Digital Oil Fields and Its Emerging Technologies

ABSTRACT

The new technological developments in the oil and gas industry have always pushed the operators to work into new frontiers such as heavy oil, HTHP, deep waters, and unconventional reservoirs. The oversupply accounted by shale extraction has led to shifts in markets and reduced oil prices, followed by slow demand growth due to the COVID-19 pandemic and an increase in acceptance of alternate energy resources, mandating the companies to adopt digital solutions to facilitate cost reduction and improving the operational efficiency in terms of increased production and reduced time. Digital oil field (DOF) is capable of transforming the future of the oil industry by creating opportunities to connect diverse operations, breaking silos, and achieving real value for the investments. The faster availability of cheaper data infrastructure is bringing Artificial Intelligence-driven technology and the latest data automation to the DOF. This chapter focuses on the DOF, its components, along the challenges encountered in widely accepting the technology. The chapter also addresses the emerging technologies which are being merged with DOF for better decision-making and optimization. © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Anirbid Sircar, Gautami Tripathi, Namrata Bist, Kashish Ara Shakil and Mithileysh Sathiyanarayanan;individual chapters, the contributors.