The oil and gas industry is no stranger to disruption and digital transformation, which SAP covered in a virtual event that explored the latest trends and technology innovations in this space.

The industry forum covered three major topics:

  • Cloud-based platforms for digital transformation
  • End-to-end market standard processes
  • Digitalized production and processes

A Cloud Consortium for SAP Oil and Gas Customers

As a founding member of SAP’s upstream cloud consortium, Chevron Corporation works with peer organizations to determine the most efficient software footprint. The goal of the consortium is to operate and innovate more effectively by jointly developing market standard, cloud-based industry software as a service solutions to manage end-to-end workflows and processes. Intelligent technologies and cloud-based platforms are at the core of Chevron’s digital transformation to become more efficient.

“In the current market we’re in, we want to position our business, and each and every business within that, to win in any environment,” said Jim Green, general manager of IT service delivery at Chevron. “We need to understand the competitive landscape and what we need to do to improve to maintain that competitive position.” Data science, analytics, cloud, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are key differentiators for Chevron in their digital transformation.

A Candid and Transparent Approach to Adopting Oil and Gas Solutions

“On the business side, we looked at our operations and identified several areas where we could make the most impact with these technologies across the value chain,” Green said. “That includes day-to-day operations such as turnarounds, production optimization, and maintenance.”

According to Green, it’s important for others in the oil and gas industry to be candid and transparent from a capability perspective about the solutions they are deploying. “We can find ways to do this efficiently if we leverage our collective knowledge,” he said.

Shell’s Path to Intelligent ERP and Flowing Data

While many people think of Shell as an oil and gas company, the company sees itself as an energy business striving to expand its horizons through innovations to meet the energy needs of the future.

Shell CIO Jay Crotts notes the company has a long-term vision to meet the energy demands of the planet in a carbon-responsible way, driven by innovation leveraging digital technologies like intelligent ERP. “Data, I think, is the new oil,” Crotts said. “The ability to bring data together gives us insight allowing us to solve problems we’ve never been able to solve before.”

Shell uses multiple SAP products end-to-end to help its data flow naturally and consistently. Advances in automation allow Shell to operate more efficiently and safely while increasing its production.

BP Seeking an Upstream Industry Standard on the Cloud

For upstream consortium member BP, its top priorities are removing complexity from its landscape, lowering the total cost of ownership (TCO) of its SAP solutions, and stepping into a digital age with an industry standard on the cloud.

“For us, it’s important that as an industry, we define the right processes and standards for oil and gas,” said Dan Smith, director of BP's upstream SAP service portfolio. “We want to collaborate with other operators and industry players on those definitions and translate those to SAP to create a solution we can all subscribe to.”

Automation for Agility at Shell Aviation

As oil and gas companies work to digitalize production and services, they can use their SAP systems to see end-to-end commodity management and retail processes to optimize their hydrocarbon supply chain. This helps reduce risks and costs, allowing oil and gas companies to increase their revenue and profit.

Shell Aviation delivers fuel and lubricant services to airline customers. At its peak operations, it fuels an aircraft every 14 seconds. The company saw an opportunity to work with SAP to build a mobile cloud-based application that could automate the ticketing process for the airline operators and achieve the agility, flexibility, and real-time data required in its ERP environment. Paul Oliver, IT manager at Shell, noted that the benefits of implementation included reduced costs, greater operational efficiency, and a quicker turnaround for their customers.

The cloud can be a great accelerator that allows customers to combine experience data (X-data) from Qualtrics with operational data (O-data) from SAP systems to support launching new business models, delivering exceptional experiences, and more.

Watch SAP’s oil and gas industry forum on demand. You can also read the research we did with SAP customers in the oil and gas industry in 2020, The State of the Oil and Gas Industry.

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