The oil industry of the future is beginning to take shape. Environmentalism will see to a reduced volume of oil consumed. There will be fewer but larger companies that will be populated with smaller workforces compared to historical norms, as scale drives increased investments into operating systems to enable fewer workers to manage more assets. This translates into reduced G&A expense per producing asset, the “golden ticket” for companies sustaining profitability and positioning to boost returns for shareholders. Key to this transformation will be increased business digitalization. The opportunities digitalization brings to the oil business also highlight the challenges and risks faced while implementing and operating the technologies employed.

The adage time is money is the appropriate description for what will drive the re-engineering of oil industry business processes. More assets per employee mandates prioritization of tasks. Ranking the amount of time necessary for various tasks and measuring these tasks against their payoffs will become a key focus for new oil industry executives. This will mean increasing reliance on artificial intelligence and machine learning to leverage the cost/time calculation.

With a team of trusted vendors, a company can organize and automate tasks that today require an extraordinary time commitment from executives.The modern goal will be to design systems in which the most proficient vendor is automatically engaged using his most efficient assets to complete the task assigned in the least time necessary.Then, the system will close the loop with appropriate verification and documentation of the work performed, as well as final invoicing.With all the boxes checked, the invoice will proceed through to the customer for payment, which can be completed rapidly since he can automatically verify all the work performed.As more and more oilfield activities are standardized, digitally-based systems will become the most efficient way to operate, leading to reduced expenses and improved profitability.This will become a hallmark of the future oil industry.

For this Company Spotlight, we interviewed IronSight’s CEO, Ron Melnyk, about how the company is digitally transforming the management of field operations in the energy and industrial sectors. IronSight connects the demand and supply side of industrial field services through its internally developed web and mobile applications that take jobs from request, to dispatch, to field execution across multiple companies, while also automating data capture and communication along the way. For more information on IronSight, please visit www.ironsight.app.

Background: IronSight was originally developed in 2015 within an oilfield vacuum truck company, to efficiently dispatch and manage its truck fleet and field personnel. As the company’s customers saw the significant efficiency gains and cost savings that were being realized by utilizing IronSight, they began asking if…..READ MORE

Cognite is a global industrial software-as-a-service (SaaS) company supporting the full-scale digital data-driven transformation of asset-intensive industries. This investment marks one of the largest funding rounds for a SaaS company in Europe and confirms industrial digitalization as a global megatrend. The round values Cognite at $1.6 billion.

The investment will be used to accelerate delivery of the company's breakthrough new product, the Mainspring Linear Generator, to a broad range of commercial, industrial, microgrid, and utility customers. This investment brings the total capital raised by Mainspring to $228 million.

WhiteStar focuses on helping oil & gas, pipelines, utility, green energy, and forestry services companies digitize and spatialize land data records. Contour Ridge acquired a majority stake in WhiteStar through the investment and the invested capital will be used to accelerate the commercialization of proprietary GIS data.

Ensemble helps its customers generate clean energy as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. Through this acquisition, SparkCognition can now offer an asset management platform for clean energy, supporting the industry in its transition towards renewables.

Zap Energy is building a compact, low-cost, and scalable fusion reactor that does not employ magnets. Zap Energy achieved thermonuclear fusion in 2018 and is targeting scientific energy breakeven by 2023. Success would mean the production of inexpensive and unlimited carbon-free energy. This Series B round was led by Addition and oversubscribed.

Related Press Release: Zap Energy Raises $27.5 Million to Advance Reactor Technology

Energy Technology Musings

The Old Adage Time is Money, May Become the New Adage