Bringing the Connected Enterprise to Life for Oil and Gas Companies

The ambition to operate as a Connected Enterprise has taken firm root across a range of sectors, yet the oil and gas industry has, to some extent, been behind the curve. This can be attributed to some unique challenges, such as the remote and often harsh operating environments of oil and gas production, that have made the process of digitally transforming operations more difficult.

Today’s oil and gas businesses operate in a volatile environment with profit margins under continual pressure. While demand is subject to fluctuation, the cost of supplying oil and gas products remains within their control. This has made priorities around optimising assets, improving operating efficiency, minimising capital expenditure and reducing operating costs ever more pressing.

It’s with this dedicated focus and purpose that we launched Sensia in 2019. A joint venture between Rockwell Automation and Schlumberger, Sensia helps oil and gas leaders to meet these priorities and bring the idea of the Connected Enterprise to life.

Unifying Sensing, Intelligence and ActionSensia is a unique entity in the oil and gas sector. The company combines the automation capabilities of Rockwell Automation and the petrotechnical expertise of Schlumberger to enable the delivery of scalable automation and digital solutions across the entire oil and gas supply chain. As a standalone organisation, the venture seeks to be the leader in digitally enabled oil and gas integrated solutions and provide complete lifecycle and process automation solutions from the reservoir to the refinery, including industry-leading oilfield technology and expertise. 

Drawing on this blend of capabilities, Sensia unifies sensing, intelligence, and actions to optimise decisions and dramatically reduce the time and interactions between detection, diagnosis, and resolution. The combination of offerings from the two parent companies represents a significant opportunity to create value and better serve the oil and gas market through digitally enabled scalable solutions.

5 Ways Sensia Supports the Connected Enterprise

In a fragmented sector comprised of multiple vendors and service providers, Sensia is able to offer customers a solution to challenges unique to the oil and gas sector. These challenges can be broken down into five key areas across which Sensia is unmatched in its ability to support oil and gas companies, with the principal goal of improving operational efficiency and lowering costs.

1. Integration of assets at any stage of the lifecycle

The lifecycle of oil and gas fields and production facilities can span several decades and involves multiple stages, from initial production through to the eventual decommissioning process. Usually, assets in different stages operate concurrently in a field, and it is not uncommon for oil and gas companies to work with multiple vendors across this lifecycle. This can make integrating those assets in a connected production environment difficult, ultimately impacting the ability to improve operations.

Sensia is attempting to rectify this and promote communication and integration between the various stages. It unifies the sensing, intelligence and action processes from reservoir to refinery, streamlining the process in a more effective manner than before. Working with one entity across these stages creates vast benefits in operational certainty, uptime and output.

2. Control costs and protect margins

Businesses thrive on predictability. The major challenge for oil and gas companies is the volatile environment, driven by unpredictable macroeconomic forces that make the sector prone to sudden shifts in demand. While producers have little control over the market, they can control their margins and costs.

Sensia can support them in this goal, drawing on the expertise of both Rockwell Automation and Schlumberger to realise process efficiencies and deliver end-to-end well-to-refinery services. Using connected mechanical systems and other networked devices, operators can take more precise action in order to realise efficiencies and reduce the risk of waste.