Drones in search of oil, virtual refineries where operators are trained, digital communication with consumers, fast processing of millions of geological data… Although it seems like the future, this is actually a reality in which oil companies around the world work. We are witnessing that new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, are significantly changing the business world we know, and the oil industry, although many perceive it as conservative, is no exception. On the contrary, wanting to make business more efficient and safer, oil companies have launched a large number of digital projects and partnerships that do not lag behind even much more adaptable industries.
For example, the largest European oil company “Royal Dutch Shell” and the Norwegian “Equinor” signed an agreement last year on the joint development of digital projects. In December 2020, another giant, Microsoft, joined the agreement, and now the three companies are working together on a digital procurement management project with the goal of making oil companies millions in savings.
The French “Total” formed a special department called “Digital Factory” and employed IT experts who will work on the development of digital projects. The company also boasted of its computer system “Pangea 3”, claiming that it is the best in the oil industry in terms of characteristics, and that it significantly reduces risks during oil and gas exploration and production, as well as enables more efficient search for these energy sources. In September 2020, British Petroleum also boasted of a strategic agreement with Microsoft on the development of digital solutions.
When it comes to Serbia, our largest oil company, NIS, says that the process of digital transformation began in 2018 and that intensive work is being done on the development of digital projects in all areas of business. Only last year, NIS put into operation the system for predictive fault detection in the “Pancevo Oil Refinery”, ie an innovative technology which, by processing a large amount of data, contributes to the preventive maintenance of all refinery systems, ie to avoid unplanned plant downtime.
Also, a “deep oil refining” plant started operating in the “Refinery” last year, and the employees on that project worth over 300 million euros, were first trained on a virtual system that faithfully presented the challenges that operators can expect in real work. In addition, NIS provided training for its experts in virtual oil fields, which are a true representation of the existing oil fields of NIS, while in the Science and Technology Center of this company began working digital laboratory where experts work on digital projects and their application in oil industry.
As far as consumers are concerned, NIS launched the digital application “Drive Go” last year, which enables payment for fuel without going to the cash register. Through this application, already in 2020, more than a million liters of fuel were sold.
As they say in NIS, digitalization is a process that contributes to the realization of the company’s strategic goals, and that is why the work on digital projects will be continued and intensified in the following period, Politika reports.
