Trio of research projects aim to help offshore firms unlock digital potential
● Businesses to work with academics on ways to reduce costs and boost efficiency
Three research projects aimed at helping the oil and gas industry reap the benefits of digital technology to improve efficiency and cut costs have won backing from an innovation centre.
The Aberdeen-based Oil & Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) today announces support for the projects being carried out by three companies in conjunction with Robert Gordon University’s (RGU) School of Computing Science and Digital Media.
Norwegian technical consultancy DNV GL is developing an interactive programme for extracting and processing information from images of piping and instrumentation diagrams and other types of engineering drawings.
The work aims to speed up the collection of data for use in a number of technical applications.
Aberdeen-based Complyants, a data analytics company, is working to develop an automated system using artificial intelligence to manage compliance processes on oil and gas projects. The project aims to deliver a fully functional prototype within 12 months.
Software company IDS, also based in Aberdeen, is developing a data-driven tool to predict the duration of tasks carried out in the industry.
Ian Phillips, chief executive officer of OGIC, said: “Digitalisation is key to a sustainable oil and gas industry. Successful automation and integration of a huge range of tasks across many aspects of the exploration and production cycle are now possible through the ability to rapidly process vast quantities of data in very short periods of time.
“RGU’S School of Computing Science and Digital Media has a wealth of expertise and its involvement in these three projects is testament to this.”
Eyad Elyan, project academic lead at RGU, said: “This is another great opportunity which enables our team to apply cutting-edge research in machine learning to solve challenging industrial problems by intelligently mining and exploiting large volumes of structured and unstructured data such as images, text documents and others.
“Such projects have the potential to significantly improve existing business practices and can demonstrate the quality of research and teaching taking place at the university.”
The OGIC aims to support expertise to help solve challenges facing the oil and gas industry, funding up to 50 per cent of costs. The centre recently signed its 75th project, taking its total investment into technology over the last four years to £3.8 million.