INDUSTRY
With High-Impact Oil Exploration Returning To the Game with a Boom, There’s Never Been a Greater Need for Technology Solutions By: Matt Danna, Senior Director of Product Strategy at ServiceMax
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SHALE MAGAZINE NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022
can return profits at lower prices once they are up and running. According to Reuters, the deep offshore projects could yield oil for decades and at lower breakeven costs when the rig is pumping due to the sheer scale of the vast developments. When it comes to drilling in the oil and gas industry, there are always inherent risks, so with the expansion of offshore drilling, it is a critical mission to have effective field support, which will lead to better service execution. This translates to a need for digital alignment – a purpose for technology and a framework for the application. The benefits of technology solutions, including advanced end-to-end enterprise asset management (EAM) solutions, can ensure maximum availability, reliability, and performance in the field. Managing maintenance remotely Drilling offshore can present its own set of unique risks, including heavy and dangerous equipment miles from shore. Keeping rig workers safe means providing in-depth training on
Preventive maintenance will always be a better route than reactive maintenance. equipment use and maintaining all equipment assets to ensure they are safe to work with. To properly maintain these assets, there must be a clear picture of their historical condition, status and location. EAM solutions are critical to keeping assets operational. They provide process and intelligence for physical assets that can bring increased equipment reliability, routine preventive and predictive maintenance and efficient inventory management. Offshore workers and technicians often perform equip-
STUDIO-FI/STOCK.ADOBE.COM
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igh-impact oil exploration has returned to the scene following a bleak 2021, which saw a relatively low success rate in discovering new oil and gas resources. In fact, it was one of the lowest on record. But this year is seeing a much higher success rate with high-impact offshore drilling returning to the game. Right now, amid an apparent unprecedented energy crisis unfolding, it makes sense that exploration, development and production (E&P) companies will be plowing forward with new projects that could pump oil for years. Just this year, E&P firms discovered more than 1.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent at high-impact wells. That number is quadruple what was discovered for the entire 2021 year. At this rate, global spending in offshore oil and gas engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) is expected to total out to around $276 billion between 2022 and 2026 – a 71% increase. While offshore production sites can be more expensive to build than onshore, they
