Digital Transformation

One cannot speak about today’s Capital Project delivery environment without addressing Digital Transformation and the use of technology. Companies need to recognize the exponential demand for digitization and see this as a key enabler to progress our industry. Recently, at the World Petroleum Congress as well as the Downstream USA Conference, panel discussions were conducted where C-suite representatives from companies such as Shell, Equinor, HPCL Mittal Energy, Halliburton, NIS Gazprom Neft, and Siemens Energy discussed this important topic. Some of the common themes addressed in these sessions were:

  1. Integrate.  The importance of developing a unified strategy is paramount.  Digital strategy needs to support the business strategy and be integrated into overall corporate strategy not defined separately as a Digital Strategy. It also needs to be integrated across the entire value chain.
  2. Collaborate.  Speed is the biggest hurdle, so the need for partnerships and collaboration will be imperative to advance more quickly. Companies will need to look toward other industries that are ahead of the Oil and Gas Industry (e.g., Automotive). Many companies advancing in this area are doing just that -- they have partnered with others outside of their industry. For example, Shell is partnering with Baker Hughes, C3AI, and Microsoft in the Artificial Intelligence area. 
  3. Innovate.  Staying one step ahead is about agility and innovation. Looking for new technologies and the willingness to fail and move on is essential. One company mentioned learning fast then scaling up as their strategy. One example given from Halliburton was Automated Drilling systems which require fewer people on-site, are faster, and make fewer mistakes. Another example from Shell was using AI to predict equipment failure and optimize assets using real-time data (pressure, temperature, and flow rates) citing a 1-2% increase in production each year without additional CapEx investment. This video of Pennsylvania Chemicals’ Digital Journey is an excellent showcase of the implementation of digital solutions.
  4. Data.  This will take the democratization of data; the need to be able to access, manage and mine data. Most likely will involve a culture change within companies as much of the data is closely held, siloed within subgroups or functions. Data needs to be shared openly across our company silos and integrated in order to fully analyze and utilize it effectively.
  5. People.  Skill sets required in the future are different than today. Some companies are hiring more data scientists/engineers and software engineers; some have put together Data Science or Digital Academies to internally train and up-skill their workforce.

There is no doubt since we are now focusing on this important area that working together, we can make great progress in integrating and utilizing the massive amounts of data we have available to us to improve our projects, operations, and overall businesses. 

Although this is not necessarily new, the speed at which digitization is occurring and the impacts on all other areas of project delivery is a differentiator.  In today’s environment, the use of digital technology is not the same across all projects. Each project needs to strategize whether application of this digital approach is warranted for a given project.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stacie Wrobbel
Stacie is a Senior Executive Associate for Pathfinder, LLC and has more than 30 years of experience as a global Project Management expert.
swrobbel@pathfinderinc.com
856-424-7100 x144