Norway Invests in Digitalisation
Norwegian state producer Statoil plans to spend kroner 1bn-2bn ($130mn-$260mn) by 2020 in digital technology to create higher value and improve operations, it said March 7.
This includes setting up an integrated operations support centre (IOC) and a drilling operations centre (DOC) to help it create more than $2bn of pre-tax extra value from its operated fields in Norway 2020-25, Statoil said March 7.
Established in Bergen, the centres will be connected eventually to all its installations on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS), starting this year.
“The possibilities provided by digitalisation will change our industry and the way we work, and create higher value for us and society. The centres are good examples of how we keep applying digital technology to work smarter, safer and more efficiently,” said Statoil’s chief operating officer (COO) Jannicke Nilsson (pictured below). She said: "In new field developments oil and gas production will to an increasing extent be carried out from unmanned, robotised, standardised and remote controlled installations. Many operations will be carried out by fewer risk-exposed working situations. We will be able to control the maintenance work in a better way and improve safety and operational quality.”
Building on existing condition monitoring and specialist centres in Norway, the IOC will further strengthen interaction between offshore and onshore, and interactions with suppliers and partners.
The IOC is scheduled to open after the summer season, with the first fields to be connected identified as Gina Krog and Grane in the North Sea as well as Asgard in the Norwegian Sea.
The DOC will offer more cost-effective and better geoscience support of drilling operations, as monitoring and control of offshore well path drilling will be moved from offshore installations to a joint geoscience operations centre.