The world is going crazy over oil and gas. The oil and gas market is expected to grow over the next 6 years. To meet the rise in demand, oil and gas exploration is getting further from the shore. Which means more remote locations and higher dependence on network communications. And with an industry characterized by the complexity and diversity of its operations, adopting 5G is a must. Because, as for now, oil and gas exploration mainly include communication through a network of very pricey satellite links. The satellite links have a limited range and do not support transfer of big data and video, only voice communication.
A 5G network gives speed and versatility while creating a dependable structure. Communication of every aspect of an offshore site is made possible through the use of 5G. This supports not only the development of offshore oil and gas operations but their safety.
More reasons why you should be thinking of adopting 5G within your oil and gas organization:
Comprehensive monitoring: with 5G, organizations can monitor all activities inside a facility in real-time.
Higher efficiency: the data aggregated from the monitoring of activities inside a facility can be used to achieve higher efficiency at lower costs.
Customer satisfaction: this real time data can also be incorporated to create better customer experiences.
Environmentally friendly: it can allow equipment to work with less emissions and waste.
Faster: oil and gas operations usually take place in remote areas where there can be no connectivity. 5G can reduce the latency because of that by processing the data on the spot.
5G Use Cases in Oil and Gas Industry
Augmented and virtual reality: using augmented reality, a technician can get real-time advice on how to repair a machine. Because of the reliability and low latency provided by 5G, it is possible to display an equipment’s health in real time, object recognition, and have hands-free document review.
Enhanced mobile broadband: often geared towards entertainment applications such as video social networking and multimedia communications with better quality video, there is an enormous promise for its use in the oil and gas industry, particularly in domains such as video-based asset surveillance.
Promotes operational efficiency and safety: drones and inspection robots are becoming increasingly popular, especially in the oil and gas industry. A drone can cover more ground than a human in the same amount of time. The use of robots also has a significant safety benefit in that it reduces the exposure of workers to potentially dangerous circumstances.
Remote asset monitoring: remote asset monitoring and asset management contribute significantly to enhancing operational efficiency. Also, specialized analytics and prognostics can forecast when an asset needs to be shutdown for repair or is reaching the end of its useful life.
Scaffolding and PPE (Personnel Protection Equipment) compliance detection: the compliance is intended to assure worker safety by utilizing fixed and mobile solutions (cameras, drones and robots) linked with AI algorithms to check and ensure scaffolding and PPE compliance. 5G technology can deliver, without the need for a worker, solutions to detect in high resolution any breaches.
Remote management of autonomous oil production platforms: it is an important potential use case for 5G in this industry. Given the benefits of 5G which are ultra-reliable low-latency communication (URLLC), massive machine type communications (MMTC), and enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), the management of unmanned production platforms is a viable possibility. This is not now possible with 4G/LTE networks at high speed and scale.
Enhanced exploration: the ability to use machine learning and mixed reality to aid with data interpretation can considerably improve the efficacy of discovering hydrocarbon pockets in reservoirs.
Improve field planning: oil and gas industries organizations can become more precise and speedier in locating hydrocarbons by collecting huge amounts of data from various locations and employing AI and big data analytics.
