If you are planning to digitalize your Oil and Gas company, you have landed in the right place! Considering the new normal of digital transformation across all industries, thanks to COVID-19 pandemic that necessitated remote operations, the whole oil and gas industry is in the rush to join the revolution.
According to this survey, 80% of oil and gas executives claim to have already invested in digitalization. This is great news for oil and gas industry but how the process is unfolding is vitally important to prevent downtimes and unnecessary spendings.
That is why in this article we intend to help you, the managers, to have a simpler transformation if you follow these 5 steps to digitalize your oil and gas company.
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5 steps to digitalize your oil and gas company
Digital transformation is a revolution that is disrupting all industries but it doesn’t have to be intimidating or costly for your oil and gas company if you follow these 5 steps:
1. Evaluate your current system
In order to digitalize your Oil and Gas company, you need to know where you stand in terms of operational processes and budget.
The current legacy system relies heavily on human resources and on-site interactions specifically for asset management, equipment maintenance and occupational safety. But with digitalization, artificial intelligence and machine learning will take over many processes. This will shift the equipment requirements of the operations since you will need to invest on computer hardwares, softwares, detectors and sensors.
For example, to have an Ai-powered HSE solution, you will need to have the right number and quality of CCTV cameras installed all over your sites.
Of course the investment will pay off in the long term when your company is fully digitalized. It will be a cost-saving investment that leads to higher profits. Specifically if you consider the fact that an oil and gas company has 27 days of unplanned downtime annually which amounts to 38 to 88 millions of dollars! Digitalization will improve process management and safety aiming to eliminate downtimes.
2. Benchmark what digital solutions are available
The tech industry is well evolved and there are many solution providers that can help you to digitalize your oil and gas company. But you need to choose based on your specific needs in terms of budget and technicality.
There are intelligent automations for every sector of oil and gas industry, be it upstream, midstream or downstream. There are also solutions that are essential for all sectors such as intelligent HSE management systems that use AI and machine learning to protect work place safety. They are often involved with remote monitoring of operations in real time to detect safety hazards and violations.
There are many technologies that will help to digitalize your oil and gas company which are related to data analytics. There is also robotic process automation (RPA) to handle most dangerous operations.
Cyber security is a major concern when it comes to digitalization that should be addressed from the beginning of the process to secure processes and personnel.
So you need to choose digitalization solutions for every department of your company in a way that data is integrated and easily accessible. A digital platform that connects every person, asset and process to a central system. The platform should also be scalable for the ongoing growth of your company.
Of course you don’t have to get involved in technical details and just understand the functionality of the new system.
3. Plan the implementation process
When you run an actual assessment of your current system and know what solutions are available in the market, planning the implementation process becomes easy. It is worth noting however that digital transformation is a long process since all your assets must be scanned to be assigned attributes and all operations must be defined with smallest details. In other words, everything within your company must be introduced to the new digital system in data language.
The good news is that a vast amount of data has already been collected within the oil and gas industry. You just have to tap into that data and customize it for your individual circumstances.
The key point is the plan must keep your company operational and profitable during digitalization.
4. Communicate the plan across your company
Your employees, customers and business partners are at the center of digitalization since they directly interact with the system.
They need to understand the change, the process and functionality of the new data driven system. They need to be trained on collecting and interpreting data so they can have the right input and output.
There might be some cultural barriers such as resistance to change that can be overcome with enhancing adaptive skills and filling the skill gaps. Open-source learning has proven effective in re-skilling employees in a short time.
5. Execute the plan in small steps
Once you have the plan perfectly set up, it should be executed in smallest steps so the current system stays functional while the new system is being installed.
You may start with creating a momentum then gradually building up the execution process to experience success in one department then moving on to the next until your whole organization is successfully digitalized.
Conclusion
In order to digitalize your Oil and Gas company, you must prepare for a transformative change. It starts with evaluating what you have and what you want to have then benchmarking the tech market for solutions that suit your circumstances. Planning is the key step to predict undesirable scenarios and prevent shutdowns. Effective communication across your company will guarantee the success of your plan. And finally the actual execution of the plan will digitalize your oil and gas company.
There will be challenges in the process but nothing that AI, machine learning and a team of data experts can’t solve!
To safeguard your work place during this disruptive process full of uncertainly, an Ai-based HSE solution can help you protect workers, save environment and maintain your assets.