6 Benefits of AR / VR in the Oil & Gas Industry

The oil and gas industry has always faced enormous and varied risks concerning safety, politics, regulations, fluctuating markets, and physically challenging environments, to name a few. Today, however, the challenge is more complex than ever.   

The price collapse and volatility of the past five years have ushered in a new normal, characterized by caution. To unlock value, companies are emphasizing efficiency, a goal that depends on highly skilled individuals. Meanwhile, the industry is undergoing a crew change, with large numbers of older employees leaving. As a result, the demands for the dwindling ranks of experienced personnel are escalating, and companies are struggling to leverage their expertise.  

This industry has been facing new and unprecedented challenges. To meet the increasing demand, companies are having to do more with less. This means that they are using fewer employees and tighter budgets. How can the industry keep up with these unprecedented times?  

Challenges Faced by the Oil and Gas Industry

Even with alternative energy sources, the demand for oil and gas is expected to grow for many years to come, but the oil and gas industry faces several challenges, including the following: 

• The traditional means of sharing expertise with on-field support staff and front-line workers involves the use of a mobile phone and hence it’s NOT hands-free.  
• Traditional methods of maintenance and servicing involve the use of pen and paper SOP’s / checklists which makes it inefficient and time consuming.  
• Enterprises take several days to send specialists to remote places for maintenance and auditing, resulting in delays, machinery downtimes and high travelling costs and time.  
• The cost of upskilling the existing employers and training the newcomers is too high  
• Traditional training methodology involves operating complex machinery and on-job-training in high-risk hazardous environment increasing safety concerns 

McKinsey research suggests that offshore oil and gas companies could reduce costs by up to 25% per barrel by deploying digital solutions, and augmented reality (AR) is one of those strategies. 

To keep up with the pace of the industry, it is no surprise that oil and gas companies are turning to AR and VR (Virtual Reality) to help create a more efficient workflow. By using immersive technologies to revamp their work processes, oil companies are finding major cost savings that help their businesses soar. The implementation of AR in the oil and gas sector has shown significant potential in recent years.

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How AR/VR can Benefit the Oil & Gas industry   

Oil and gas companies use AR VR solutions to perform operations that reduces the turnaround time, are cost efficient, and saves a lot of time as well. Sensor-based connected devices such as rig monitoring equipment, generators, compressors, and other forms of underground drilling equipment can be integrated with AR VR enabled applications embedded in them. This has allowed engineers to perform risky operations effectively, without the need to be physically present at the site and to receive real-time information on the equipment performance and health. Rig monitoring systems need to be checked at regular intervals such for performance issues like parts breakdown, overload, and/or performance lag, and AR VR enabled applications can effectively carry out such activities with a lesser turnaround time. Further, AR VR can also enhance the visual experience of the underground layout including vital components such as geological formation, structural faults, and seismic traces, among others. Using this information, geologists, production engineers, and field engineers can make real-time strategic decisions during drilling operations. 

In addition to these, the immersive 3D view presented by AR VR helps in simulation and training in the oil & gas industry. Field engineers and process operators receive hands on expertise and enough knowledge of the entire process of production, drilling, transportation, and processing, without the need to be physically present at the site location.

In the oil & gas industry, routine processes require long hours of dedicated work under risky conditions. Due to this, an in-depth training program is essential for these, which in turn has created several opportunities for AR VR in oil and gas market ecosystem.  

1. Improved Asset Management & Maintenance 

According to GE, an offshore oil and gas company could incur losses as high as $49 million from unplanned downtime. For a non-streamlined company, those losses can quickly double.

Knowing this, it is critical to seamlessly perform and operate the drilling and completion activities without interruption. 

AR/VR-based devices today can be used to monitor equipment in real-time to report deviations in key metrics like temperature, magnetic field, etc. The application can give alerts when regular maintenance is due as well as when sensor readings fall outside set parameters.  

When maintenance or repair is necessary, a technician can wear an AR headset that combines reality with digital information to guide the process. The “guide” can help a technician make a repair quickly and get the asset back online.   

2. More Effective Workflow 

Like how AR can help workers make an asset repair, it can also help them do their work more efficiently. AR overlays, such as smart glass hardware, in the oil and gas industry can help improve a worker’s effectiveness by providing visual indicators and clues, operation instructions for machinery, and process steps. 

With a head tilt or nod, the worker can acknowledge instructions or maintain a digital “checklist” of completed tasks for their job, increasing overall efficiency.   

3. Highly Skilled & Productive Workforce 

AR-enabled applications can be used to familiarize and train personnel with a company’s standard procedures, which is a more engaging substitute to manuals and handbooks. These applications are helpful for onboarding as well as ongoing training for field personnel. Employees need only use an AR-ready or VR training simulation to quickly get up to speed with new safety requirements or updated machinery or processes.

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4. Safer Oil Rigs & Wells  

There are a lot of risks on an oil platform or in a refinery environment. By using a combination of AR/VR training and various wearables, those risks can be drastically reduced. 

With proper training, workers understand how to respond when something goes wrong. At the same time, workers can be outfitted with wearable devices that track things like GPS, heart rate, body temperature, etc. If a worker is in a dangerous situation, the employer can respond quickly and appropriately.   

5. Better Reponses to Adverse Events  

No one likes to think about accidents in the oil and gas industry, but they happen thanks to the hazardous environment and proximity to heavy equipment and dangerous materials. Rescue teams can now leverage AR and VR technology to simulate real-world scenarios that they might have to face. When an incident does happen, rescue teams can call up the same technology to improve response time and the safety of the team.   

6. Lower cost of Maintenance  

End-to-end logistics is always a challenge for complex industries like oil and gas. The enhanced connectivity that AR solutions can provide will drastically improve materials tracking and reduce the total costs of production. Using digital solutions for logistics management can also reduce the cost of vehicle service, staffing, materials, and emissions, leading to better overall results.   

Conclusion 

It is quite evident that the demand of immersive technology will keep on increasing in the Oil and Gas industry as more and more enterprises are looking for innovative solutions to help reduce costs and at the same time increase efficiency & productivity.

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