Digital Generation to Enhance O&G Production, Safety

BP poll shows delegates at SPE Intelligent Energy International 2013 believe the digital generation will enable emerging technologies to optimize production and enhance safety management.

Oil and gas industry professionals believe that the digital generation will enable emerging technologies to optimize production and enhance safety management, according to a poll conducted today at the SPE Intelligent Energy International 2013 exhibition in Dubai. 93% of participants backed the benefits of digitalization while 7% disagreed.

The poll was conducted by BP on the final day of IE2013, which is expected to have attracted more than 2,000 business leaders and senior engineering professionals from across the world.

At the event, under the theme empowered by realtime integrated data, BP has been drawing on its experiences from its Field of the Future program to review the progress of oilfield digitalization to date and encourage debate on how the industry will develop going forward.

It is now more than 10 years since the Field of the Future concept was established by BP to improve decision-making through realtime data-to-decision capabilities in production, operations and reservoir management. Over that time, the Field of the Future flagship has developed expertise in a range of disciplines including advanced remote surveillance, the handling and analysis of realtime data, remote well operations and downhole and subsea sensors.

Steve Roberts, Vice President of the Field of the Future technology flagship, BP, said: “As a company, we have been pioneers in the digitalization of the oil and gas industry. We use realtime information to create a step change in safety management and capital efficiency, while operating assets at the technical limit of efficiency, recovery and cost. Field of the Future solutions impact a significant and growing proportion of net production, and routinely supports more than 80% of our top 100 wells.

“We have proven examples of the benefits that the digital generation has brought to the oil and gas industry and it is encouraging to know that the industry shares our belief in this sector.”

BP conducted three delegate polls this week, one for each full day of IE2013. Delegates were also asked to vote on whether implementing realtime “Big Data” analytics would be the next challenge for digital oilfield implementation and whether robots would be deployed at scale across the production industry in the next 15 years.