The Importance of Integrating Visualization and Collaboration in a Digital Transformation Strategy

The oil and gas industry is experiencing significant change. Aging workforces, low oil prices, and the pressure to reduce environmental footprint are among many factors forcing E&P companies to rethink how they operate; which is why there is so much interest in digital transformation. The increasing availability of lower-cost digital technology has the potential to unleash innovative ideas across the oil and gas value chain.

However, in order to be effective, digital transformation must be holistic and integrate as much of the workflow as possible. Productive collaboration among exploration and production teams is too often prevented by the lack of effective integrated visualization of subsurface data. Our industry tends to operate in silos, with geology, geophysics, drilling, and engineering data often separated by applications and vendors. You cannot empower collaboration and improve operational efficiency if you still operate in silos. The ultimate goal would be a single system, with a mechanism to aggregate and integrate data, built from as many common shared components as possible. These common shared components may come from different local systems or perhaps different vendors.