before. As employees are able to use ruggedized devices with intrinsically safe cases in normally hazardous areas they are able to inform back-office in real-time with updates on materials. This benefits the whole materials supply-chain because they do not longer have to rely on information or updates that takes too long to process.
5. Supply chain collaboration
Oil and gas software offers all the participants in the supply chain to communicate and collaborate better. As each participant does not have to be in each other’s presence because of the real-time feature, information is accessed faster and time-to-market is greatly reduced.
6. Sales-force enablement
Customer relationship management (CRM) tools are a great way that oil and gas software can increase the sales-force of a company. The further extension of CRM systems with accessibility to hand held devices using wireless communication also increases sales-force enablement because mobile workers can communicate with these systems when they need it the most.
7. Workforce management and field-force enablement
Large oil and gas companies consist of thousands of employees spread all over the organization. To keep track of all certifications, travel documents etc. is a time complex process and with oil and gas software this is all simplified. Oil and gas software will keep all of these in a digital platform and inform automatically when a certification or travel documents need renewal or changes.
8. Fuel management
Fuel management can be costly when done wrong. With the option keeping track on fuel usage, forecasting, discover risks, create reports and deliver key performance indicators (KPI’s) in a remote location makes fuel management flawless and automated when using oil and gas software.
9. Analytics and dashboards
Handling reports using paper is a time complex process and in the end provides old and outdated information. Oil and gas software provides precise monitoring of KPI’s and insights in real-time for executives to analyze. The insights can be visualized in 2D and 3D models on the dashboards and thus makes the company provide better and more accurate data to its external stakeholders because analytics are done in real-time.
10. Logbook
The old way of writing everything down in a paper logbook takes forever to categorize and keep track off. With the option of having employees being able to use a hand held device for them to keep track off their activities with an oil and gas software, employee synchronization can be done in real-time in the back office.
11. GPS and GIS tracking
Oil and gas software offers the possibility of tracking all transportation, risk location, hazardous areas etc. through GPS and GIS tracking. This monitoring feature increases asset utilization and reduced downtime because companies are able to locate/re-locate assigned positions right away.
12. Capacity extension and retooling
Increase employee productivity and reduce maintenance logs during capacity extensions and retooling without compromising safety is a challenging task. Oil and gas software has disrupted this challenge with the option of capturing key information on the spot and thus eliminating the risk compromising. Completed tasks can be directly routed to the appropriate people for validation and one doesn’t need to hunt for information as all tasks are recorded electronically.
13. Shared services
Oil and gas software makes it easier to support shared services in organizations due to simplified communication and collaboration cross-company. Oil and gas software has the possibility to play a key role in shared services because all are on the same platform.
14. Partner collaboration
Finding the right partner can be a challenge if you don’t really know what to search and look for in a partner. It is also hard maintaining relationships communicate in the right way ones a deal have been made. Oil and gas software can streamline partner management – all the way from finding new partners to maintaining the partnership and making comparisons.