Woodside Energy Ltd: pioneer in cognitive computing, artificial intelligence and robotics

2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 523
Author(s):  
Russell Potapinski
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Computing System ◽  
Disruptive Technology ◽  
Cognitive Computing ◽  
Capital Projects ◽  
Legal Advice ◽  
Well Design ◽  
And Robotics

Cognitive computing is a new disruptive technology with the potential to reshape the oil and gas industry across the entire value chain. For Woodside Energy Ltd (Woodside), embracing this technology is an opportunity to save time, drive efficiency and reduce costs. In 2015, Woodside collaborated with IBM and deployed a cognitive computing system (IBM’s Watson) into its business. The system focuses on capturing the vast proprietary database of knowledge on Woodside’s major capital projects. Today, the Watson proof-of-concept has been successfully deployed by the science function into the business and is now under the care of the projects function. Moreover, it is undergoing continuous advances through further machine learning, additional ingestion of documentation and features linking the cognitive computer system with existing subject matter experts. Given the success of the first pilot program, Woodside is continuing to rapidly leverage cognitive technologies in other areas of the business. In mid-2016, Woodside deployed Watson for drilling events using IBM’s Watson Explorer – Advanced Addition. This program identifies and classifies a wide variety of geological drilling events allowing Woodside’s geoscience team to provide more timely and accurate assessment of potential risks for well design. Woodside continues to develop several other business solutions using these platforms in areas as diverse as continuous improvement, business management, maintenance campaigns, legal advice, general management and robotics. This presentation shares Woodside’s lessons and insights derived from its journey across multiple forms of cognitive technology and provides insights as to the state-of-the-art and adaptation of these systems to achieve specific goals.

Agile framework for capital projects

2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (2) ◽  
pp. 422
Author(s):  
Polly Mahapatra ◽  
Paris Shahriari
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Quick Response ◽  
Capital Projects ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Response To Change ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Early Phases ◽  
The Ideal

Under the increased pressure of rapidly changing market conditions and disrupting technologies, continuous improvements in efficiency become indispensable for all oil and gas operators. Traditional project management principles in the oil and gas industry employ rigid methods of planning and execution that can sometimes hinder adaptability and a quick response to change. Considering the potential that Agile principles can offer as a solution, the challenge, therefore, is to identify the ideal, hybrid, approach that leverages Agile while incorporating the traditional linear workflow necessitated by the oil and gas industry. This paper seeks to assess pre-existing literature in the application of the Agile principles in the oil and gas industry with a focus on Major Capital Projects (MCPs), backed by the successes experienced as a result of specific pilot projects completed at Chevron’s Australian Business Unit. In particular, this paper will focus on how agility has resulted in improvements to the cost, schedule, teaming and cohesion of MCPs in the early phases as well as key learnings form the pilot agility projects.

Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in the Oil Industry: Will it Take My Job?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armstrong Lee Agbaji
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Oil Industry ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Human Robot Interaction ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Deep Dive ◽  
The Future ◽  
And Robotics

Abstract Historically, the oil and gas industry has been slow and extremely cautious to adopt emerging technologies. But in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the industry has broken from tradition. It has not only embraced AI; it is leading the pack. AI has not only changed what it now means to work in the oil industry, it has changed how companies create, capture, and deliver value. Thanks, or no thanks to automation, traditional oil industry skills and talents are now being threatened, and in most cases, rendered obsolete. Oil and gas industry day-to-day work is progressively gravitating towards software and algorithms, and today’s workers are resigning themselves to the fact that computers and robots will one day "take over" and do much of their work. The adoption of AI and how it might affect career prospects is currently causing a lot of anxiety among industry professionals. This paper details how artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics has redefined what it now means to work in the oil industry, as well as the new challenges and responsibilities that the AI revolution presents. It takes a deep-dive into human-robot interaction, and underscores what AI can, and cannot do. It also identifies several traditional oilfield positions that have become endangered by automation, addresses the premonitions of professionals in these endangered roles, and lays out a roadmap on how to survive and thrive in a digitally transformed world. The future of work is evolving, and new technologies are changing how talent is acquired, developed, and retained. That robots will someday "take our jobs" is not an impossible possibility. It is more of a reality than an exaggeration. Automation in the oil industry has achieved outcomes that go beyond human capabilities. In fact, the odds are overwhelming that AI that functions at a comparable level to humans will soon become ubiquitous in the industry. The big question is: How long will it take? The oil industry of the future will not need large office complexes or a large workforce. Most of the work will be automated. Drilling rigs, production platforms, refineries, and petrochemical plants will not go away, but how work is done at these locations will be totally different. While the industry will never entirely lose its human touch, AI will be the foundation of the workforce of the future. How we react to the AI revolution today will shape the industry for generations to come. What should we do when AI changes our job functions and workforce? Should we be training AI, or should we be training humans?

scholarly journals An empirical study of oil and gas value chain agility in the UAE

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (9) ◽  
pp. 3541-3569 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ala Shqairat ◽  
Balan Sundarakani
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
United Arab Emirates ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Value Chains ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Moderate Effect ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the agility of oil and gas value chains in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and to understand the impact of implementing supply disruption (SD) strategies, outsourcing strategies (OS) and management strategies (MS) on oil and gas value chain agility (VCA). The results can support the oil and gas industry across the UAE to build resilience in the value chain. Design/methodology/approach The research design consists of a comprehensive literature review, followed by questionnaire-based survey responses of 106 participants and comprehensive statistical analysis, thus validate the developed theoretical framework and contribute to both practical and methodological approaches. Findings The findings indicate that oil and gas value chain in the UAE has moderate a significant degree of SD, when OS in place that are synchronized with the overall MS. Among the hypotheses developed, two were accepted thus warranting both SD strategies (r=+0.432) and MS (r= +0.457) found to have a positive moderate effect on VCA. The third hypothesis was rejected by revealing OS (r=+0.387) found to have a positive moderate relationship with VCA. Therefore, implementation of all three strategies has a positive moderate effect on the agility of the value chain and, therefore, supports to sustain competitive position. Research limitations/implications Some of the limitations of this research include the geographic coverage of the study region and other methodological limitation. Practical implications The research provides guidance for oil and gas supply chain managers to better understand the critical factors that impact and determine VCA. The paper also describes relevant strategies that should be taken into consideration by these managers in order to build their agile value chains. Social implications The research contributes to the social dimensions of supply chain sustainability of how resilient is the oil and gas value chain during uncertain conditions, so that it can respond to uncertain changes in order to contribute to corporate social responsibility. Originality/value This research is the first of its kind in the UAE region to assess the link between dimensions of agile value chain, OS, SD strategies and MS primarily from the Emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Ready to collaborate? Operator and supply chain under the spotlight

2017 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 498
Author(s):  
Mike Lynn ◽  
Alan Samuel
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Commodity Price ◽  
Capital Projects ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
New Ways Of Working ◽  
Service Companies ◽  
The North ◽  
The North Sea ◽  
The Uk

In the last 12 months or so, particularly with the drop in oil price, there’s been a lot of speculation about the future of the Australian oil and gas industry. Strenuous efforts are being made to bring down costs, reduce complexity and expedite the completion of major capital projects. Yet with the commodity price looking likely to be subdued for some time, serious questions persist. How can we sustain activity in Australia, secure the investment needed to continue exploration and appraisal drilling, for the next wave of projects? In looking for answers to these challenges, collaboration is a theme that comes up time and time again. But what does it actually mean? What does it look like in practice? Who does it well and how? And which companies are reaping the rewards of great collaboration? To fill this knowledge gap we are launching a survey which will look at many aspects of collaboration in the Australia and compare this with the results of similar surveys conducted in the UK. We will be looking to survey both operators and service companies working in the Australia and find out: What does collaboration mean? What constitutes effective collaboration? How do companies view themselves and each other as collaborators? How does collaboration in Australia compare with companies in the North Sea? We hope a better understanding of collaboration could help companies in Australia continue to improve productivity and efficiency, adopt new ways of working, and truly make the most of Australia’s abundant resources.

Integrating Cloud in Engineering, Procurement and Construction Contract

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 893-901
Author(s):  
Naqiyatul Amirah Mohd Said ◽  
Nur Emma Mustaffa ◽  
Hamizah Liyana Tajul Ariffin
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Computing ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Technical Aspect ◽  
Financial Risks ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Oil And Gas Companies

Engineering, Procurement, and Construction Contract is a project delivery method in the oil and gas industry. However, the complexity of Engineering, Procurement and Construction projects inevitably leads to issues of project management, risk and technical to occur. Therefore, oil and gas players demand a course of action in minimizing the issues arise in this project. Digitalization in the oil and gas trade indeed offers benefits in the upstream value chain of exploration, development, and production, which Engineering, Procurement and Construction projects take place. Oil and gas companies had been focusing too much on digitizing technical work until the non-technical aspect has been abandoned. Therefore, this study presents and discusses the issues in Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract specifically in the Malaysian oil and gas industry. This is a descriptive study and the methodology used is essentially based on the review of the literature in relation to Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract and the findings of a pilot study in relation to Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract and cloud computing. The analysis revealed that the characteristics of cloud computing in relation to the adoption of Engineering, Procurement and Construction contract helps in empowering collaboration among stakeholders, allow oil and gas companies work highly automated, improve the performance of upstream oil and gas industry, improve speed and minimize financial risks, delayed in schedule as well as improving the quality of the project.

scholarly journals Critical strategic analysis forecast of the oil and gas business unit of General Electric Company: A conceptual review

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Adeyemi Z. Oshilalu ◽  
◽  
Yolandie C. Baldie ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Strategic Analysis ◽  
Value Chain Analysis ◽  
General Electric ◽  
General Electric Company ◽  
Electric Company ◽  
Business Units ◽  
Market Focus

The General Electric Company (GE) is considerably assessed as one of the world’s most successful corporations in the 20th Century. GE is a huge multinational conglomerate with one of the most highly innovative business units/divisions in the world. Due to the vast majority of GE’s products and services, a critical strategic analysis forecast of one of the conglomerate’s eight business units – Oil and Gas is presented for a conceptual review. The paper details how these Strategic Business Units (SBUs) explored the efficiency and market focus of their business portfolio through diversification, innovation, and acquisition. Resource allocation and value chain analysis of the SBU was conducted to determine the certainty of the company’s competitive edge. The portfolio of the SBU; oilfield services, oilfield equipment, turbomachinery, and process & digital solutions were reviewed using the Boston consulting group (BCG) matrix while the Ansoff matrix was employed to analyze and predict the company for sustainable future growth and divestment. In 2017, the synergy between these SBU and Baker Hughes to deliver a full-stream integrated oilfield portfolio revealed a strong and enhanced competitive advantage of the SBU across the global oil and gas industry, however, the analysis of the company shows that the SBU still experiences underperformance in the stock market.

scholarly journals Corporate Environmental Disclosures of Oil and Gas Companies in India: An Analysis of Executives’ Perceptions

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 861-879
Author(s):  
Kishore Kanti Majumdar ◽  
Shuchi Pahuja
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Environmental Indicators ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Sustainability Disclosure ◽  
Environmental Disclosures ◽  
Oil And Gas Companies

Environmental and sustainability issues have assumed significance, leading to social and legal pressures on the companies across the world to take steps to reduce and prevent adverse impact of their activities on the environment and to disclose this information to the concerned stakeholders. The present study aims at investigating the perceptions of executives from 26 listed Indian oil and gas companies on Corporate Environment Disclosures (CEDs)in the annual reports using a structured questionnaire.The questionnaire was constructed on the basis of eleven environmental indicators provided in international oil and gas industry guidelines for voluntary sustainability reporting framework. An attempt was made to determine whether the extent and type of environmental disclosures have correlation with executives’ position in the organization, their knowledge about the annual reports, their stock holdings in the company and the value stream to which the companies belonged. It was found thatthe responding executives were well aware of the environmental issues associated with activities across the value chain in the oil and gas industry. They agreed that these issues are material and must be disclosed in the annual reports, but had different perceptions on the importance of four environmental issues given in the questionnaire for disclosure in the reports. A significant statistical relationship was found between perceived corporate environmental disclosure index (PCEDI) and respondents’ positions in the company and their knowledge on the annual reports. It is suggested that a greater role to knowledgeable senior executives at key positions should be assigned to deal with sustainability disclosure affairs.

Digital transformation of the oil, gas and energy value chain

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Taliangis
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Predictive Analytics ◽  
Data Access ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Digital Transformation ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Energy Value ◽  
Oil Gas

This paper looks back at 2014–2017 as a period of extraordinary transition of the international and Australian oil and gas industry, with mounting evidence that the industry and broader energy value chain is entering an era of unprecedented digital transformation. This process is expected to accelerate through 2018–2025, with profound implications for industry stakeholders. The key question is: are organisations and the industry more broadly doing enough, well enough, fast enough? Emerging from the lows of a pronounced industry recession, and subsequent and ongoing consolidation, there is now growing, broad-based acceptance that the industry needs to engage new business models that leverage modern digital technology to reform productivity and broader industry performance. However, the harsh reality is that other industries are delivering superior results, faster, which is driving a need for an elevated and sustainable strategic response. This paper seeks to illustrate the digital links that must be established along the full value chain between data access and management, predictive analytics, visualisation, team collaboration and communication technology. The digital links are enabled by internet connectivity and cloud-based infrastructure, which presents an opportunity for organisations of all sizes to realise benefits along the complete chain. This paper is structured in four parts: • The strategic context – what is driving the need to engage in digital transformation? • The digital transformation value proposition – what value can be achieved? • Case studies – what are examples of digital transformation? • Key learnings – what should we note from thousands of global digital initiatives underway along the energy oil, gas and energy value chain? The main takeaways from this study are: • There is an unprecedented opportunity to transform the oil and gas value chain to deliver new growth and improved productivity, linking real-time data, predictive analytics, interactive visualisation and collaboration. • Digital transformation is affordable, readily implemented and scalable to meet current and changing future needs. • There are many powerful examples of material value add across exploration, development, operations and business management. • Many organisations and the industry as a whole is lagging others – the industry is not doing enough, well enough, fast enough. • The time to act/accelerate is now. • Digital transformation is not about technology alone. Keys to success include vision, leadership, culture and data quality.

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