CTO’s and other technology leaders in Oil & Gas companies may all recognize this… You have a portfolio of technology solutions to address business challenges, and you’re experiencing that there is no or limited pull from the business. What to do about it?
There are many opportunities to make a difference with technology. It is important though that your portfolio contains the right type of technologies; not only technologies that can make an impact in the medium- to longer-term, but also technologies that can make an impact right away.
In this blog, we will give you insights about the tools you can use to assess your current technology portfolio. Also, we’ll give insights where typically quick wins through technology deployment can be found. The insights are based on the work we have done in support of tens of operators in the past years.
Understanding the Impact versus Do-Ability of technology
The starting point for a portfolio analysis is understanding the Impact versus Do-ability of a technology, taking into account the environment in which your company operates. We assess the Impact versus Do-Ability by making use of our Tech Assessment Tool. With the Tech Assessment Tool, a technology is assessed against criteria grouped under 7 themes, through a structured dialogue with key stakeholders. The Tech Assessment Tool provides key insights into the reasons why a technology is difficult or relatively easy to deploy. Also, based on the outcome generated with the Tech Assessment Tool, specific actions can be defined to increase the chances of success. The outcome of the Tech Assessment Tool is visualised with a spider diagram and a matrix. The spider diagram visually shows what the score is for the various themes: the percentage of points scored considering the maximum number of points that can be scored. It immediately gives an indication where the weakest links are.
The spider diagram gives insights on the weakest links(s) for the specific technology
The outcome can also be translated into an Impact versus Do-ability matrix. The Impact axis gives the % of points achieved for Themes 1 and 2, and the Do-ability axis gives the % of the points gained on the other 5 Themes.
Outcome of the Tech Positioning Programme using an Impact versus Do-ability Matrix.
Portfolio Analysis
The matrix is particularly useful when showing the status of a portfolio of solutions, such as illustrated in the picture below. This way, a quick overview can be obtained on the overall quality and balance of the portfolio.
Using the Impact versus Do-Ability matrix for a portfolio analysis.
Replacing technologies with better alternatives
For each technology that you currently have in the portfolio, it’s good to ask yourself the question of whether there are better alternatives available in the marketplace. There are many technologies available or under development outside of your company. By managing the inflow of third-party technologies successfully, it will reduce the risk that you spend time and money on projects for which there is a better external alternative available or under development. One source that can help you with this is TechnologyCatalogue.com. \
If you don’t find a solution in there for your business need, please contact us. We are continuously adding technologies to the platform, based on the business needs of our customers.
Creating technology pull in today’s business environment!
The outcome of the portfolio analysis may well be that the portfolio needs to be refreshed with technologies that can improve business performance in today’s business environment. How to find technologies that are attractive given the low oil price and today’s COVID-19 restrictions?
Based on our experience, there are 5 areas in particular where typically quick wins can be found! See also the recording of our recent webinar on the topic delivered on 8th April 2020: https://www.technologycatalogue.com/webinars.
- Maintenance & turnarounds - perform maintenance and turnaround activities more effectively with less people on site
- Optimising the movement of goods and people - eliminate the need for transport, e.g. through different data gathering methods; replace current transport methods with alternatives, e.g. using drones; optimise the movement, e.g. by using optimisation algorithms based on AI.
- Production improvement through facilities de-bottlenecking - make better use of your existing infrastructure instead of brownfield redevelopment
- Opening closed-in wells - make the most of your existing well stock, this can save you from having to drill new wells
- Optimisation of infill well locations - meet your production targets with less wells
When we support operators with selecting the technologies, we take technologycatalogue.com as a starting point. The technologies that are identified typically meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Activities can be completed in less time
- Activities can be done with less personnel on site
- Activities can be executed in a different way, e.g. remotely
- Activities can be eliminated
For example, were you aware that the number of days spent on cleaning equipment to prepare for maintenance activities can often be halved by introducing novel cleaning techniques?
Or did you know that the application of novel modelling software can help to optimise the location of wells, resulting in the reduction of Unit Development Cost? We’ve seen cases whereby UDC got reduced by >15%!
Upgrading your technology portfolio.
Conclusion
Although today’s business environment is clearly very challenging, there are many opportunities to make a difference with technology… provided you have the right portfolio of technologies! We can support you with the tools and insights to create a portfolio that can improve business performance in the short-term as well as medium- to longer-term. Curious how this can help you? Please contact us at info@technologycatalogue.com!
About us
The founders of TechnologyCatalogue.com led technology deployment activities in support of assets and projects across Shell. Over 600 deployments were successfully delivered, resulting in a very significant impact on safety, production and cost. We understand what it takes to get technology deployed, including all change management aspects related to it. Since starting TechnologyCatalogue.com in March 2018, we have supported multiple operators in Upstream and Downstream with technology deployment.
Our platform TechnologyCatalogue.com was developed based on the first-hand experience that it is often difficult for decision-makers to stay up to date on available technology-driven improvement opportunities for their business. It was launched in Q3 2018 and is steadily growing in terms of content & functionality. Since the launch, >24,000 unique users have accessed the platform. We’re also developing customised versions of the platform. For example, jointly with National Energy Resources Australia, we have delivered a customised version of the portal for Australia (Nera.TechnologyCatalogue.com)
In addition to TechnologyCatalogue.com, we also support suppliers and end-users with getting technology deployment done, through consultancy & workshops.
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