Oil strike

Bob Gill, Group Editor

This month sees the 11th Asian Oil and Gas & Petrochemical Engineering Exhibition, better known as OGA 2007, taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Reflecting the boom times in the oil & gas sector, the event is expected to attract in excess of 10,000 visitors and 800 exhibitors.

The latest ARC survey has the worldwide automation market for oil & gas growing almost seven percent annually over the next few years, and hitting $12 billion by 2010. To quote from the report, “As the industry works to find new reserves, build new capacity, and upgrade its existing infrastructure, it will look to automation technology to help optimize its production processes to maximize profits.”

Hence, with such opportunities, it is not too surprising to see companies like GE Fanuc Automation, Rockwell Automation, Siemens, all making a beeline for KL in mid-June. And as illustrated by this issue’s special supplement (Siemens) and Executive Insight (Rockwell), traditional factory automation suppliers are making big efforts to build up their expertise and offerings for oil & gas (and other process sectors).

One of the major issues in the industry is that most of the world’s oil fields cannot be fully exploited because of physical extraction difficulties and high cost. And so typically, only one third of the oil contained within a field is ever extracted.

But according to research by Cambridge Energy Research Associates (Cera), 125 billion barrels of additional oil – more than all the proven reserves of Iraq – could be made available from existing fields under a broad concept known as the Digital Oil Field of the Future (DOFF).

This brings together information and control technologies, remote sensing mechanisms, intelligent drilling, and highly accurate measurement tools to make exploration and production far more exact and targeted – and much less expensive.

For example, oil & gas companies are increasingly making use of remote access technology to support offshore platforms from onshore bases. This enables offshore equipment to be operated from the mainland, minimizing the need for manned platforms and saving considerable costs in the process.

And automation solutions are make it easier to keep track of assets and support business processes throughout the supply chain, enabling quicker management decisions based on real-time data.

With no let-up in the world’s energy demands, geopolitical-induced uncertainties in supply, and alternative sources still decades away from being any real substitute, we can expect the industry to be prominent and important for many years to come. And the automation suppliers are sure to play an increasing part in ensuring the black gold continues to flow.