Real-time data ingestion platform now an LF Energy Project.
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Language! Language!
Fortran, Cobol and SAS, computer languages from the last millennium are still widely used even though they are no longer in favor with students. But old code bases can still be mission-critical. Presentations from U Miami, LANL and SAS suggest how to brush-up the legacy with AI/ML. Cobol underpins banking – but programmers are retiring. ChatGPT OK for numerical methods – so long as it doesn’t ‘hallucinate’.
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Oil industry in decline – what about IT?
Industry is in the doldrums and the next oil boom may never happen. What is an industry accustomed to profligate IT spend do? Focus!
First some important information from Rystad whose research
has found that claims of underinvestment in the global oil and gas
industry are ‘overblown amid efficiency gains’. While upstream
investment has ‘tumbled’ since 2014 (down 35%), efficiencies in the
upstream industry more than compensate. Rystad’s Espen Erlingsen said,
‘Contrary to popular opinion, the world is investing appropriate
amounts of money in fossil fuel production to satisfy demand. Cost
savings mean operators can produce the same amount of oil at a lower
cost, and we don’t foresee an oil supply crisis due to underinvestment
on the immediate horizon’. In other words, don’t hold your breath
waiting for the next oil boom.
Another Rysted report highlights
the other squeeze on the oil and gas industry. Today’s recoverable oil
reserves (1,600 billion barrels) are enough to warm the planet to
1.9°C if consumed by 2100. Conversely, according to Jarand Rystad,
if global warming is to be 1.6°C, only half of the world’s
recoverable reserves would be required. ‘It’s not unreasonable to
conclude that policies and technological advances can reduce oil
consumption and boost the energy transition, bringing us closer to a
1.6°C scenario’.
I guess that this is stating the obvious in that if the world does
get around to electrifying transport and other sectors, then the oil
and gas industry will decline. Of course this is a politically charged
question but whatever your point of view, it is well worth reflecting
on what a declining oil and gas industry will mean, particularly for
its IT sector.
There are two sides to this question. First the argument that IT is
a key enabler of efficiencies and that in a declining industry, more IT
will help keep things going, replacing all those expensive knowledge
workers. The SPE sees ‘digital transformation’ as one of the ‘grand challenges’ the oil and gas industry faces for the next decade. But it’s
almost 20 years since the same SPE kicked off its version of the
digital oilfield meme. The digital efficiency argument has reached a
peak with the advent of ChatGPT (for my opinion of that read my last editorial).
Having heard this kind of efficiency talk ever since we started
tracking the oil and gas IT sector (in 1996) I am more than skeptical.
The move to the cloud continues to be touted as a cost-saving and
efficiency-generating paradigm shift. It is not. The move to the cloud
has channeled earlier outsourcing ventures – like document management –
which look cheap at first – then get uncomfortably expensive as the
service provider leverages its lock-in. CloudZero’s 2022 report found that the cloud spend issue has now ‘surged front and center’, with 73% of respondents saying it’s a C-suite issue.
The IT industry in general has been far too successful in creating a
kind of Brownian motion to keep investment flowing. To date oil and
gas, particularly the majors with their huge cash-generating
capability, have been enthusiastic buyers of everything that IT has to
offer. IT spend, like the carbon footprint of the cloud data centers
(see this edition’s Going Green section), has just continued to rise
and rise.
Such profligacy in a declining industry is, to use a popular word,
unsustainable. On the other hand, the potential for cost savings is
immense. IT spend needs refocusing. There is too much time and money
spent on nebulous IT tropes such as digital transformation. Areas like
the cloud, interoperability or IT/OT convergence need more focus.
Exactly what is meant by these overarching terms, what are folks trying
to achieve? IT needs to cool down, get closer to the business and, as
my Splunk T-shirt says,‘ Planter moins, jardiner plus*’.
* Losely – Quit going to the nursery and get on with some gardening!
IOGP kicks-off Digital Transformation Committee
International Oil & Gas Producers Association addresses ‘digital transformation’ with a multiplicity of committees and workgroups.
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Linux Foundation Energy Summit 2023
Shell joins LF Energy. EU Carbon footprint of ITC and the state of green software in the energy transition. On the ‘agile open source state of mind’. Carbon footprint of ChatGPT. DoE FEMP on ‘catalyzing America’s clean energy industries and jobs’. PowSyBl and the EU grid.
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UK Quangos deliberate on offshore ‘digitalization’
UK Offshore Energy Digital Strategy Group updates report on UKCS data and digital maturity. ‘Progress’ reported on unlocking the potential of digitalization across the oil and gas and renewable energy sectors. Despite multiple calls for ‘collaboration’, data sharing ‘remains a challenge’.
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Software, hardware short takes
Azure Data Manager for Energy. Kubernetes options for ArcGIS Enterprise. Aggreko’s Emissions Calculator. GD1 from Teledyne Gas and Flame Detection. Emerson’s AMS Device Manager Data Server. New Micropilot sensor from Endress+Hauser. Hexagon’s Reality Cloud Studio. Honeywell Forge news. Time-lapse inversion from Ikon Science. Geovariances releases Isatis Python library. New ResInsight from Ceetron. Bystamp Keymo, a digital rubber stamp. Zededa: LF Edge for oil and gas.
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PTN Oil & Gas Automation and Digitization 2023
PTAC on digital tools. Petronas’ enterprise data hub. FlowForma on engineering document management. AAPG on leak detection. Siemens on analyzer reliability. Willowglen on cybersecurity in operations. Technip Energies’s asset information model. Aramco and the 4th Industrial Revolution. GlobaLogix and the business case for new scada. Samp’s shared reality model. Energy metering with Vutility Drop.
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Folks, facts, orgs …
Halliburton, Lloyd’s Register Foundation, AFL, BCCK, Trellis Energy Software, Bentley Systems, Flotek Industries, Society of Exploration Geophysicists, SEG Foundation, Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, Offshore Energies UK, XONA Systems, Asset Guardian Solutions, Black & Veatch, Pipeline Research Council, Oxford Flow, Bluefield Geoservices, Wood Mackenzie, Object Management Group, Information Junction.
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Done deals
360 ELM acquires Astute E&R. Aberdeen Drilling School acquires IAS International. DNV bags Enviroguide and Nixu. Enverus’ ‘momentous’ revenue milestone. ESG acquires Pandell. Resurgens invests in Detechtion. Thermo Fisher acquires MarqMetrix.
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The Sustainability Control Tower
SAP pushes ‘blockchain-based’ ESG credibility. But reporting rules are work in progress and ESG is losing favor with investors. Has ESG been ‘weaponized’?
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Regulatory round-up
IOGP reports on international P&A legislation. NSTA digital platform for mandatory supply chain action plans. UK Energy Technology Platform sees take-up. NSTA relaunches wells operations notifications system. US Energy Information Administration to update National Energy Modeling System. Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission favors use of taxpayer dollars to plug orphan wells. New AI-derived seabed sediment map of the North Sea. Australian Research Data Commons unveils 2030 Geophysics Collections data plans. available. Menon Economics evaluates NPD data
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Going, going … green
Automation Technology’s zero emission actuator. Envana Catalyst for drilling transparency. KBC on GHG mitigation. Seeq for Microsoft Sustainability Manager. Siemens ‘blockchain for clean energy’. TotalEnergies, Colorado State team on methane protocol. TotalEnergies leverages OGMP 2.0 reporting framework. Greenpeace France can proceed with ‘greenwashing’ legal challenge to TotalEnergies. Accenture’s Methane Emissions Monitoring Platform. New Teledyne FLIR G-series leak detectors. SAP study on sustainability performance and reporting. MIT tallies CO2 vs CH4 global warming. SGN and Oxford Flow evaluate hydrogen readiness. Opis: Idle UK/French petrochemical plants receive $127 million of carbon permits.
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Standards stuff …
Eclipse Foundation rolls-out Sparkplug 4.0.0. ISO’s new Industrial Data Ontology to replace ISO 15926 Part 14. Inaugural release from International Sustainability Standards Board. Modelica Version 3.6. EITI updates transparency/governance standard for oil, gas and mining. OAGi moves Industrial Ontologies Foundry to membership model. Open Geospatial Consortium announces API compliance certification, RFIs for Open Science Persistent Demonstrator. PPDM on data accountability and auditability. OMG Systems Modeling Language V2.
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Sales, partnerships, deployments
LOGIC and Restrata VantagePOB. Hess selects Landmark DecisionSpace 365. Landmark iEnergy for Petrobras. Petrobras deploys SLB Delfi. DecisionSpace 365 for Repsol. Halliburton opens Digital Center in Saudi Arabia. AGR and Add Energy combine. DNV and Siemens Energy team on 3D printing QA. Optime subsea wireless for Wintershall Dea. Halliburton teams with Nabors on drilling automation. Ignition Cloud Edition now on AWS marketplace. Yinson deploys Kahuna Skills Management. MFE adds Voliro T Drone to inspection offering. Nvidia partners with Snowflake. Recon gets Sinopec deep shale process control. SLB teams with Enivibes on pipeline monitoring
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PIDX 2023 Spring Conference
eSource on digital trends and Society 5.0! OFS Portal on AS4 and the four corner e-business model. Topl’s permissionless proof-of-stake. Baker Hughes on PIDX adoption. PwC on Upstream G&A. PIDX partners with DocStudio.
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Blockchain, Bitcoin and other nonsense
Bitcoin and blockchain continue to fascinate the oil and gas industry. EnergyFunders on the ‘inevitable intersection between oil, gas and bitcoin. For MIT, jury is out on bitcoin and climate. Everline rolls-out S3 distributed ledger for pipeline ops. US DHS finances Neoflow’s energy blockchain for crude oil. Texas Bitcoin Foundation funds bitcoin mining education program.
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