Industry Must Address Falling Prices and Traditional Responses – Technology and Intelligence from Data Will Drive Growth, Improve Operational Efficiencies for Survival

Cisco Consulting Services has recently conducted a survey that has estimated that the oil and gas industry adoption of Internet of Everything (IoE) could increase global GDP by 0.8% (£549 billion).

Nearly half (48%) of respondents of A New Reality for Oil & Gas report named ‘data’ as the area of IoE needing improvement to make the most effective use of connected technologies. Ranked first for business benefit of connected technologies was ‘faster problem resolution’ while ‘improved production efficiency’ was found to be the top operational benefit. Respondents also believe that the main IoE benefit in operations will be production, primarily in the upstream segment of the value chain.

It has also been recognised that IoE has the potential to automate anywhere from 25% to nearly 50% of manual processes. The protection of company information (including customer, transactional, and geological data) was identified as the main security concern. The US Department of Homeland Security stated that 53% of all cyber security incidents in the six months ending in May 2013 occurred in the energy sector, and the number of attacks is increasing.

“For the first time, pressure is being brought to bear on organisations across the globe to re-engineer the way they do things, and that requires a lot of thought,” explains Graham Hill, EVP, global business development and strategy at engineering company KBR. “It requires the bringing together of technology and people… If the going gets tough in the industry and you are looking to make cost savings, you will want remote monitoring and remote operation, which is going to require an awful lot of information traffic — intelligent, real-time diagnostics, and then intervention.”

Survey was conducted out across 14 countries using 50 industry professionals: C-level executives, senior VPs, VPs, directors, consultants, and analysts.

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