The new normal for oil and gas technologies post-oil price crash and continued COVID-19 concerns could bring challenges for the industry’s IT and OT professionals as more companies consider extending work from home options for certain employees.

Experts, speaking on an OilComm webinar this week, pointed out how the shift from traditional workplaces to home offices—a result of travel restrictions due to the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic—exposed some vulnerabilities, stepped up reliance on videoconferencing and other technologies, and increased security awareness while keeping tech crews busy.

Now is the time, they said, to analyze systems and make needed adjustments in preparation for the “new normal”—however it may look—for companies that already haven’t done so.

Timothy Jackson, chief information officer for Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. and OilComm advisory board member, described the pandemic experience from a tech perspective in three phases: respond, recover and renew.

“We have to quickly shore up business continuity plans for our pandemic plans. …Once you get on the other side of this, you’re going to start to look at reducing maybe your infrastructure footprint,” Jackson said. “There’s also the opportunity to retire some old technology and to reinvent some technology that might be out there. That’s what’s going to lead to the new normal.”

Operators and oilfield service companies have been coping with weak oil prices caused by a supply-demand imbalance. To survive, they have drastically reduced spending and laid off thousands of employees. Some of those still employed are working from home in an effort to “stay safe.”

There is no crystal ball showing how the new normal will look, but new norms are expected alongside challenges, he said.

“Are there policies in place for working from home and which jobs qualify?” he asked.

There have already been some negative impacts, one of which Jackson described as “life in 15 minutes.” That is essentially technology’s ability to reach employees all the time, meaning longer work hours with short breaks.

Add to that workforce reductions, resulting in fewer employees doing more.

Working from home also has created an ideal climate for more hackers and phishing attempts.

“If everyone in the office is working through a single set of routers to the networks, you’d have one entry point,” said Dennis Brewer, also an OilComm advisory board member who serves as segment engineering technical authority-operations for critical telecommunications at BP Plc. “Now, we’ve just distributed that entry point across every employee that’s logged in from home.”

Then, there are vulnerabilities potentially posed in households where, for example, a teenager may be using the home internet playing video games with strangers, according to Jackson.

However, there have been some positives. The speakers noted how work-from-home technology is proven with people using, for example, Zoom and other videoconferencing technology instead of audio-only meetings.

Technology also is improving productivity as tech companies work to improve security and introduce new apps like those providing contact tracing and COVID-19 symptom screening with return to work passes.

Some oil and gas companies, like BP, have deployed cellular service on its fixed assets, Brewer said.

“We’re also going to be extending that. If your vessels are operating within 30 miles of our platforms where you can do backhaul via cellular as well,” he added. “Right now, that’s all 4G with evolution to some 5G. We are starting to see the use of cellular networks in various oil fields onshore and offshore.”

The tech experts recommended companies analyze their pandemic plans, examining strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. A few areas to assess include checking whether remote access infrastructure and collaboration technology are in place, training workers and staff, and guarding against threats posed by phishing attempts or manual processes.

“We’ve got hurricane season upon us. [It’s a] great time to do it now, early in the season, if you haven’t done it already. Look at your technology stack and make sure it’s covering emerging cybersecurity threats and increase your cybersecurity awareness program,” Jackson said. “If you’re going to send your users home with the laptop VPN connection, make sure they’re using it appropriately. Short term, is there technology to adapt to address the company’s COVID 19 concern?” such as apps.

Longer term, if financial resources become available, how would the plan look?

Reality is many companies aren’t spending much now due to weak oil prices.

“Everything is going to be focused on keeping things running until either the price of oil gets up or we’ve cut enough costs. Now, that’s going to be the same for any anybody,” Brewer added. Meanwhile, responses to potential new norms can be examined. “Do we need to spend $225 per employee to get them more secure? Who are the employees we want to do that with? Are there other ways to do it internally?”

As a drilling contractor, Jackson added, the company is seeking more bandwidth, lower costs or innovations from its VSAT provider. “We’re all in this together and we all need the price of oil to go up,” he said.