“Time to trade in the hard hats for desktops,” was a phrase I heard on two separate occasions at the recent DUG Eagle Ford Conference and Exhibition. One of those occasions was at the tail end of a presentation on proven rod lift solutions in the Eagle Ford delivered as part of the artificial lift session of the Technology Showcase. It was made in reference to the increasing role that digital technologies are playing in production optimization.

Technology advances that led to today’s real-time monitoring helped to reduce the number of hours a pumper can spend behind the wheel driving to check wells. In one example provided in the presentation, footage from a surveillance video of a well site showed a rod lift pump at work. The footage’s audio sounded the clarion bell to those in attendance that can “know” just by listening to the humming whine of the pump that something just wasn’t right with the well.

While it is now possible to see and hear the well without logging hours behind the windshield, further confirmation that there might be an issue with the pump is available by remotely accessing the pump’s measurement dashboard. Reading the gauges might not give 100% troubleshooting accuracy, but it does help give the pumper a better idea as to what tools, parts and mechanical expertise might be needed to repair the troubled pump before making the trip.

This ability to better plan and be more efficient in operations demonstrates the many benefits that technology provides to those working in the oil and gas industry. It also demonstrates the transition from an industrial to a digital age, one where the workforce is more adept at working with bits and bytes than screwdrivers and socket wrenches. It is a transition I heard framed nicely in late August at the 2016 Landmark Innovation Forum & Expo.

“We are now all technology companies. You are technology executives, and your strategy is a technology strategy,” said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president for Gartner Research, in his keynote at the event.

The transition to 100% digital is a better fit for the realm of science fiction. Or is it?

This year is the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. In it, “we saw the ability to beam something or someone up. Today we can beam things, every product. Every physical asset has a digital twin that I can send anywhere in the world that I want,” Sondergaard said. “What we believed was unimaginable in 1970 is what we’re doing today.”

This digital push is accelerating the transition from industrial to more desktops and fewer hard hats. When compared to the high-speed computing power of today, the slide rule and calculator take on the prestigious sheen of museumworthy artifacts, although the time for both to join their father, the abacus, under the display glass is still far off.

And as long as there is a need for a pumper to log some windshield time to check a faulty pump or for a mechanic to physically repair or replace wellsite components, the hard hat will have to wait to enter the Smithsonian.

Contact the author, Jennifer Presley, at jpresley@hartenergy.com for more information.

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