Welcome to the Chemical and Petroleum Industry Insight Series

Hello, my name is John Brantley, General Manager for IBM’s Chemical and Petroleum business. Welcome and thank you for listening to our Industry Insight Series.

The Chemicals & Petroleum Industry Insight Series is an opportunity for us to share our perspectives on the challenges C&P companies face, their vision in responding to these challenges, and how IBM helping them turn this vision into reality.

For the past several years much has been discussed about the world becoming “flatter”. It has also continued to become “smaller” and more interconnected through forces such as free trade, the Internet and the arrival of globalization.

The reality of living in a globally integrated world is upon us. Over the last several years we’ve seen how hot growth in emerging markets has had a direct impact on global energy demand and rising oil prices.

This has lead to societal debates on the availability of energy to meet the world’s demand, the affordability of gasoline and consumer products and, of course, the overall impact on the environment.

In the near term we’ll need to extract more oil and natural gas than ever before. Projections show energy consumption increasing by 50% in the next 25 years. As we move toward a renewable future, we need to shape our hydrocarbon presence in ways that are more efficient, affordable and protective of the environment.

Yet, consider for a moment that today we only extract about 1/3 of the oil from a reservoir, leaving potentially billions of untapped barrels behind. Or, that a petroleum engineer can spend up to 60% of their time just data mining through the terabytes of data an oilfield can generate daily.

These processes are not smart enough to be sustainable. We must make them better and the need for progress is clear. Fortunately, the technology and know-how to make these processes and systems better is here. Again, we need to turn vision into reality.

There’s a mandate for positive change among people, businesses, and institutions. And a mandate for change is a mandate for smart. Our planet is becoming smarter. This isn't just a metaphor. I'm not talking about the Knowledge Economy—or even the fact that hundreds of millions of people from developing nations are gaining the education and skills to enter the global workforce.

I mean the infusion of intelligence into the way the world literally works—the systems and processes that enable physical goods to be developed, manufactured, bought and sold… services to be delivered… everything from people and money to oil, water and electrons to move… and billions of people to work and live.

A smarter planet is possible because:

First, our world is becoming instrumented. Sensors are embedded across eco-systems for real-time production adjustments, decision making and risk management. For Petroleum organizations, this means, for example, that well monitoring systems on equipment can show signs of wear and can be repaired before accidents occur.

Second, our world is becoming interconnected. A more interconnected environment enables process standardization and work collaboration for greater production flexibility, management and insight. For example, connecting offshore and onshore support centers for real-time collaboration across the globe speeds decision making and increases productivity.

And, finally, virtually all things, processes and ways of working are becoming intelligent. Capabilities exist to not only sense equipment problems before they occur, but have the intelligence to proactively make adjustments and trigger events that reduce equipment failure at the oil well or refining site.

The combination of instrumented, interconnected and intelligent holds enormous promise for progress. This combination leads to an opportunity to Think and Act in new ways . . . Economically, Socially and Technically.

For chemicals and petroleum companies this means smarter oil & gas fields, smarter refining and manufacturing operations and smarter supply chain processes.

Smarter exploration means integrating and processing geophysical and other relevant data to develop 3-D models of reservoirs. It means finding previously inaccessible oil and gas reserves embedded beneath difficult terrain or the deepest ocean waters.

Smarter production means capturing information about the volume and quality of oil and gas reservoirs before a new well is drilled. It means minimizing the drilling footprint and exploration risk while improving the safety and reliability of operations.

Smarter reservoir management makes use of sensors embedded across pipes, pumps and an entire field, generating data that can be compared against historical trends and applied to help optimize well performance. An intelligent field can even monitor itself while being run by a team of “virtual” experts around the world.

Smarter refining is using predictive analytics to enhance production flexibility and responsiveness to supply and demand fluctuations in the market that improve asset availability and reliability.

And being smarter is not just about management. It’s also about anticipating problems before they occur — and, in some cases, adjusting automatically to prevent them, thereby reducing the risks to people and the environment.

A smarter chemical and petroleum enterprise leverages new technologies to transform the way it operates. A smarter model means the work changes, but so do the results.

So, how do you become a smarter company? And how can IBM help you? Through the links to the audio recordings listed on this page, I explore with key members of our C&P team specific areas where the chemicals and petroleum companies are getting ‘smarter’ and must continue to operate ‘smarter’ in an environment of increased volatility and competition.

And while many of the ‘smarter’ concepts have been circulating in the chemicals and petroleum industries for some time, this “Industry Insight Series” will also share how IBM is helping clients turn vision into reality.

I encourage you to listen to each of the recordings listed; each addresses a different area of the industry and provides insight on how your company can become a “smarter” company. Each is short—no more than 10 minutes long—but packed with examples and insights well worth your time and investment.

Again, thank you for taking the time to listen to the audio recordings listed on this page. And, please don’t hesitate to contact myself or anyone you hear in these sessions with any questions about what IBM is doing to help build a smarter planet.