The progress and future potential of oilfield digitalisation have been the key focus on the first day of the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ (SPE) Intelligent Energy event in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
The three-day conference was opened by Gerald Schotman, chief technology officer and executive vice president of innovation and R&D at Shell, who claimed technology developments were necessary if the industry was to address the estimated 80% increase in energy demand by 2050.
Delegates also heard from Brian Muirhead, chief engineer of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) on overcoming the vast challenges of landing space craft on Mars and pushing the boundaries of space exploration in a zero fault tolerant environment.
More than 40 exhibitors are showcasing their expertise at the event, themed Aspirations and Accomplishments, including Baker Hughes, BP, Honeywell, IBM, Saudi Aramco and Weatherford.
80 technical papers are covering topics including technology, integrated operations, leadership, cyber-security and big data.
“The enthusiasm shown by delegates in the sessions really highlights the need for innovative digital age technologies in our ever developing industry,” said Egbert Imomoh, 2013 President of SPE.
“The importance of this critical area was clearly recognised by all attendees and SPE is extremely excited by the continued interest in this topic.”