The challenge of extending the producing life of installations is a never-ending task. Implementing new or improved technologies and practices in regions like the North Sea have allowed assets to far exceed their original design lives.

Although it is a straightforward philosophy, putting into practice the theory of extending an installation's life is not always easy. Despite a simple business case – extend the producing life of an installation, increase reserves recovery, and boost its profitability – the reluctance of companies to put new technologies into service makes it difficult to take advantage of potential solutions.

In conversation recently with several senior upstream executives spearheading the drive to implement intelligent energy and "smart" solutions, there was a recurring theme – resistance to change.

It is human nature to be cautious of change, especially when a current system or practice appears to work perfectly well. The oil industry is also inherently conservative. In the words of one senior operating company manager, the industry still has "a way to go on our existing assets" when it comes to introducing or retrofitting advances in technology to improve the efficiency of older facilities.

The problem is that although potentially helpful new technologies exist, it is not always easy to apply intelligent energy solutions to an existing brownfield mature project and benefits are not guaranteed.

Obviously, when infrastructure was first put in place, it was not designed for such technologies, and sometimes does not easily lend itself to modification. There are many considerations, such as data broadband solutions and complex connectedness among all of the various valves and pipelines and all the parts of the infrastructure.

Another senior oil company executive pointed out that retrofitting of collaborative work environments, which is relatively easy, has helped many of his company's oldest assets to become more efficient, ultimately leading to better production. But a major stumbling block remains in striking the balance between the short-term cost and the long-term gain.

Clearly if fields are managed with only short-term cost principles in mind, technology such as intelligent energy solutions, create an extra cost burden. Given that these technologies can considerably extend the producing life of a field, it is critical that decision makers look beyond the near-term cost and evaluate more closely the potential for longer-term gain through a sustained solution. The problem is that an asset manager who is looking to control short-term costs sometimes finds it very difficult to agree to putting an intelligent energy solution in place.

The conservative nature of the oil and gas industry is reflected in its wish to implement "proven" technologies, which means there is still an aversion to employing "serial number one." The aversion to implementing new technologies is hampering the ability to maximize producing assets.

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