Immersive technologies, offering the beauty of virtual yet realistic simulations, will tremendously increase the safety levels, streamline business operations, and most importantly cut down the operating costs, thereby becoming the dominant driver in revolutionizing the oil and gas industry.
Digital transformation is actually a presiding trend across industries. Just glance around and you will see different industries transforming, or at least trying their level best to get digitized in their own comfortable way. This tells us the fact that every industry has understood and realized the reward they will receive after getting digitized. But, for some sectors, the road to digital transformation is not that easy. And the same applies to the oil and gas industry. The oil and gas industry is seen to be less enthusiastic to accept new, advanced technologies all this while. But the case is no longer going to be the same.
The Mckinsey report states that by using effective digital technologies, “the oil and gas sector could reduce the capital expenditures upto 20 percent.” Envisioning the oil and gas industry with unparalleled productivity, streamlined workflows, and reduced costs has now become possible, thanks to the digital technologies. And immersive technologies are equally accountable for revolutionizing the oil and gas industry.
As oil and gas fall under the most required resources, sectors are trying to find alternatives to make it available for human needs easily, even though they are finite. Considering consumer demand and the depleting nature of resources, companies need to be quick and smart with their procedure to obtain, store, and refine oil and gas. To be frank, the old procedure of exploring hydrocarbons cannot be afforded if companies wish to differentiate from their competitors. And immersive technologies can best fit in this case. The visualization interaction characteristic of immersive technologies is one of the many reasons that make these technologies cutting-edge and incredible. Let’s check in depth how the immersive technologies will bring in good days for the oil and gas companies, finally.
Revolutionizing the oil and gas industry with AR
AR, the technology that augments the physical world with additional elements of digital information, opens up a myriad of opportunities and possibilities for the oil and gas industry. Amongst all other requirements, the oil and industry is potentially lusting for safety improvements, efficiency, and productivity.
Safety
The oil and gas industry is always on its path to improving safety standards. Working in the oilfield is risky. Powerful monitoring of equipments and harmful chemicals can be hazardous to the lives of workers. Therefore, it’s essential for operators and supervisors of the facility to be on high alert mode round the clock to keep a check on the site. Just imagine, there’s a fire explosion at the site. In a panic situation like this, the concerned authorities should help workers navigate safely through the exit way. And handling such a chaotic situation is easier said than done. Now imagine these supervisors are handed with AR-powered glasses. AR glass will easily identify the shortest exit route and display on the glass screen, which will help the crew members to get their workers to the nearest safe spot, quickly.
Efficiency
Another measure that has to be taken care of by the oil and gas companies is machinery malfunctioning. As numerous machines are working at the same time and for long hours, it becomes very difficult to check the condition of machines. Many-a-times, minor technical glitches go unnoticed, which can later lead to machinery breakdown. Due to minor problems, the machine can even start functioning wrongly. Now imagine the maintenance officer has AR glasses. The sensors embedded on every machine will collect information on the working status of the machines. This information will directly be displayed on the AR glass screen, worn by the officer. The officer wearing the glass can simply incline or move his head in the desired direction. The AR technology can provide comprehensive status reports on not only massive machinery but also the smallest ones. Not only details on the exact failure points but also how to deal and fix the problems will be exhibited on the glass screen.
Revolutionizing the oil and gas industry with VR
VR is a technology that artificially creates an environment, immerses users, and allows them to interact with that stimulated setup. For the oil and gas industry, the VR technology can create a virtual environment of an oil reservoir or a work site. Workers can then effortlessly consider what-if situations while moving around in an artificially-created environment. Let’s now check out the possibilities and opportunities that the VR technology opens up for the oil and gas industry:
Training
One of the places where the oil and gas industry spends a tremendous amount of its money is in training the newcomers and in upskilling the employers. The freshers need to be educated on how to operate machinery, how to escape from a hazardous situation, and how to tackle dangerous scenarios well before they enter the mine. All of this training was mostly theoretical, thus providing limited hands-on experience to freshers. But the advent of VR changed everything. By creating a virtual replica of the site, refinery units, and a rig, students can sense and feel the actual environment. Such a setup will help students grasp the required skills faster, while the sector can reduce the cost factor by significant levels.
Remote aid
The upstream segment of the oil and gas industry involves the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. Oil and gas installation units at this segment are situated in remote places. To add to the list, these units are complicated to operate and also risky at the same time, not to mention the cost of maintenance. VR can offer a solution to such problems. By using VR, the rig workers can immerse themselves in that environment, become familiar with amenities, and then visit the offshore locations.
A user can also zoom in and out as per their requirement, which in turn will give them accurate details on the units installed in a remote location. With years of refinement and advancement, immersive technologies are now showcasing their potential and capabilities in numerous places other than the gaming industry. The ultra-high realistic and immersive environment being available cheaply will be an invaluable solution for the oil and gas industry to run their business operations efficiently. Given the pace at which the immersive technologies are maturing, the anticipated VR and AR use cases in the oil and gas companies will soon become a reality. However, this is just the start. There is a lot to be seen in the coming future.
