The Value of Digitization

Andrew Gregg of Gregg Valdés & Associates quickly discusses the benefits of digitization of complex facilities, including increased production. Gregg Valdés & Associates provides specialized engineering document and data management services for the oil and gas industry, from development of major capital projects to operations phase and brownfield projects; they and have delivered efficiency benefits which result from easy access to equipment tag data and linking to engineering and vendor documentation. *** I think there are many examples where digitization has proved to be of tremendous benefit. Well I think the value that it brings is considerable, and in terms of examples, I think there are many operators now who have moved forward with a digital twin of the facility, or, a field of the future, or something of that nature. So there are many examples out there of operators who, over the last 10 or 15 years, have had a strategy and have implemented facilities which are heavily digitized. The advantage can stem from the simple end of easy access to documentation, but digitization can take you into the ability to do predictable maintenance on equipment, to involve the manufacture and looking at that information. So I think there are many examples already of where digitization has had a significant impact on the optimization of the assets and even in some cases have managed to increase production For example, in the Gulf of Mexico, anything that helps reduce the downtime from hurricanes is obviously going to offer more production capability and there have been some examples where digitization allows you to start up the facility more readily, and therefore, after a hurricane you’re up and running, producing, far more readily then you were in the past.