GE and Royal Dutch Shell are seeing a shift from ‘Operations as an Art’ to ‘Operations as a Science’ both in marine and offshore exploration and production (E&P) sectors.
The terms came out of discussions GE and Shell had with oil and gas industry thought leaders. Operations as an Art is defined as relying on workforce expertise or gut-feeling decision-making in offshore operations. Operations as a Science is decision-making driven by data. The need for greater transparency, predictability and excellence in operational performance is forcing this shift in operational strategy, officials with Shell and GE said. Big Data and digital technologies are enabling the shift from Operations as an Art to Operations as a Science.
Like the marine sector, the offshore E&P sector has been slow to adapt to new ways of operating, Suman Muddusetti, Marine Risk Team Lead Shell Projects and Technology, told Rigzone. In the marine sector, the essentials of ship design have remained unchanged for a number of years. The offshore sector is exposed to relative higher risk and the desire of sticking with the “tried and tested,” has also made the sector slow to change. The fact the marine industry has been regulated by classification societies – a non-government organization that establishes and maintains technical standards for the construction and operation of ships and offshore structures — and regulations usually lag technology development, means change comes slowly compared with less-regulated industries, Tim Schweikert, president and CEO for GE’s Marine Solutions, told Rigzone. In less regulated industries, things move more quickly.
The lack of transparency in the offshore E&P world also is due to the tradition of allowing field decisions to be made by people in the field, in part driven by the past when communication technology with limited range meant offshore rigs faced little interference from shore-based support. Leaps and bounds made in communication technology means that offshore crews are more connected to onshore base support, creating expectations of structure and transparency, Muddusetti said.
The offshore E&P sector maybe be the biggest beneficiary of the marine sector’s shift to operation as a science, said Schweikert. Faced with significant capital spending and consequences of operational misses, the need for Operation as a Science in the offshore E&P world has grown.
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