Robotics and AI in Oil & Gas

The oil and gas industry is looking to shake off the 2020 shock and adapt to the new realities of a post-COVID world where remote working is no longer considered the exception.

The energy industry had been slower than other sectors to adopt new technologies and branches of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in recent years. Yet, even before the pandemic upended the plans of each and every oil and gas company in the world, the sector had started to embrace digitalisation, robotics, and increased use of various AI technologies to make operations more efficient, lower costs, and protect employees’ health and lives.

The impact of the coronavirus on the oil and gas industry is only speeding the use of remotely operated robots for inspection and maintenance and the use of drones in detection of leaks. Moreover, AI, machine learning (ML), and advanced analytics additionally help companies make better decisions how and where to drill for resources, how to reduce costs and streamline operations, and how to boost safety using predictive analytics.

Oil and gas executives are increasingly aware that in today’s and future world, the industry will be relevant not only with net-zero emission pledges, to which many of the biggest European majors have committed in recent months, but also with adopting advanced technologies to improve performance and reduce costs.

Oil & Gas Embraces Technology

A growing number of companies are using Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) with connected sensors and devices, digital oilfields, and digital twin technologies to remotely monitor, and even operate, their physical assets. Robots are helping workers on offshore oil and gas platforms, performing tasks that could be risky for people.

Last year, robots, advanced technology, and remote monitoring turned out to be very useful for the oil and gas industry when most of the world started working from home. With large physical assets, often in harsh-environment conditions, oil and gas companies appreciated the ability to be able to perform some of the tasks remotely via smart sensors, robots, and drones.

The adoption of technology is set to grow in coming years and give early adopters advantage over others, analysts say.

Cloud computing adoption could give the industry advantage with greater operational efficiency, data and analytics company GlobalData said in a report in 2020. The company has identified bp, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, and Total as some of the leaders in cloud computing adoption in the oil and gas industry.

“Cloud adopters will be better placed to swiftly implement new time, energy and cost saving technologies that will help oil and gas companies adapt to the changing industry,” said Ella Benson Easton, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData.

According to GlobalData, cloud computing will facilitate the adoption of other valuable time, money, and energy saving technologies, including AI and ML in the oil and gas industry.

AI Set To Be the Most Disruptive Technology

AI was rated as the most important technology in GlobalData’s Emerging Technology: Sentiment Analysis Q4 2020 survey. Predictive maintenance, seismic reservoir recognition, asset management, risk and leak detection will all benefit from various AI uses, survey respondents said.

The oil and gas sector may be, as a whole, a late adopter of AI, but it has been increasing investment in the most advanced AI technologies, GlobalData Energy notes. According to GlobalData’s patents database, the number of yearly AI patents in the oil and gas industry doubled in just five years—to 119 last year from 61 back in 2015.

“Companies that invested early are already enjoying decreased costs and improved efficiency. They can use the capital made available by these improvements to get even further ahead of their competition. Companies who are yet to invest must do so soon or risk obsolescence,” GlobalData says.

AI is optimising and securing energy assets and IT networks, an MIT Technology Review Insights report, sponsored by Siemens Energy, showed in January 2021.

“Advancements in digital applications in industrial operating environments are helping improve efficiency and security, detecting machine-speed attacks amidst the complexity of the rapidly digitalising operating environments,” says the report ‘Transforming the energy industry with AI’, which was based on interviews with IT and cybersecurity leaders at oil and gas companies worldwide and was conducted in September and October 2020.

Robotics and AI Use in Oil & Gas Industry

Many companies in the oil and gas sector are already using robotics, drones, remote inspection, and AI to enhance safety and security, lower costs, and optimise operations.

A part of bp’s net-zero ambition will revolve around digital transformation and innovation, for example. bp uses Boston Dynamics’ robot dog Spot for inspection of remote facilities, improving employee safety by keeping people away from potentially hazardous work environments.

“High-pressure oil and gas can create risks for people working in close proximity. If we could have a robot with the proper sensors out there, we’d much rather do that,” Adam Ballard, Facilities Technology Manager at bp, says in a feature about Spot on Boston Dynamics’ website.

Royal Dutch Shell is using drones for methane detection to enhance its existing methane leak detection and repair program in the Permian Basin in the United States. Shell reached in July 2020 an agreement with Avitas, a Baker Hughes venture, to expand the use of drones to strengthen its methane leak detection and repair (LDAR) program in the most prolific US shale basin.

Shell also contracted in 2020 Cyberhawk, the creator of iHawk, a cloud-based asset visualisation software, for a five-year contract, under which iHawk will become Shell’s next-generation visualisation software platform for all onshore, offshore and subsea assets, as well as all global construction projects.

In August 2020, Equinor said it had completed the world’s first logistics operation with a drone to an offshore installation. A drone flew a 3D-printed part for the lifeboat system from the Mongstad base to the Troll A platform in the North Sea.

“Drones could reinforce safety, boost production efficiency and contribute to lower CO2 emissions from Norwegian oil and gas. Drones will also play a role as we shape new energy solutions on the Norwegian shelf,” says Arne Sigve Nylund, Equinor’s executive vice president for Development and Production Norway.

Also last August, Fugro said it had delivered the first fully remote inspection of an oil and gas platform in UK waters, 250 kilometres east of Scotland, using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) and Fugro’s remote operations centre (ROC) in Aberdeen. In a first for the UK sector, the platform’s entire jacket structure was inspected remotely, Fugro says.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), which has invested in technologies and AI in recent years, said in November 2020 it had completed the first phase of its large-scale multi-year predictive maintenance project to maximise asset efficiency and integrity across its upstream and downstream operations. The predictive maintenance project uses AI technologies such as machine learning and digital twins to deliver maintenance savings of up to 20%, ADNOC says.

Most recently, bp said in February 2021 it had successfully completed an autonomous vehicle trial at its Lingen refinery in Germany. bp was working with autonomous vehicle software developer Oxbotica in the trial, which was a world-first in the energy sector and the latest addition to the bp ventures technology portfolio.

Following the success of the trial, bp targets to progress to deploying its first autonomous vehicle for monitoring operations at the refinery by the end of the year.

“This relationship is an important example of how bp is leveraging automation and digital technology that we believe can improve safety, increase efficiency and decrease carbon emissions in support of our net zero ambition,” said Morag Watson, SVP digital science and engineering at bp.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE.