Oil and gas organizations face a turning point. As global energy demand rises, so do expectations for safety, sustainability and efficiency. Many leaders have accelerated their companies' digital transformation to strengthen resilience and prepare for a lower-carbon future.

Connected data plays a central role in this shift. According to our recent global industry report, where we surveyed 400 senior leaders and C-suite executives, 62% of oil and gas leaders expanded their use of digital tools and data sources over the past year. These investments support a broader goal to enable faster, more informed decisions across projects, operations and assets.

Explore our Data Connectivity & Visibility eBook, which highlights the challenges and opportunities companies face as they navigate the global energy transition. Some of the key findings are highlighted below.  

Persistent Risks Undermine Progress

Oil and gas companies face mounting pressure to deliver reliably while managing complex facilities, global supply chains and changing regulations. Cost control, safety and sustainability targets often pull in different directions. Many executives report serious operational impacts from key risk areas:

• 62% cite safety concerns as having a strong or severe impact
• 59% say the same about cybersecurity threats

At the same time, unreliable data compounds the problem. Project teams often work from incomplete or outdated sources:

• 73% struggle with inaccurate or missing data
• 71% report poor system integration
• 68% receive delayed or outdated information

These data gaps delay decisions, increase rework and erode confidence across teams.

Factors Driving These Challenges

Three factors continue to hinder progress:

• 70% of oil and gas leaders worldwide cite workforce attrition and knowledge loss as having a strong or severe impact on their business performance
• 73% of executives report that poor data quality has a severe or strong impact
• 69% of leaders say that manual processes strongly affect their ability to meet performance goals. Many organizations still rely on spreadsheets, disconnected workflows and legacy infrastructure

Leaders Invest in Connected Tools to Regain Control

Oil and gas companies continue to invest in digital ecosystems. As mentioned earlier, our global survey reports that 62% of organizations expanded the number of digital tools and data sources in the past year. Many see this as a strategic step toward smarter decision making and more adaptive operations.  

Tools such as digital twins, AI analytics and visualization dashboards promise deeper insights into asset performance to help teams reduce unplanned downtime and anticipate risks before they disrupt operations. In fact, 80% of leaders say their interest in digital twins has grown as they explore AI-driven insights to optimize operations.

Sixty-nine percent of oil and gas businesses now use digital thread technology frequently or continuously. When implemented effectively, this technology links systems and workflows across the asset lifecycle to enable real-time collaboration between departments that traditionally operated in silos. With predictive capabilities enhanced by AI, leaders gain foresight into maintenance needs and resource utilization for reduced cost overruns and optimized project timelines.  

However, organizations will need to match these investments with integration strategies that support connectivity and context. Without alignment between tools and teams, workloads expand and data loses meaning.

From Fragmented Systems to Connected Data

Disconnected systems continue to undermine digital progress. Without a unified data foundation, organizations struggle to unlock the full value of their tools. While individual tools may offer value, they rarely realize their full potential without a shared data architecture. Inconsistent data formats, manual reporting and isolated insights create bottlenecks and blind spots.

Digital thread technology provides a framework to overcome this fragmentation. It enables a continuous data flow across engineering, operations and enterprise systems. This improves traceability, simplifies compliance reporting and strengthens stakeholder alignment. In organizations with mature digital thread adoption, 71% of stakeholders report being able to access the data and systems they need, compared to 57% in less connected environments.  

To learn how oil and gas leaders use smarter data to reduce risk, boost performance and accelerate their energy transition, explore Hexagon’s Data Connectivity & Visibility eBook.