There's an app for oil and gas industry prosperity

James Mustarde, Twisted Pair Solutions, Seattle

The oil and gas industry has received a lot of attention lately in the context of helping to fix the global economic failures. Aside from the central role the oil and gas industry always plays in the debate on US-driven oil exploration to stimulate the economy, Congress and the administration are currently calling for an end to tax breaks for oil and gas companies, theoretically increasing the already exorbitant daily cost of doing business.

Specifically, the oil and gas industry could lose tax deductions on intangible drilling costs, which include repairs, site preparation and supply transportation – arguably the highest operational costs in the oil and gas industry. In addition, reform is being aimed at oil and gas companies' ability to produce new oil and transport it abroad, which, in addition to restricting new business opportunities and potentially decreasing supply, could also make it more costly and time consuming to produce and distribute oil.

Meanwhile, according to AAA, the average price of gas in the United States is around $3.72, nearly $1 more than it was last year. Although we know that oil and gas executives have limited control over what Americans pay at the pump, the general public perceives that the oil and gas industry has weathered this financial storm largely unscathed and could better share the burden with the American public.

In this economic and political environment, innovation for the oil and gas industry means doing more with less and discovering better ways to be more productive and efficient. Enterprises around the world have looked to their communication systems to find these efficiencies, decreasing the time and money spent through increased coordination and collaboration.

Certainly the oil and gas industry, with all of its logistical and environmental challenges, could also benefit from an increasingly sophisticated communication environment. In an industry defined by its operational challenges, the ability to communicate in real-time impacts everything from employee safety and crisis management to exploration and production advancements.

Unfortunately, oil and gas may be one of the most operationally diverse and geographically expansive industries, which creates natural communication silos between these involved players. The current communication practice for onand off-rig exchanges is supported by proprietary hardware-based systems, including bulky and expensive dispatch consoles, costly push-to-talk two-way radios, and dedicated radio operators and radio rooms.

Aside from the costs involved in system and device purchases and their requisite upgrades, there are also limitations with this historically hardware-based approach. Because network scalability requires heavy planning and is often cost prohibitive, truly unified communication for mobile workforces is impossible, compromising collaboration, efficiency and decision making.

However, a communication revolution is enabling the oil and gas industry to break down these silos, bringing together mechanics, executives, engineers and more – on dry land and on drilling rigs – enabling real-time collaboration across operations and promoting resource maximization. Software applications, long commoditized by consumer demand and increasingly prevalent in enterprise environments, are driving this revolution and are ready for application in the oil and gas industry today.

Specifically, these software platforms have the potential to deliver major productivity improvements and cost savings, allowing workers to collaborate and communicate across any network with any device. The smartphones and tablets that are affordable and so easily accessible for consumers can be equipped with a software application that connects these devices together and integrates them into the larger communication operation for truly unified communication, allowing oil and gas workers to share voice, video, presence and other data instantaneously. For example, these applications could empower subsea engineers performing a rig repair to share live video with mechanical engineers in the office so they can simultaneously view and discuss the tactical execution.

Software not only dramatically impacts workflow because of new found abilities to collaborate, but it also extends existing networks, unifying incumbent communication technologies, like push-to-talk two-way radios, with the smartphones and tablets we already have. Continuing with the rig repair example, software makes it possible for the mechanical engineers in the office to use their smartphones to provide the rig superintendent on deck with an update on the repair via push-to-talk communication.

The ability to add additional devices to a network means that you can add additional people to a network. With software it would be incredibly simple and inexpensive to add 30 new desk-side employees to any rig-based radio network by leveraging their existing smartphones. Using their smartphones, managers in offices may integrate a new function into their daily operations, such as receiving real-time status reports from their team, including the subsea engineer, the mechanical engineer and the rig superintendent, by simply opening an application from their usual communication device.

There is a world of opportunity for the oil and gas industry given this new seamless relationship between radios and smartphones – all powered by software. A hardware-based approach to truly unified communication would limit device options and likely materialize into the purchase of push-to-talk two-way radios that cost several thousands of dollars per device. And the unnatural form and function of those radios for office-based employees means they would likely sit unused on desks.

As the example illustrates, software changes the paradigm for managing physical human resources, enabling all stakeholders in the day-to-day oil and gas operations to engage in mobile, ubiquitous communication. This not only saves the time and resources traditionally spent on connecting disparate workers and devices, but the devices themselves also cost significantly less than what the industry has paid for far too long.

When you combine this new software-based approach to collaboration with other innovations spurred from mobile devices and applications and the continually evolving network capabilities, the industry may gain more accurate measurement instruments and better aggregation and visualization of information, leading to innovations that fuel production optimization and new revenue opportunities.

The oil and gas industry is built on engineering feats. Countless disciplines have been designed to enhance the exploration, production and transportation of oil. As budgets continue to shrink and political pressure continues to expand, the oil and gas industry must do more with less.

It is time the oil and gas industry applies this remarkable innovation that is embraced across the world by nearly every other industry, to the logistical and environmental obstacles it currently faces, changing the way oil and gas companies manage human assets by improving the way they communicate and collaborate. Software is the answer to seamlessly bridging old with new and packing the industry with new performance and business opportunities.

As the oil and gas industry contemplates new operational strategies, it is critical that it considers the rich assets and advantages it can capitalize on by embracing these new communications and collaboration strategies.

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