Aging assets stand in the way of operational excellence

Operational excellence (OPEX) is a goal that the oil and gas sector has been striving to reach for years. A recent report from Oil & Gas…

Martin Richards profile picture

Martin Richards

December 2, 20193 minutes read

Descriptive text explaining the contents of the image.

Operational excellence (OPEX) is a goal that the oil and gas sector has been striving to reach for years. A recent report from Oil & Gas IQ highlights aging assets as a significant challenge to achieving operational excellence, alongside a number of barriers faced by oil and gas companies.

Estimates suggest that more than 70% of oil and gas assets are over a quarter of a century old, with some extending well beyond four decades. Most of these assets will need replacing in the long term. The Oil and Gas IQ report also notes that asset obsolescence and corrosion can lead to damaging and expensive leaks and spills, and that those risks must be identified and addressed as early as possible.

Today, companies need a way to increase the reliability and productivity of the infrastructure they have in place. But this can be extremely challenging if many organizations don’t have a clear understanding of asset performance.

During the OPEX in Oil and Gas Online 2019 conference earlier this year, Manish Kamble, Team Leader at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, said, “…key issues within the industry include aging, unknown asset conditions, obsolescence, underperformance, change in use and budget. An analytical tool can help with this.”

Focus on advanced analytics

New levels of insight into the condition and operations of assets is required to safely and effectively extend asset productivity. This is not just about avoiding downtime and unplanned maintenance, which costs oil and gas companies $42 million each year on average. Such insight also underpins the ability to create a workable asset investment management strategy to decide when assets should be renovated or replaced.

Applying an advanced analytics solution can turn data into actionable insight and deliver that insight to the people who need it. The results of applying advanced analytics to operational data can produce impressive results – some experts suggest the extra intelligence gained can increase the net value of oil and gas assets by as much as 25%.

But first, the data

Before oil and gas companies are able to benefit from analyzing their data, they first need to manage it. Frost & Sullivan suggests that process industries use less than 5% of the data they collect – the other 95% of is either siloed, unused or lacks consistency in use. According to the Oil & Gas IQ report, the main concern is aligning data. According to the report, “[d]ata could have different time stamps or different units of measurement, and it might need converting with varying types of interpolation. So how do companies look only at the data they want in the timeframe they’re interested in?”

The answer is by leveraging an enterprise data management platform. OpenText™ Extended ECM for Engineering, OpenText™ Magellan™ and OpenText Industrial IoT provide a platform for managing asset content that also integrates with your other primary asset systems, such as SAP PM or Maximo. The OpenText platform ensures that your as-built content, maintenance orders, equipment data and time-based IoT data are integrated and kept in sync as your assets change.

Learn more

Download your copy of the Oil & Gas IQ report OPEX 2019: The drive towards operational excellence in oil and gas, or visit our website to learn more about how OpenText can help drive operational excellence in the Oil and Gas industry.

Share this post

Share this post to x. Share to linkedin. Mail to
Martin Richards avatar image

Martin Richards

Martin Richards is a Senior Director for Industry Solutions at OpenText. For over twenty years, he has worked with ECM technology, running professional services and driving solutions across multiple industries.

See all posts

More from the author

Supercharge manufacturing operations

Supercharge manufacturing operations

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems hold the definitive version of the truth for released product design and development information. Manufacturing operations across high-tech, industrial and…

August 7, 2023 5 minutes read
What is product information management?

What is product information management?

Product information is the backbone of the manufacturing industry. Released product data, documents and drawings are of critical importance throughout the manufacturing value chain, from…

August 3, 2023 4 minutes read
Why safe workplace management is the foundation for modern work

Why safe workplace management is the foundation for modern work

Rapidly changing workforce trends and behaviors are leading organizations to realize they need to re-imagine their workplaces to attract and retain essential talent. When asked,…

August 11, 2022 3 minutes read

Stay in the loop!

Get our most popular content delivered monthly to your inbox.