'No utes' - eliminating oil and gas field forces using digital applications

Oil and Gas players across the industry continue to squeeze out costs in response to falling prices. PIP has helped Oil and Gas clients leverage digital tools and apps to capture significant, previously untapped cost savings.

Field forces supporting well operations and maintenance activities (well inspections, adjustments, routine maintenance and de-bogging) can be large and costly. Digital apps are now available to eliminate the need for most field trips.

• Trips made to inspect remote wells and adjust settings can be replaced by remote monitoring – well-mounted sensors report well parameters and drone-mounted sensors report environmental changes.
• Trips to perform simple routine maintenance or more complex repairs can be minimised by deploying schedule optimisation software. Condition based maintenance, real-time predictive data analytics and machine learning improve the effectiveness of routine maintenance over time.
• Traditional field force optimisation techniques can further minimise remaining trips, e.g. daily performance management to enable supervisors to drive productivity and task readiness tracker mobile apps which help ensure operators have tools, spares and permits for the job.

Innovative leaders are already leveraging digital solutions to reduce field forces in oil and gas production, electricity distribution and telecommunications infrastructure – but not all groups are seeing value. PIP is often approached by industry-leading clients who, despite best efforts, are not seeing the value.

• PIP has helped clients get full value by first piloting priority solutions to evaluate the impact on resourcing profiles, skills and critical wiring (clear role descriptions, accountabilities and KPIs, standard operating instructions and support tools, establish reporting cycles from top to front-line).
• When the pilot is complete, we support the transition to a smaller, more efficient team. We help clients hardwire to ensure savings are sustainable - deploying wiring and provide supervisor coaching to ensure teams are held to account.

This application of digital tools is also applicable across electricity and telecommunications industries

Drone based remote maintenance inspections will eliminate electricity and telecommunications field forces. Mounted LiDAR (Light – RADAR), hyperspectral, images, video, thermal and UV sensors inspect poles, conductors, isolators & transformers, hot spots and coronas. Automated data analysis identifies and prioritises asset faults and vegetation growth risks and software generates maintenance plans optimised for infrastructure performance and costs.