Why reenvision how oil and gas people connect?

It’s pretty standard now…

Everyday there is an announcement about a new technical advancement in the industry with IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things), machine learning or AI (Artificial Intelligence).

Biggest collaboration mentions:

• Chevron’s agreement with Microsoft for a 7-year partnership for use of their cloud technology as part of Chevron’s overall digitization initiative.
• ExxonMobil’s agreement with Microsoft for the use of Dynamics 365, Azure, Machine Learning and IoT to increase capacity in the Permian.
• Total and Google agreed to jointly develop AI solutions for subsurface data analysis,
• Schlumberger and Google collaborating on the DELFI cognitive E&P environment and the deployment of an E&P Lake based on Google’s cloud.
• ExxonMobil’s partnership with MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) to develop self-learning robots for ocean exploration.
• GE Digital have developed the “Predix” digital platform which can be used to produce “Digital Twins”, software representation of physical assets.

Google announced that they will no longer build custom artificial intelligence tools for speeding up oil and gas extraction. Although I don’t have inside information about how this plays out with their current agreements with Schlumberger or Total, I am sure it raised a few eyebrows with the amount of money that these two oil and gas majors have invested in their solutions.

I imagine it’s a phase down over the course of the project and they won’t offer any technical support after the partnership has expired although oil and gas has the technical brilliance to take care of it’s needs where Tech left off.  It’s just a reminder that big tech may not support oil and gas going into the future. This thought includes the Chevron and Microsoft partnerships. We may see changes coming in the future for all big tech companies as their investors answer to activist pressure.

But this was not the focus of the article.  The focus of the article was to only highlight the companies moving their assets into the future, getting better results, quicker responses and ultimately more revenue, if there is such a thing these days with our current world crisis.

The main focus that I want to highlight is the adaptation of technology for everything to do with upstream, midstream and downstream except the networking of people.

I can remember the words from many CEO’s and Managers of years gone by that “people are our most important asset”. I have to ask all of my peers out there what tools have we introduced in the last ten years to enable better communication, teambuilding or networking? Outside of the same web enabled forums, chat rooms, job bulletin boards, not much has changed for us. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong. I am not talking about Facebook and LinkedIn, I am talking about a networking solution for the oil and gas industry.

We are a digitally connected society that has the ability to reach around the world in a touch of a button. We can turn on our coffee makers as we are being dropped off by our Ubers on the way in from the airport. Alexa is now watching over our home while we are away, Google will keep our kids entertained for hours on end by answering as many questions as they can ask. We can contact anyone we want, at any time we want by using the same big tech companies that are now saying they may no longer support us going into the future.

We have given our teams state of the art simulators to train with, learn from and take onto the deck with them. This enables them to train in a real-life environment without the possibility of damaging equipment or hurting someone.  Companies are investing money into AR/VR (Augmented and Virtual Reality) programs to enable operators to learn faster and to help fix equipment by allowing the operator to access years worth of knowledge at the touch of a button.

Every day I see something new announced about machine learning. Millions invested into the next advancement of our rig designs.

Reenvisioning how our people connect with others is a mystery to me when most of them are still getting push notifications for jobs that matched their profile from ten years ago, even though their profile is up to date. It all comes down to that same old phrase we have heard warmed over many times, “That’s how we have always done it”.

My question was the same as it was a few sentences back, what have we done as an “Industry” to facilitate growth, contact, communication and networking with our intelligent workforce?

Times are changing…

We are building a mobile network to facilitate this growth, enable connections in our industry right in the palm of your hand, scalable like big tech without the need for the big tech name, and we are doing it on our own.

Come see what we are doing today, we would love to connect with you!

Greg

Greg Williams has been in the oil and gas industry for 25 years, currently a Rig Manager, an Author and the founder of Rig Lynx, a digital media company where he works with bridging communication gaps, connecting people every day and creating killer content for clients around the world.

You can contact Greg for any other information about this article or just to have a chat by downloading Rig Lynx on your iOS or Android device and connecting with him today!