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Bell Helicopter Revolutionizing Mass Transportation

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Bell Helicopter is leading the innovation in mass transportation through a partnership with Uber, expecting to create the world’s first air-taxis by 2025, according to Bloomberg.

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“Air taxi is the next way for our industry, and it’s very important for us to make sure we are among the disrupters to think about what should be transportation in the next 10-20 years,” said Patrick Moulay, executive vice president for commercial helicopter sales.

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A commercial teasing the release of the air taxis shows a familiar Uber-like screen to order the taxi for pickup.

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“We’re not going to see a taxi flying tomorrow, but it’s much closer than what people think.”

The initial testing is set to begin in 2020 in Dallas and Dubai, two car-clogged cities with notorious traffic problems.

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ExxonMobil to Triple Production by 2025

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ExxonMobil, the largest oil company in the U.S., announced plans to triple oil and gas production by 2025 — continuing the positive signs of a boom in national crude production, according to the NY Times.

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The company has been investing heavily in the Permian Basin, an area between West Texas and New Mexico leading the way in a national recovery of oil production after a three-year fall in crude prices.

The Permian is roughly the size of South Dakota with multiple layers of thick shale, easing the costs of exploration, drilling and production.

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An ExxonMobil drilling site in the Permian Basin.

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Exxon said that tripling oil and natural gas production would bring its output in the Permian to 600,000 barrels a day. To support increase production, it will invest more than $2 billion to expand production infrastructure.

Energy companies are racing to build pipelines to move Permian oil and gas to Gulf of Mexico ports for export as well as pipelines to Mexico, where natural gas is replacing oil and coal in an effort to remake the country’s electricity system and clean up urban air.

ExxonMobil said it would spend $50 billion on U.S. operations over the next five years, highlighting the company’s shift to operations in the U.S. and Western Hemisphere.

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The Amazing Tech Disrupting Oil & Gas

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As each new age group goes “digitally native,” the overall workforce has demanded higher workplace technology standards — even in legacy industries, according to Entrepreneur.

The transition has resulted in massive opportunities for entrepreneurs, creating brand new technologies and updating antiquated processes. The biggest industry opting for digital efficiency and young, entrepreneurial leadership? Oil and gas.

With a booming market and an eagerness for innovation, the industry is ripe for disruption to existing business models and for real growth.

Here’s a snapshot of the top four innovations transforming the oil and gas sector:

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Artificial Intelligence

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“Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to have the biggest technological impact on the oil and gas industry over the coming years,” according to Omar Saleh, Microsoft’s oil and gas director for the Middle East and Africa.

ExxonMobile, for example, is spearheading AI exploration through a partnership with MIT to explore oceans using AI software.

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Cloud Computing

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The energy sector’s present adoption of cloud technology is low due to past wariness of security risks, however there’s still a strong future for it.

A forecast by the U.K,-based Oil & Gas Council predicts an increase in adoption due to commercial benefits and possibilities, with some of the most complex organizations embracing the computing power and agility of cloud.

“The oil and gas industry should be afforded exactly the same competitive edge, not confined by their own data centers,” said Shiva Rajagopalan, CEO and founder of Seven Lakes Technologies.

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3D-scanning Tech

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3D printing is coming in play for oil and gas, creating fast and cost-effective representations of assets for predictive maintenance and execution.

This tech changes the game by:

• Allowing reverse-engineering to measure oil and gas tools in virtually every shape and size
• Scanning data to confirm whether replacement parts will fit existing equipment
• Providing clear documentation of tooling erosion to improve product design
• Reproducing tooling components

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The Internet of Things

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We’re well into the fourth industrial revolution, or industry 4.0, at this point in 2018. The industry is aware of the value of IoT, becoming more apparent each day.

Companies are demonstrating new applications for information from these technologies. For oil and gas the value lies in creating a set of standards “to guide how devices are structured, and a common language can be understood,” according to Paul Turner, CMO of Cloudian.

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Advanced Robotics

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One of the most critical challenges in oil and gas is mitigating risk — which can be managed by deploying human-controlled robotics.

Earlier this year Chevron partnered with OC Robotics to inspect offshore oil and natural gas pressure vessels in the North Sea. The robotic snake arm, built to operate in confined spaces, allows humans to operate critical missions while staying out of harm’s way.

Innovative advances in AI, cloud computing, 3D printing, IoT and robotics are transforming the future of the oil and gas industry.

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