Liberate your data gold

The energy industry is under pressure to make operations cleaner, more efficient and less wasteful. Improving performance to get the most value from existing E&P operations is now crucial to survival.

While this may seem an intimidating task, John Markus Lervik, CEO and co-founder of Cognite, believes the technological tools needed to succeed in these uncertain times are ready and waiting.

“The companies leading the transformation race are the ones who manage to bring their data together, extracted from individual silos, put in context, then used to create value across the entire operation,” he says.

“The winners are the ones who see it as something as essential to the job as GPS is to an Uber driver.”

Traditionally, oil and gas companies have produced enormous volumes of data, siloed away in unfit-for-purpose pieces of software or even physically stored, which is of no use to the company.

Imagine you have millions of pounds hidden away, but you can’t find it, and if you do, you can’t spend it on anything.

What’s the point of all this wealth if you can’t use it to your advantage?

Making data available and usable will bring about true change and create real value.

Increased uptime, reduced maintenance costs, more efficient production and significantly reduced emissions are all possible using data that companies already possess. There is no need to reinvent the wheel – the solution is already out there.

“For legacy operations, there is a job to be done to liberate the data,” says Lervik. “Most energy companies do not have a holistic view on the data gold within their reach. I’ve met companies where the data is on spreadsheets and even in people’s heads.

“The value of it can only truly be realised once it’s out of its cage and collected in a single platform, contextualised and shareable for all.”

Extracting the most value from data requires putting it in context first, then making it available and accessible to all users.

Many industrial companies have tried to do this themselves, with large investment and little return. Some have opted to use software companies for support, but with a lack of appreciation for how these legacy industries work, there can be major friction. This was the realisation when Lervik founded Cognite.

He and the team launched in 2016, with Norway’s second largest

oil and gas company, Aker BP, as their first customer.

Since then, Cognite has grown into a billion-pound business, helping clients such as BP and OMV maximise production, minimise waste, and make operations safer and more efficient.

Cognite’s core belief is in the power of Industrial Data Ops, a discipline that makes traditionally siloed data instantly available to users, enabling better decision-making and automation to improve operational performance.

“Industrial DataOps is a crucial and necessary tool to make digital transformation possible in asset-intensive industries,” says Lervik.

“It illustrates how to connect data from the IT and OT source to the data consumer with contextual tips that will empower organisations of all sizes to use it, innovate off of it, and reshape operations for efficiency, profitability and sustainability.”

Now is the time to maximise the value of data, using Industrial Data Ops to put it in the hands of the right users at the right time.

It is a complex problem, but the resources are there to solve it.

The value of data can only be realised once it’s out of its cage, collected, contextualised and shareable for all

TOOLS AT YOUR DISPOSAL: Oil and gas companies have huge volumes of data. But many don’t use it.