The oil and gas industry has a problem with data scientists. Why? Because most of them do not understand the industry domain. Like other market sectors that are seeking to reduce costs and increase revenue, the oil and gas industry is also looking at, and investing in, automation, AI, and machine learning as potential solutions. According to John Chappell, director of business development—energy, at BlockApps, the industry is “looking at a lot of change, as society undergoes its energy transition and moves towards net-zero.”
A major component of that change, he notes, will be a technology revolution “filled with edge computing, IoT devices, digital twins, AI, and blockchain technologies.” Cindy Corpis, chief executive officer of SearchPeopleFree, sees this as a natural step forward in the industry, noting, “The volume of data in the oil and gas business has increased tremendously, as information technology has advanced. Managing this data and utilizing it as a strategic asset has a substantial impact on the company’s financial performance.”
That’s why, she says, business intelligence (BI) tools are no longer capable of performing the necessary level of analysis required for predictive models, which are based on statistics. She adds that when the oil price dropped, courtesy of the coronavirus pandemic, it “compelled oil and gas businesses to look beyond standard methods, in order to improve performance and reduce costs.”
The role of talent. Because this drive is replete with potential risks—the ones that come from the potential calamitous safety hazards inherent in the industry—it’s important to recruit, train and retain data scientists who understand the potential industry dangers and can interpret data accurately. General knowledge data scientists might be able to survive in other industries, but in the oil and gas industry, they need higher education, training, and experience. As a result of specialized industry experience, access to 24/7 data and performing the right kind of analysis, these data scientists are more likely to be able to predict potential hazards and take action before disasters occur, Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. The technology revolution is changing the oil and gas industry, creating an unprecedented need for highly trained and specialized data scientists.
According to the 2021 Global Energy Talent Index (GETI) report, the biggest challenge the sector faces is a looming talent crisis. The report was compiled by Airswift, the global workforce solutions provider for the energy, process and infrastructure sectors, and Energy Jobline, a job site for the energy and engineering industries. The survey indicated that eight out of ten oil and gas professionals feel less secure in their jobs than they did in 2020, and 42% believe the sector has contracted over the prior 12 months. Yet, two-thirds expect advances in engineering to open-up important opportunities in the next several years. The 2022 report also defines the talent crisis as one of the industry’s most critical challenges, Fig. 2.
Those advances have been discussed for some time. In March 2019, Nathan Meehan, then-president of Gaffney, Cline and Associates (and a World Oil editorial advisor), noted in an article titled The End of Petroleum Engineering as We Know It, “Petroleum engineering jobs in the future are likely to be smaller in number and radically different from those of today. The next generation of petroleum engineers will have to address demands for sustainability, lower carbon intensity, and needs for radical productivity improvements, which only artificial intelligence (AI) and digital can drive. This suggests that we will need to revisit university education …….