Oil and Gas Industry: Integrated Operations
The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting, usually by oil tankers and pipelines, and marketing products. Here, the “integrated operations” (IO) refers to new work processes and ways of performing oil and gas exploration and production, which has been facilitated by new information and communication technology (ICT), often used as an extended synonym for information technology (IT), but is usually a more general term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), computers, middleware as well as necessary software, storage- and audio-visual systems, which enable users to create, access, store, transmit, and manipulate information.
Multi-discipline collaboration in plant operation is one example. IO has in a sense also taken the form of a movement for renewal of the oil and gas industry. In short, IO is collaboration with production in focus.
The most striking part of IO has been the use of always-on videoconference rooms between offshore platforms and land-based offices. This includes broadband connections for sharing of data and video-surveillance of the platform. This has made it possible to move some personnel onshore and use the existing human resources more efficiently. Instead of having e.g. an expert in geology on duty at every platform, the expert may be stationed on land and be available for consultation for several offshore platforms. It’s also possible for a team at an office in a different time zone to be consulting the night-shift of the platform, so that no land-based workers need work at night.
Common to most companies is that IO leads to cost savings as fewer people are stationed offshore and an increased efficiency. Lower costs, more efficient reservoir management and fewer mistakes during well drilling will in turn raise profits and make more oil fields economically viable. IO comes at a time when the oil industry is faced with more “brown fields,” also referred to as “tail production,” where the cost of extracting the oil will be higher than its market value, unless major improvements in technology and work processes are made. It has been estimated that deployment of IO could produce 300 billion NOK of added value to the Norwegian continental shelf alone. On a longer time-scale, working onshore control and monitoring of the oil production may become a necessity as new fields at deeper waters are based purely on unmanned sub-sea facilities.
The security aspect of reducing the offshore workforce has been raised. Will on-site experience be lost and can familiarity with the platform and its processes be obtained from an onshore office? The new working environment in any case demands changes to HSE routines. Some of the challenges also include clear role and responsibility definitions and clarifications between the onshore & offshore personnel. Who in a given situation has the authority to take decisions, the on site or the offshore staff. The increased integration of the offshore facilities with the onshore office environment and outside collaborators also expose work-critical ICT-infrastructure to the internet and the hazards of everyday ICT. As for the efficiency aspect, some criticize the onshore-offshore collaboration for creating a more bureaucratic working environment.
Signal of Satellite 