Oil and Gas Technology: Robotics and Automation

The industry’s advances in oil and gas technology is a direct result of the hard times that came with falling oil prices. Times being tougher meant firms had to look at ways to increase their operational efficiency. Companies can use robots and automation to cut down on the waste that comes with downtime on a rig. Downtime is an inevitable reality robotics and other oil and gas technology can ease this problem considerably. There was also a realization that many of the most dangerous jobs in the industry could be filled by robots so workers were not put at risk of injury.

Some of the ways robotics and automation are used in oil and gas include:

• Robotic vehicles are being used offshore to inspect and make minor subsea repairs 
• Drones are being used to inspect pipelines 
• Automation is being used in midstream infrastructure and rigs 
• The Iron Roughneck is a robot that automates the repetitive and dangerous task of connecting drill pipes. 
• Remotely operated aerial drones can survey the area 
• Whole unmanned platforms that use only robotics and automation

INNOVATIVE DRILLING TECHNOLOGY TO ENSURE LONG TERM ACCESS FOR AGEING RESERVOIRS

Drilling at great depths in the search for new supplies of oil or gas is a highly technical and difficult task. The drill must be able to keep operating despite huge amounts of pressure, temperature and debris as the well gets deeper. An essential part of the drilling process is the use of drilling fluid, or as our engineers call it, ‘mud’. This is pumped down the drill pipe to keep the drill bit cool. The fluid also brings drilled cuttings back to the surface, where the cuttings are removed for examination and then safe disposal. The fluid is then recycled and reused – all with no harm to the environment

High-Pressure challenges

Many of the biggest energy reserves lie in so-called High-Pressure/High-Temperature (HP/HT) reservoirs. Drilling these reservoirs is extremely challenging with reservoir pressures up to 1,100 bar and temperatures beyond 200°C. Once discovered and put into production, the pressure in the reservoir reduces as gas is removed and carried to the surface. This pressure reduction in the reservoir creates a situation where the reservoir is at a pressure much lower than that of the rock formation immediately above it. The drilling mud must be kept at a density heavy enough to hold back the formation fluids but not be too heavy to fracture and damage the now depleted reservoir. Managing this balancing act successfully without fracturing the reservoir is critical to be able to drill wells on aging HP/HT reservoirs.

How to achieve Successful innovations in the oil & gas industry ?

In an industry where innovation is now the key to sustainability. One of the biggest challenges for oil and gas companies when achieving this degree of innovation on an industry-wide scale is finding the best way to integrate ground-breaking, new technologies.

Larger companies must refocus much of their investment on the smaller, more ambitious technology developers to ensure revolutionary solutions enter the oil and gas market faster and enable them to prepare their existing solutions for success within a new era of innovation.



One particular concept we have seen emerge across the oil and gas industry within the last decade is the digital oilfield, which refers to the real-time automation of operations through a combination of business process management systems and complex information technology, to ensure the simple management and tracking of the data. This has presented oil and gas companies with one way to streamline systems and achieve technology innovation, however a greater investment in startups could see many other opportunities come to fruition. This means we must have a technology vision for the industry and a future where remote operations and automation are the norm.

Recent survey shows that the oil and gas industry could unlock more than $1bn of revenues by developing technologies to inspect offshore infrastructure. Which technologies are these? Where are they being built…?

The oil and gas industry could generate an extra $1 billion in revenues if it were to develop new technologies in the field of offshore infrastructure inspection, a new report has found.

The study, which Oil & Gas UK commissioned from Lockheed Martin and was titled The Asset Integrity Theme Landscaping Study, found that companies’ efforts to check installations for corrosion and inspect vessels were being held back by gaps in technology.

Many of the current techniques are inefficient and unnecessarily costly. Vessel inspection is usually done manually, according to the report’s authors, and can be hazardous and time consuming, as an engineer has to work in confined spaces. Corrosion is also difficult to trace because surfaces on oil and gas installation are covered with insulation which is expensive and time consuming to remove.

The report, which was ordered on behalf of the UK’s Technology Leadership board



mentioned a number of technologies which could help, but warned that there was not currently one single solution, and oil and gas companies would likely have to combine several different options to get the desired results.

One corrosion detection technology mentioned was the pulsed eddy current technique, which involves driving an electromagnetic field through the outer insulation, allowing sensors to detect variation in the field that are caused by changes in the material, such as corrosion.

The report also recommended that oil and gas operators use a combination of remotely-operated vehicles and sensors to make vessel inspection more efficient.