The North Sea oil and gas industry is at a critical stage in its life-span.
In a similar way that the automotive industry here in the UK was battered by lower cost imports, old technology and methodology in the 1980s, the offshore industry is being battered by a similar perfect storm.
Current installations are nearing or have reached the end of their design life and the quantities of product are lower, the market pricing is lowering and unfortunately operational costs are increasing daily leaving the operators to try and do more with less.
So where does the automotive world have a parallel?
Currently the UK manufactures the top leading mass produced car brands globally; Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Ford, BMW(MINI) and Vauxhall (Opel/GM). And of course the signature premium brands that have seen a renaissance in the last ten years; Jaguar, Land Rover, Bentley, Rolls Royce, to name but a few… So how did the UK go from Austin Allegro to Aston Martin in just a couple of decades? One word: Innovation.
The offshore industry is currently experiencing the pain of a sector that has had little planning for a down turn, a lot of historical exploitation and huge in efficiencies. Through innovation and process improvement the automotive sector improved reliability, quality and longevity, and most importantly cost! To do this the adoption of technology has been the biggest singular change in the manufacturing sector since the Industrial Revolution in the 1760s and the Oil & Gas sector is standing at the start of its own industrial revolution.
Automation, standardized processes, monitoring and data management are all areas that the offshore industry has been dabbling with for a number of years, but technology has marched on, and the data available can give much greater insights into the day to day operations.
We have the capability to reduce maintenance and operations costs through applying predictive asset management systems, de-skilling tasks, providing beech side support with remote secure dial-in access, even to the extent of head-cam, first person, Beachside technical support. This is all currently doable and can have real impact.
With appropriate technology, adopted in the right way, operators can reduce costs through improved productivity and reduced down time and increased safety.
The oil and gas industry is not dead yet and has a lot more to give. But, it needs to change and improve how it does things to make it stronger when the market becomes more buoyant.
Proeon has been working the brown field sector providing innovative engineered solutions for over a decade, and we know that change is hard when tradition has deep roots, but did that stop Nissan building the worlds most advanced and revolutionary car factory in the UK in 1986 when we were all driving Montegos?
Dorian Hindmarsh is business development manager for specialist systems integrator Proeon Systems, working in the energy sector both on and offshore. Hindmarsh's background is in engineering and technology development in both UK and Norwegian regions with automotive and energy applications.
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