What’s special about Business Intelligence for Oil and Gas?
Everyone who works at an oil and gas company is focused on collecting, storing, analyzing, interpreting, or consuming some form of data. And unlike other industries, Oil and Gas doesn’t focus only on using data to gain operational efficiencies. Energy firms really use data to analyze core assets and extract value. In fact, Business Intelligence seems to be bred into the industry itself. According to Gary Lensing of Hess in a recent CIO.com article,
“Engineers and geoscientists and everyone have been taught BI from the start.”
So there’s lots of data, people who know how to use it and the value to be gained from it. Yet the sophistication of IT in the oil and gas industry is lagging. Where’s the catch?
Everyone seems to agree about the importance of good Business Intelligence in the oil and gas industry, but what’s interesting is that the method for how to get there from here is not very clear. As the article notes,
“BI in oil and gas isn’t a simple matter of buying a set of analysis tools and feeding data into them.”
Business Intelligence is dependent on many sources of clean, accurate and up to date data. And although IT staff might be able to help improve the flow of information, they are regularly relegated to desktop technician status with a focus on reducing cost. Data management then is seen as more of a necessary evil than a necessity, so budgets often do not include significant dollars for improvements in this area.
In fact, a recent study by Schlumberger and CDA called ‘The Business Value Case for Data Management’ suggests that,
“until very recently the data management community has most often published and presented their methods and challenges to themselves. Users and Budget Holders have not been involved in the discussion.”
The same article states as it’s findings that, “all oil company personnel should carefully review their current data management. In most companies there are opportunities to . . . significantly increase the total value an organization generates.”
We’ll cover ways to consider implementing business intelligence at your oil and gas company next week!