OPINION
Digital oilfield solutions power oil and gas sector in Africa he world is moving away from traditional fuel sources towards renewable energy sources. Over the last decade, markets directed more investment toward sustainable energy-focused innovations. These redirections have forced the oil and gas industry to improve its operation and production efficiency to survive and thrive in the future.
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The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the already weak oil and gas market industry. Two years later, African countries are still struggling to recover from the impact. As a result, companies in the oil and gas sector need to optimise their technology to maintain and expand their revenue streams. According to official estimates by Future Market Insights, the global digital oilfield market will be worth $37 billion by 2022 and reach approximately $54bn in 2028. This represents a healthy CAGR of 6.5% over the same period.
Why do we need digital oilfield solutions? In the first half of 2020, oil prices slumped due to decreased demand. This meant enormous losses for oil producers in the African region. However, oil producers realised that modifying their perspective is required to overcome market vulnerabilities. Traditional oilfields are rife with inefficiencies that widen their supply and demand gap and hinder
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January-February issue l 2022
Author: Nikhil Kaitwade is Associate Vice President (AVP), Market Research at Future Market Insights
optimum reservoir utilisation. Vandalism and theft of petroleum products have further shaken investor confidence, making it hard to find investments for ongoing oil and gas projects in the African region. As a result, the rising overhead cost of deep-sea oil mining has exacerbated the problem for oil and gas producers. Thus, organisations are incorporating modern technologies to address these challenges, and digital oilfield solutions are the first step towards profitability and sustainability. As a result, oil companies are adopting digital oilfield solutions and systems for deepwater production and exploration activities, which lower recovery time. Safety is the biggest concern among oil and gas producers, as the oilfield workers must work in dangerous and inhospitable working conditions. This hazard has seen leading companies increasingly invest in digital oilfield solutions like remote monitoring solutions and control centres that eliminate the need to visit oilfields and enable geologists, engineers and operations professionals to work from any location. For instance, Shell Nigeria recently installed KONČAR-built Random Phase Multiple Access (RPMA) modules integrated end devices in the flow-stations, manifolds, wellheads and other facilities. These devices provide a bidirectional connection between the field and the office, delivering reliable data streams from the area, including pipeline pressure,
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