The opportunities around implementing intelligent energy (IE) technologies are quite vast and the potential just as significant for the oil and gas industry.
But, commercial and business models are not necessarily aligned to adopting IE, says Helen Gilman, VP within Wipro’s energy, natural resources and utilities consulting practice.
Gilman is presenting a paper, How do we accelerate uptake and fulfill the value potential of intelligent energy?, co-authored by T. Lilleng, Statoil; J. Nordtvedt, Epsis AS; T. Unneland, Chevron Corporation, at SPE Intelligent Energy, a conference and exhibition being held in Aberdeen in September and supported by OE as media partner.
We spoke to her before the event:
What are the main challenges in today’s commercial environment?
Clearly cost management is a major challenge across the industry in 2016. Everyone is looking to reduce costs, increase efficiency and accelerate production.
We believe that IE has a major role to play in helping to transform the way we operate our oil and gas assets, building on the successes of the past but also requiring change in the way we design and implement our IE programs and solutions.
Breaking programs down into smaller projects that can deliver value quickly – in weeks and months rather than years – and securing low-hanging fruit through more widespread adoption of proven solutions are two ways in which we believe IE can help the industry meet challenges both today and into the future.
Bringing all the actors into a closer cross-company collaboration based on shared situational awareness will contribute to a major change in mindset and improved decision efficiency for ongoing operations and in new developments. New ways of working and new operating models including various remote operations solutions can fundamentally improve operational efficiency.
To what degree are new players needed to help roll out IE?
Technology start-up companies represent an excellent infusion of innovation into the oil and gas industry and play an important role in progressing emerging technology to commercial success. However, we don’t believe that the full answer to IE success necessarily lies in new players coming into the industry. Instead, we may be better served by considering how existing and emerging players can work differently together.
Developments in digital and other technologies are delivering opportunities for us to be more integrated in the way we work, but our commercial and business models are not evolving as rapidly as the technology. We need to embrace the changes and consider how we can work differently and more effectively together, to benefit all parties involved. There is a role to play for new players and new technologies, but there is more that the existing players can do differently to deliver acceleration and more value.
Gilman holds a BSc. in Biophysics from the University of Leeds, and a PhD in the same subject from the University of Manchester.
Gilman started her career with Sema Group in the UK, working in the public sector and utilities industry on IT and business consulting projects. In 2000, she moved to the oil and gas industry as part of SAIC’s oil and gas practice, which was acquired by Wipro in 2011. Since 2002 she has been focused on Integrated Operations, and has worked on multiple projects for different oil and gas clients globally, focusing on key areas such as assessment and strategy, collaboration, environment design and implementation, major capital project integration and program management.
Gilman has served on SPE committees including Intelligent Energy events in Dubai and Utrecht, and has spoken at several SPE events on this subject.
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