Since the Industry is seeking various ways to return to profitability, adopting the digital path has emerged as respite to many organisations. In the current intense scenario, the market is taking an interesting shift which will transform the future of oil and gas industry. Ashish Bhandari, Geo-Market Vice President, India, Baker Hughes, a GE company discusses the future of oil and gas industry through digital transformation and the emerging themes and trends in the Oil and gas industry for upcoming year
OAJ – Could you please tell us more about Baker Hughes, a GE company, and what’s the value-add that it will provide the industry?
Bhandari :India has some of the world’s largest energy projects. The one that I’m most excited about is the development of India’s KG basin by ONGC, Reliance, and others that will involve deepwater and subsea technology deployment on a massive scale. On the downstream side, India is investing heavily in new fertilizer plants and in upgrading refineries to the highest fuel norms (BS VI). There are numerous exciting developments currently underway where BHGE’s advanced technologies, including digital, play a major role in one form or another. In 2017, Baker Hughes and GE’s oil and gas business successfully combined to form Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE), which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The GE’s technology expertise compliments the capabilities of Baker Hughes in oilfield services and thus BHGE is able to provide best-in-class physical and digital technology solutions to drive customer productivity. We are a “Fullstream” company and that’s because we are the first and only company to bring together industry-leading equipment, services and digital solutions across the entire spectrum – from upstream, to midstream, to downstream. The company brings over 125 years of experienced talent in the industry with a mindset of continuous improvement to serve customers in over 120 countries.OAJ -As the industry seeks ways to return to profitability, digital is emerging as part of the answer, could you please share your opinion?
Bhandari : We believe that digital industrial transformation is a real and tangible opportunity to achieve unprecedented levels of operational efficiency, productivity and asset optimization for the oil and gas sector. It covers the entire value chain, and the value-add that our partners and customers can derive out of it is tremendous.
During one of the industry Annual Meetings which BHGE hosts in Florence, I recall Bob Dudley, BP CEO, referring Digital as one of the two critical drivers of industry transformation whereas developing closer co-operative atmosphere between operators and service providers is the second driver which will transform the industry.
I agree that getting digital right will be a key part of the industry’s return to profitability.
OAJ -According to you, how will digital transform the upstream oil ecosystem?
Bhandari : India has some of the world’s largest energy projects. The one that I’m most excited about is the development of India’s KG basin by ONGC, Reliance, and others that will involve deepwater and subsea technology deployment on a massive scale. On the downstream side, India is investing heavily in new fertilizer plants and in upgrading refineries to the highest fuel norms (BS VI). There are numerous exciting developments currently underway where BHGE’s advanced technologies, including digital, play a major role in one form or another.The criticality and the distributed nature of assets in the upstream industry make it naturally suitable for digital transformation. The Oil and Gas industry has always been a leader in adopting new technologies making it one of the early adopters of the IT revolution a couple of decades ago. The current transformation will bring in the convergence of IT and OT. The solutions around asset health monitoring, plant reliability management, production optimization, reservoir optimization, cybersecurity, etc. will be the first set of applicators to be deployed.
OAJ -Though digital is paving its way in the industry, we request to address the challenges it is facing in the oil and gas industry?
Bhandari : I enjoy looking at challenges as opportunities. You see, the old relationship between operator and service provider isn’t working anymore. Today, instead of developing solutions in isolation, we need to innovate in close collaboration with our customers. In the current market scenario, partnerships and innovations are key factors to success. Another important aspect is early adoption of technologies and investment in cloud-based solutions, for instance the concern over data loss, while unfounded, does exist.
OAJ -Could you please elaborate on how the Digitalisation will shape the future of Oil and Gas Industry in India?
Bhandari: Digitization is a huge opportunity for India’s Oil and Gas industry. I find that many Indian operators are still behind the curve in their adoption of what iIoT has to offer. These companies can significantly improve profitability by digitization and starting this journey early can see transformative results. India’s strong and competitive software industry is a strong indicator of the talent, infrastructure and supply chain that is already in place to lead in the digital industrial space. It also means that digitization can be done at relatively moderate costs. By adopting a more ‘Digital Industrial’ way of thinking, we will also have a key role to play in advancing the technical skillsets of local talents through iIoT applications.
With the introduction of advanced analytics and software technologies to field and plant assets, it is possible to capture, store and analyse data and draw insights from it to optimize operations, enhance efficiency and productivity, and ultimately improve the profitability and safety of businesses. BHGE can help its partners achieve that.
OAJ -BHGE showcases a strong portfolio of excellence and thus we request you to shed some light on the utilisation of advanced technologies in India’s major projects? Also, how does BHGE’s digital offering enhance production efficiency?
Bhandari : India has some of the world’s largest energy projects. The one that I’m most excited about is the development of India’s KG basin by ONGC, Reliance, and others that will involve deepwater and subsea technology deployment on a massive scale. On the downstream side, India is investing heavily in new fertilizer plants and in upgrading refineries to the highest fuel norms (BS VI). There are numerous exciting developments currently underway where BHGE’s advanced technologies, including digital, play a major role in one form or another.
BHGE’s digital portfolio enhances production efficiency through improved asset optimization. IntelliStream, for example, is upstream enterprise software that focuses on reducing non-productive time and improving production optimization through a single system. By leveraging a foundation of Asset Performance Management (APM) capabilities, this software provides analytic-driven visibility and insights across reservoirs, wells, networks, facilities and people. Which in turn enables organizations with top -line revenue growth insights and cost reduction metrics, the software also tracks and trends the health of oil and gas equipment, production flow and well patterns.
OAJ -While digitalization is a source of positive change, the exponential increase in global information flows have created new risks around data privacy and security, how does BHGE counter such challenges?
Bhandari : Risks do exist and many assets could particularly be vulnerable due to limited deployment of the latest in cybersecurity solutions. Cybersecurity is integral to BHGE’s digital and hardware solutions. Predix, the cloud-based platform for the Industrial Internet for many of BHGE’s digital offerings has been developed with digital security capability at the heart of its deployment. We constantly encourage operators across the value chain to carry out companywide security audits.
OAJ -As the government is pushing more towards sustainability and reducing carbon emission, could you share with us some of GE’s highly advanced technologies that are efficiently contributing towards sustainability?
Bhandari : BHGE operates along the entire spectrum of the energy value chain contributing with its efficiency and reliability towards the sustainability of our natural resources. Along with a large renewables energy portfolio, GE works in smart grid and efficient power transmission. Within oil and gas, we provide some of the highest efficiency turbomachinery and equipment for gas compression and distribution that also meet and exceed the most stringent efficiency norms. Our Digital Industrial solutions work towards providing greater energy efficiency through asset optimization which helps lower our overall carbon footprint.
OAJ -May we request you to highlight Emerging themes and trends in the Oil and gas industry for upcoming year?
Bhandari : Currently, an interesting atmosphere is developing in the industry that has created curiosity amongst the organisations. The increase in oil prices offer hope, yet the scars from previous years still persist. The projects are taking off but under intense cost control, with Enhanced Oil Recovery and production optimization being the key priorities. We also see a rise of more projects which require an Integrated Operations (IO) approach. Through IO, the operator is seeing greater value partnering with a single source provider across product lines of the same segment, an approach we are able to apply across our Fullstream lens. Many projects also have significant risk/reward for delivering a specific production target. ONGC’s 98/2 integrated Sub Sea Production System (SPS) and Subsea Umbilical Riser and Flow (SURF) project and Cairn’s multiple integrated tenders are good examples of this trend.
OAJ -According to you, what is the future gateway for growth and innovation in the Indian oil and gas industry?
Bhandari : India’s escalating energy demand combined with a relatively low, historically speaking, innovation of the domestic upstream industry creates a great opportunity for growth. The Government policies are helping in this regard. Policy changes including market price for deepwater gas, DSF rounds, CBM policy, etc. are creating incentives to increase production. The new OALP offers the opportunity for new exploration by global players in coming years. These policy changes are bringing significant new technology to India. For example, critical subsea technologies are coming to India’s KG basin in a big way and the CBM players are actively working on a shale industry style batch drilling model. Enhanced oil production from depleting reservoirs is another area where innovation is imminent. Cairn is actively deploying polymer flooding and considering cutting edge ASP technologies. ONGC’s production enhancement tenders will also bring new growth and new EUR technologies to India. Most Indian operators are also considering digital technologies in a big way. State owned companies should actively consider company – wide platforms and applications for digital.
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