Digitisation is key to future-proofing the oil and gas industry and realising sustainability goals, say Alaa Elshimy, managing director and senior vice president of Enterprise Business Group, Huawei Middle East, and Lv Gongxun, senior consultant, Global Energy Business Unit of Enterprise BG, Huawei; former vice president, PetroChina, CNPC
Global dual-carbon goals are bringing about change not only in energy but also in the economic structure of energy-producing nations. They are driving changes in production technologies and lifestyles. They are also having a profound impact on the oil and gas industry and are bound to trigger structural reforms on both supply and demand, propelling the industry's transformation and development.
According to the BP Energy Outlook 2020, global demand for primary energy will only continue to grow, and oil and gas will remain the primary energy source until 2035. Although the share of oil and gas consumption in all energy sources will decrease after that point, the total volume will remain relatively stable. We are confident about the future of the oil and gas industry.
Addressing the challenges
At the same time, we should be aware that oil and gas companies still face significant challenges. First, in the context of the dual carbon goals, companies need to produce more energy at lower costs while reducing carbon emissions. Second, oil and gas exploration targets are becoming increasingly difficult to achieve with proven resources often falling short. Third, newly discovered oil and gas reserves are difficult to produce, which requires advanced exploitation technology. Fourth, in the medium and long term, the global oil and gas supply is already relatively sufficient, which means the low and median oil prices will remain.
Digital transformation is inevitable if the industry is to address these challenges efficiently and sustainably. Realising such change brings significant opportunities to oil and gas companies. Digital transformation can drive the reconstruction of business and management models and can facilitate the innovation of new models entirely. Ultimately, digitisation can help oil and gas companies evolve and increase value.
The oil and gas industry needs to further integrate digital technologies and fully realise its digital transformation goals to boost reserves and production, improve quality and efficiency, and reduce carbon emissions.
The industry has several requirements to enable this transition. Transformation necessitates a full-stack cloud platform, which can help energy companies migrate key business processes to the cloud and gain intelligence. Effective data governance is also needed. Data generated by the industry is high in volume and complexity. Therefore, a unified data lake is indispensable to support data sharing and smart Big Data analysis.
Furthermore, digital transformation requires a device-edge-cloud intelligent production system, where production data is collected from devices, and intelligent management and control of production is implemented on the cloud. Finally, strong service assurance is essential to achieve digital transformation. It is paramount to have a professional service team that understands both the industry and digitalisation to realise these objectives.
The digital and intelligent development of the global oil and gas industry is still in its infancy. The key fields being explored in the industry include smart exploration, smart oil and gas fields, smart pipe networks, Smart Refining and Chemicals, and smart sales.
Huawei at ADIPEC
Huawei will host the Global Oil & Gas summit at ADIPEC 2021 under the theme of "Drive Data to Barrel, Embrace Intelligence to Grow", where they will share the best practices for global leadership in digital transformation. Huawei will demonstrate how they plan to support oil and gas companies' digital transformation strategies and integrate digital technologies into core oil and gas business processes. In detail, Huawei will share the ins and outs of migrating oil and gas to the cloud, AI in E&P, computing power increase reserves and production solutions, digital and intelligent oil and gas fields, and more.
Oil and gas companies and Huawei share a common dream: to bring digital to the energy sector and build intelligent energy with all things connected.
To learn more about Huawei's solutions for the oil and gas industry, check out Huawei's Global Oil & Gas summit at ADIPEC, Abu Dhabi from 15 -18 November. Also at booth No. 3220, Hall 3, ADNEC, Huawei will showcase some of the most significant powerful emerging technologies in the oil & gas industry, sharing innovative new ideas and ways to use digital technologies reimagine energy systems.
Learn more at ADIPEC and Huawei Global Oil & Gas Summit 2021 https://e.huawei.com/topic/2021-event-oil-gas-summit/en/index.html
