Oil Insider: Top Three Issues in the Boardroom

Oil Insider: Top 3 Issues in the Boardroom from GrayMatter on Vimeo.

It’s Go Time

Pricing in the oil and gas industry is extremely volatile.

It’s leaving industry decision makers with little time to lose. They need the right technology, in the right place, immediately. Their people have to be better at their jobs today than they were yesterday. Every decision counts and if one move is a few days late, it could cost millions.

Unlocking Dollars

Gray Matter Systems CEO, Jim Gillespie is familiar with helping oil and gas executives to solve the biggest problems facing their companies. He says the first issue circulating in oil and gas boardrooms everywhere is getting data from many different sources all on one display. It’s commonly referred to as the “single pane of glass.”

The information matrix is so complex now that in order to monitor performance, you have to connect streams from clouds, data centers and mobile users.

Finding the money “that’s locked up in there” is key according to Gillespie.

When the data from all systems is integrated, operators and engineers are empowered to see everything at once. The single view allows them to make better decisions, increase response time to problems and improve the overall workflow.

This shift ultimately leads to big savings on operational costs because companies are no longer wasting time operating in silos. The knowledge management tools to bring data together give key players in the oil industry the ability to know which assets are stronger, which alarms are false and the best practices moving forward.

The idea behind the single pane of glass is simply to make the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) easier for people to manage.

Want to know more about single pane of glass?

Join Kemell Kassim, VP of Energy at Gray Matter Systems, as he details creating a single pane of glass view into operations at our Oil & Gas Seminars in Dallas, Houston and Pittsburgh this month. Dr. Steven Fleischmann, a global expert in risk across a broad range of industries including energy and advanced technology, will also be on hand to discuss reducing operational costs.

Protecting the Underbelly

Effective cyber security is no longer a choice. It’s required.

That’s why it’s in the top three priorities of oil and gas executives. Surprisingly, the risks here are not always technology or equipment, in many cases they’re people.

Knowing what to do when attacks happen and the making the right, immediate decision is half the battle.

The other challenge is keeping networks up to date. The network may be safe one day and then six months later, new configurations have exposed the system to different threats.

[ut_parallax_quote cite=”James Gillespie “] Figuring out how to protect the soft underbelly of their (oils and gas companies) operations systems – the threat detection, the bad actors, cloaking those devices from malware and other threats – it’s a big issue today. [/ut_parallax_quote]

Operational technology security has advanced to cater to customers unique needs and operating environments. It’s different than information technology security. Protecting OT control systems involves special care to make sure production isn’t disrupted by the shields put in place.

Industrial process control systems, remote assets and remote means of communication are three areas where risk protection is needed. Improving firewall policies, securing operating equipment and making sure operators know how to manage attacks are all ways companies are looking to protect themselves.

Predicting the Future

The final hot topic is optimization and predictive maintenance in all of those data issues, according to Gillespie.

The discussion around predictive analytics has become more intense recently. As the workforce tightens and efficiencies become more important, using a company’s data streams to help predict future outcomes becomes vital to success.

The ability to understand the health of an asset or machine is huge. When you have advanced warning about a problem, you can act and avoid disruption to production. Knowing when maintenance is needed reduces cost by allowing the fix before the failure.

Real time data and analytics tools are plugging into the industrial internet to create smart machines. Predictive maintenance cuts costs in several ways. First, overall maintenance costs go down when trouble is stopped before it grows. Then, the smoother flow allows delivery times to become much more predictable. Ultimately, leading to maximized oil and gas production.

The oil and gas industry is going through a transformative period. Smart, strategic judgement is needed. Making sense of the information you have, protecting the system from threats and effectively predicting roadblocks will all help to reduce costs and increase productivity during this dramatically changing time.

The trends we see in the marketplace right now are the proliferation of all the connected assets and the information overload that this creates.