Digital Transformation

In this Executive Viewpoint, Aramco’s Khalid Y. Al Qahtani outlines how the company is deploying satellites, drones and advanced digital monitoring tools to detect methane emissions and strengthen leak detection efforts across its operations.

In deepwater and multizone developments, traditional hydraulic intelligent completions can limit economic optimization, due to control-line scale, installation time, and delayed interval-control valve response. Simplified intelligent completion architectures address these constraints by reducing infrastructure complexity, shortening critical‑path rig time, and allowing rapid, bidirectional zonal control without production shut‑in. 

In his latest Drilling Advances column, Ford Brett explores whether drilling automation can help solve North America’s looming natural gas supply challenge — and what today’s rig robots have in common with the legend of John Henry and the steam drill.

Ruggedized servers and computers can maximize uptime and reliability anywhere that physical factors or unstable power might compromise operations. Edge-based computing devices can also produce and compile data instantaneously on-site without lag time or latency associated with cloud computing.  

ADNOC has deployed an autonomous heavy-duty inspection robot at its Taweelah Gas Compression Plant in the UAE as part of a broader effort to expand AI, robotics and automated safety systems across operations.

Direct Travel has expanded its Avenir business travel platform across energy, marine and mining markets, supporting workforce mobility and complex travel logistics for global operations.

viAct is developing a vision-enabled AI agent platform for high-risk industries, including oil and gas, designed to improve safety, operational monitoring and compliance in real time.

NewTek Sensor Solutions has launched a free online technical resource focused on LVDT position sensors, offering guidance for engineers and OEMs on installation, calibration and troubleshooting.

Tecnofink and CorrosionRADAR have partnered to introduce corrosion under insulation monitoring technology to Brazil, targeting improved asset integrity and maintenance planning across industrial and energy infrastructure.

FutureOn has launched FieldTwin Operate, a digital twin platform designed to integrate engineering, inspection and operational data into a unified geospatial environment for subsea offshore assets.

DNV has released a new position paper arguing that digital trust frameworks are essential for safely scaling artificial intelligence across energy networks as utilities and operators increase reliance on AI-driven systems and real-time automation.

Cognite has launched Cognite Flows, an AI-native industrial workflow platform designed to integrate operational data, applications and AI-driven insights into a unified interface for industrial and energy sector users.

MODS has renewed its offshore digital project delivery agreement with CB&I Asset Solutions, extending deployment of the MODS Connect software suite across UK Continental Shelf assets to support workflow visibility and project execution.

Ned Marine has launched drone and subsea ROV inspection services for offshore and marine assets, expanding its NDT capabilities with remote technologies designed to reduce downtime, improve safety and accelerate vessel and infrastructure inspections.

Emerson has launched the AspenTech AVA industrial AI platform, designed to help industrial operators accelerate enterprise AI adoption through AI-assisted workflows, operational decision support and real-time industrial data integration.

Africa’s vast natural gas reserves are increasingly being viewed as a potential foundation for AI and data center growth, as rising digital infrastructure demand intensifies the need for reliable baseload power across the continent.

Halliburton and Shape Digital have formed a strategic collaboration to improve digital asset performance management by linking subsurface and surface data for production operations.

At OTC in Houston, ExxonMobil’s John Ardill said the coming “demand decade” will require more upstream investment, stronger policy alignment and faster deployment of AI-driven technologies. He pointed to autonomous drilling in Guyana and the U.S. shale model as indicators of where exploration is headed.

SES will provide satellite connectivity for seven new FPSO units operated by Petrobras, supporting offshore developments in Brazil scheduled to come online between 2026 and 2030.

Siemens Energy and TCS have expanded their partnership to deploy AI-driven solutions across energy operations, industrial systems and data center infrastructure to improve efficiency and reliability.

A lot of O&G projects succeed in the pilot stage and fail in the rollout. The pilot scope is small: few data sources, short time frames, and simple queries. The rollout is not: more deployments means more tags, longer retention times and more demands on the data. A database that worked at 100 tags/s breaks at 10,000. One reason for the failures is that PoC conditions rarely stress the data infrastructure. Just like the equipment being sent to the field, every database has a performance envelope, and IIoT systems push three dimensions of it simultaneously: -Storage: 10,000 tags at 1Hz generates 315 billion rows per year. Data volume grows multiplicatively with tags, frequency, and retention time. -Ingest rate: Field sensors stream continuously, 24/7. Fall behind once and the backlog rarely recovers before data is lost or the system fails. -Query degradation: Aggregate queries slow linearly as history grows. Milliseconds at PoC become minutes at production scale. This webinar covers how to map your database performance envelope before deployment, keep an eye on it as the data grows, and how TimescaleDB's time-based partitioning, columnar storage, and continuous aggregates expand that envelope without adding infrastructure complexity.