DSDE: In the Industry

The memorandum of understanding with Microsoft follows a conditional investment decision made in May by Equinor, Shell, and Total. Pending Norwegian government approval, the final investment decision for the project is expected in late 2020 with startup expected in 2024.

One year after the Johan Sverdrup field came on stream, Equinor says digital technology has proven to be key to safety and value in all parts of the operation, increasing earnings by more than $200 million.

The companies say they will expand their existing technology collaboration to create and deliver solutions to help customers, suppliers, and other businesses lower emissions.

The tech giant and supermajor have been working on cloud solutions already, but in a new agreement, they will combine their talents to create new technologies for oil and gas as well as energy consumers.

A new open innovation studio aims to use crowdsourcing to redefine the future of oil and gas exploration.

To provide condition monitoring and combat fouling, the robot clings and moves along the hull walls. It is controlled via a 4G connection to clean and inspect the walls in line with individual vessel schedules developed through a proprietary algorithm and big data.

After 2 years of testing, Shell is going all in on using high-flying technology to catch methane leaks to reduce its overall emissions to less than 1%.

The oil and gas industry has a new Spindletop, and it’s nowhere near being capped. In this data boom, the industry is up to its neck in petabytes of data, generating thousands of terabytes per day, with the volumes doubling every 12–18 months, and using less than 5% of it for decision making.

The maritime technology company successfully completed a remote deadweight audit for a semisubmersible oil and gas drilling rig. Believed to be the first of its kind, the remote survey was developed in response to travel and social-distancing restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The engineering simulation firm announced the successful deployment of a complete structural digital twin for Shell’s Bonga floating production, storage, and offloading vessel 120 km southwest of the Niger Delta in Nigeria.