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OIL & GAS MEETING ESG TARGETS USING INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION


The sector’s efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change centre around three primary areas: reducing CO2 emissions, reducing methane emissions and recycling CO2. An intelligent automation formula can support forward movement on these goals: replace manual tasks with automation, relieving people to focus on value-adding transformative work.


Saranjit Singh, VP Telecommunications and Utilities APAC, SS&C Blue Prism, discusses how intelligent automation is helping the oil and gas industry drive sustainability goals


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he oil and gas (O&G) industry is in a state of flux, facing all-time-high energy prices and pressures for less carbon intensive-energy systems, demands for clean energy to address the climate crisis, tight margins and talent shortages. The industry is seeking ways to reduce CO2 and methane emissions as well as source alternatives. But effective change will require substantial investment, innovation and research and development at a much faster pace than we are currently seeing. Intelligent automation (IA) has a role to play in bringing this reality to life. An astonishing 81% of oil and gas executives agree a digital-first workforce needs to be developed over the next 10 years. Regulations and societal demands for reducing fossil-fuel dependency will only continue. IA can help by driving innovation, filling some of the skills gap for engineers, and enhancing data usage and operational efficiency. Much of this sector is process-driven, yet many of these tasks are still operated manually and with legacy systems. This creates value-obstructing data siloes, which IA can help break down, offering insights and analysis to inform progress promoting decision-making. Together, these outcomes enhance cash flows while helping meet emerging sustainability objectives and requirements.


What is the role of oil and gas in today’s global economy?


This year, oil and gas will make up over half of the world’s energy supply, which shows our continued dependence on these commodities. Alternative energy sources have not yet advanced to the point where we can effectively


use them to replace all the world’s oil and gas demands. Also, we must remember, developing economies are going to struggle to facilitate their industrial needs without oil and gas as they have not had the capacity of developed countries to invest in clean energies and technologies.


Although we are not at the point where we can say goodbye to oil and gas, this does not absolve us of the responsibility to transition to a renewable energy supply. The O&G industry has a large role to play in bringing forward a global net-zero economy, which is estimated to need US$3.5 trillion in annual investment through 2050. Fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – are the largest contributors to climate change, accounting for more than 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions.


The industry is working to make progress when it comes to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, as doing so has become an economic, moral and reputational imperative. A number of oil and gas companies have established net-zero- emissions targets and are persevering with decarbonisation efforts despite the economic volatility of the past few years. For example, Occidental Petroleum has partnered with Carbon Engineering, a Canadian-based clean energy company, to build a plant intended to capture half a million metric tons of CO2 every year. And in January 2022, ExxonMobil announced its target to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. How is IA helping the industry reach its ESG


targets?


Any movement in this space will require substantial research and development, combined with innovation. This requires effective and complete data usage, which is impossible with outdated IT infrastructures and siloed information. Intelligent automation can connect these legacy systems and consolidate the reams of structured and unstructured data, and process it to provide insightful and innovation-driving analytics. Free-moving data facilitates IA and maximises its use and impact across the organisation. Actionable insights sourced from this data speed up decision-making, promote fast problem- solving and assist with meeting future compliance and regulatory standards. Employing intelligent automation can free workers to focus on experimentation, innovation and processes for detecting, measuring and mitigating emissions levels. It can be used to measure progress and success on reaching emissions targets through impact analytics, and help businesses ensure they’re operating in line with regulations.


We don’t know what the solutions are going to be in 20 years, but the faster we test and adapt different solutions – whether hydrogen, electric or something else entirely – the closer we’ll be to a long-term answer. As the oil and gas industry works to bring this reality to the fore, we’re seeing lines between this sector, the energy sector and the telecommunications sector begin to blur. The business model is evolving – O&G businesses are diversifying and expanding to adjacent areas, such as hydrogen and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS).


It is easy to scapegoat the O&G industry, but we all have a role to play – landfills, agriculture, transportation etc, are all contributors to global emissions. For the most part, the oil and gas industry recognises its role, but this transformation will take time. It takes time to uncover equally capable alternatives to what we are used to and view as essential. However, it is a necessary transformation if we are to leave the world a good place for our children and grandchildren.


SS&C Blue Prism www.blueprism.com


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