One hundred billion dollars—that’s the amount that the oil and gas industry could save through digitalization, according to a recent Rystad Energy report. To unlock these potential savings, E&P and service companies are transforming to meet energy demands. According to the report, about 10% of the $1 trillion spend on opex in 2018 could be erased through the use of more efficient and productive operations possible with automation and digitalization.

“In addition to cost savings, digitalization initiatives can also increase productivity by increasing uptime, optimizing reservoir depletion strategies, improving the health, safety and environment of workers and minimizing greenhouse emissions—all of which have significant value creation,” said Audun Martinsen, head of oilfield services research for Rystad, in the report.

The digital transformation is in progress, as new digital products are rapidly making their way into the marketplace. For example, one of the largest digitalization initiatives to date, according to Rystad, is the collaboration by Chevron, Schlumberger and Microsoft to obtain meaningful insights from multiple data sources across the upstream and midstream sectors (see details in the "Tech Trends" section).

This month E&P’s cover stories examine how operators, technology innovators and government researchers are furthering the progress of the digital transformation.

Read each cover story:

The strategic path to digital transformation

Putting Big Data to work for offshore insights

Moving past the hype at Pluto LNG

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