The oil and gas industry has infrastructure throughout the world in the most environmentally hostile regions. This includes pipelines on ocean floors, frozen wilderness of Alaska and the inhospitable heat of the Middle East. In the past this required monitoring these assets physically to ensure there are no fractures or any other type of damage that could compromise the transportation of oil or natural gas. However, today M2M technology is making it possible to monitor the entire infrastructure in the oil and gas industry remotely 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without fail.
A new report by Berg Insight reveals that by the end of 2013, the number of devices with cellular or satellite connectivity that had been deployed for oil and gas applications globally reached 423,000 installations. According to the report the sector is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.4 percent, with a 2018 forecast of installed units to be 1.12 million. By 2018 the cellular installations will command the majority of the units accounting for 871,000, while satellite installations will take the remaining 244,000.
The oil and gas industry has been in the forefront of M2M technology adoption because the remote and isolated facilities are sometimes only accessible with wireless communications. This makes M2M the only viable option for transmitting data for drill and well monitoring, fiscal metering and pipeline monitoring. With this technology oil and gas companies are able to increase operational efficiency by linking remote equipment and enterprise IT systems to deliver operations management, equipment management and regulatory compliance.
This remote automation, control and monitoring also introduces a level of efficiency that reduces costs for extracting, transporting and distributing emerging oil and gas products whether it is LNG or the controversial shale gas.
The key questions the report answers regarding M2M in the oil and gas industry are:
- Which are the leading wireless M2M solution providers for oil and gas applications?
- What offerings are available from device vendors and service providers?
- What impact will new regulations have on the market?
- What are the key drivers behind the adoption of M2M applications?
- What impact will technology advancements have on the market?
- What is the split between cellular and satellite based M2M devices?
- What impact will the exploration of unconventional resources have on the market?
- How will the oil & gas M2M market evolve in the future?
"Wireless M2M solutions are retrofitted to existing infrastructure as well as incorporated in new pipeline projects across the world. In the downstream segment, cellular telemetry solutions have proven to be a great fit for remote monitoring of storage tanks", said Johan Svanberg, Senior Analyst, Berg Insight.
Edited by
Rory J. Thompson
