Digital oilfield technologies have helped result in higher production, increased recovery rates and lower costs, but there is still work to be done, according to panelists participating in a recent KPMG Global Energy Institute webcast.

Change, they say, will require new ways of working and using information gathered. The abundance of data has made predictive analytics more valuable in the digital oil field, but knowing how to make the information cross-functional, transcending organizational boundaries, will be crucial to capturing full insight into assets.

For modern production facilities drilling wells, the data are there, and so are capabilities for high-performance computing and increasingly capable simulation and forecasting tools, said Jim Crompton, managing director, Information Pipeline. Constraints, however, surface with the passing of raw data.

“We have a raw data overload, but frequently we have a scarcity of good-quality information that leads to the right insight. The constraints are the fact that we are now dealing with a lot of cross-disciplinary information needed for full asset insight,” Crompton said. “So [there’s] a lack of an overall information model about how all of the data can be collected into that analytical query.”

Concepts could vary depending on the role an individual has in the process.

He added that “many analytical projects are not successful not because there isn’t a good tool at the end; it’s because you can’t get enough good data quality in order to run the analytical tool.”

Richard Lynch, who previously led drilling and completions operations for BP, pointed out that oil and gas companies need to make sure they are targeting desirable data.

“When you get what you measure, you better make sure you are measuring the things that make the biggest difference for that particular piece of the business,” said Lynch, now retired. “There is often so much data coming in. Without the right analytics around [those data], it is really hard to see those inflection points.”

Dave Conroy, managing director of advisory services for KPMG, spoke to the human element in handling information. There are a lot of experienced engineers in the industry with a grasp for the assets they are supporting, and they have intuitive decision-making processes based on their experience, he said. Challenges to the industry will include how it equips the next generation, gets more site-based decision making and becomes more cross-functional.

“How do we make sure that the information we are collecting has visibility across the board of stakeholders and the processes go across organizational boundaries?” Conroy asked, later pointing to the importance of having horizontal workflows.

Another element necessary to the industry’s ability to drive value from the intelligent oil field is having processes in place to evaluate prior decisions to improve future operations. “It’s not about how to deploy more sensors but how do we effectively utilize those sensors,” he said. “How do we create processes that can exploit that information, and then how do we make continuous improvement?”

The digital oilfield strategy needs to return to its original intent, focusing on intelligent oil fields and new ways of working, now that the technology is proven, according to Mark Tackley-Goodman, principal for KPMG’s advisory services practice and webcast moderator.

“We’ve seen key investments across all aspects of the intelligent oil field today through sensors, data, decision support, workflows and collaborative environments, but there is clearly a long way to go,” he said. “So what must we do to unlock the potential? … We really need to get back to thinking about new ways of working across all elements” by focusing on three components: operational excellence; value chain optimization and cross-asset/cross-function optimization; and integrated decision making to drive more efficiency and effectiveness into the process.

Perhaps the industry can realize more uptake if assets and activity were managed more strategically and effectively as a whole rather than as individual jobs at the asset level, Conroy said. “That, to me, is perhaps the gap between where many of the programs are today and where we need to go.” He used unconventional plays and declining fields as an example, saying, “It is about optimizing production from a much shorter window; therefore, the decision making, the portfolio approach, to how you manage your activity is going to become increasingly important.”

Also of importance will be finding and deploying repeatable solutions for problems encountered in the oil patch.

But perhaps key to it all is having a system that is understood by others, aligning goals, being transparent about how information will be used and learning from the work experiences, according to Lynch.

“It’s more important to get it right the first time than to learn over and over and over again, especially when you’ve got a rig running in deepwater costing somewhere between a million and a million and a half dollars a day,” Lynch continued. “Getting it right the first time, having a quality decision, becomes critical. … Data help you tell very powerful stories. Use the data to tell those powerful stories because that connects the heart and mind together. Once you have that, the relationships are in the right place to drive your business forward.”

Contact the author, Velda Addison, at vaddison@hartenergy.com.

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