Afterthought to Asset: How Data has Transformed Oil, Gas Decision-Making

For several decades data was a byproduct of oil and gas operations, with information often recorded on paper.

Now that the value of data is well known, companies are deploying multiple technologies to collect it, creating a new problem: What do they do with it all?

The volume and variety of data generated by energy companies can be overwhelming as companies must ensure data quality and consistency across multiple systems, Fabricio Sousa, president of Worley Consulting, told Hart Energy.

To make better use of their data, operators are spending more. Digital investment in the oil and gas sector is expected to surpass $55 billion globally in 2025, growing 17%-20% annually, Sousa said. This reflects the increasing recognition of data as a crucial asset in driving decision-making and operational improvements.

Still, a recent survey with 2000 industry executives found that less than 40% of them feel as though they are effectively leveraging data.

“That’s where the data strategy plays a critical role,” Sousa said. “Having the right technological tools to make that integration also plays a critical role. Unless you get these two things, you still continue to face those challenges around the volume.”

To address these concerns, the industry has turned to a range of technological solutions, including sensors, IoT devices, original equipment manufacturer systems and cloud-based platforms. However, selecting the right tools that will remain relevant throughout the asset’s life cycle—whether greenfield or brownfield—is key.

And these tools are transforming operations.

 Sousa noted how one Worley Consulting client gained $70 million a year in productivity by using digital solutions and machine learning to automate operations and make decisions in real time. The company also used digital tools to operate an unmanned facility from a monitoring center 2,000 km away.

Digital twins and simulation technologies are also playing a vital role in improving asset performance, Sousa said.

“I think the way that the industry will evolve is to this: Your asset is going to be the digital one and then you’re going to contract people to build your physical twin. And so I think the mentality is going to turn around fairly quickly,” Sousa said. “When I talk about simulation, it gives the ability once you have a defined twin, a digital twin or just parts of it, you can extrapolate how you simulate it.”

By focusing on the digital twin as the primary asset, organizations can optimize the design and performance of physical assets before they are constructed.

Worley digitized the master gas plan for a major oil and gas operator, Sousa said, delivering a tool that helped the company optimize imports, exports and internal use of natural gas.

“This blew away the mind of the client and now they want to know how they get to the next step on expanding the simulation,” Sousa said.

The client is now asking, “Where do I need to expand my ports capacity? Where do I need to expand my pipeline? When do I consider my pipeline volume as part of my storage? So there’s all the parameters that can give you the best result on the simulation.”

Digital solutions also help with sustainability, enabling the operators to identify and address any deviation beyond the permitted levels and act right away on it, Sousa said.

“The digital platforms can also streamline how do you collect and report that, which then facilitates the submission of the reports, which are needed by some regulatory bodies.”

In the future, Sousa sees AI and machine learning playing a transformative role in predictive maintenance and asset optimization. The integration of renewable energy solutions into existing oil and gas infrastructure, such as electrifying parts of assets, will also be a key focus area.

“I think a lot of the challenges in these next five to 10 years is how you keep your assets going but effectively, efficiently bringing in the integration on hybrid energy systems, on the existing assets to improve productivity,” he said. “I think that's definitely going to be one of the key challenges we take on in the next five years.”