The premier event in the energy industries—upstream, midstream, downstream and power—will occur in Houston, Texas next week at CERAWeek 2019. It:
…provides comprehensive insight into the global and regional energy future by addressing key issues—from markets and geopolitics to technology, project costs, energy and the environment, finance, operational excellence and cyber risks.
Given the extraordinary growth in oil & gas production from the Texas/New Mexico Permian Basin Region, pipelines will be one of the significant points of discussion in midstream conversations at CERAWeek.
I wanted to highlight a recent article from Pipeline magazine, Emerson Targets Top Quartile Performance. In the article, Emerson’s Chris Amstutz is asked about energy producers’ and operators’ path through digital transformation initiatives.
Chris shares the need for understanding the key measurements for business performance. For top quartile producers and operators:
…it starts from the top of linking strategy to business objectives, demanding a culture of accountability and building out an infrastructure that embeds expertise in work processes and applications, optimised by real-time data.
He describes one of the most significant challenges.
Companies are undergoing a cultural evolution and that’s the hardest part of the digital transformation journey.
Key competencies are required for this journey:
…automated workflows, decision support, workforce upskilling, mobility and change management.
Pilots are a common approach for taking small steps in digital transformation efforts. Important is focus on:
…specific problems with a clear business case to gain experience and scale.
Chris shares a practical example.
We are going from operator rounds to predictive maintenance and there is a huge benefit there… your availability goes up overnight and costs go down.
Read the article for more on considerations for undertaking digital transformation initiative to achieve top quartile performance in key areas such as safety, reliability, energy & emissions, and production.
And if you’ll be in Houston next week for CERAWeek, join the Emerson executives and experts to discuss ways to improve overall performance.