How Smart Technology Moves Into all Stages of the Petrochemical Value Chain –

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With the dramatic drop in oil prices, many drilling companies are forced to reduce their investments and to make drastic cost savings. The last twenty years have already seen an increase of production costs. These are mainly due to mature oil and gas fields, ever deeper drilling, operating under increasingly difficult conditions in the Arctic, deep seas or in deserts, or more complex sources. Particularly, the latter demand more expensive technologies such as horizontal drilling, additional purification steps due to stricter regulations or less pure carbon deposits.

As long as oil prices were rising, the additional costs did not matter much. Even back then more and more companies from German– speaking countries seized parts of the once fully American dominated upstream market. Suddenly, some of these companies found access to a market that was formerly virtually inaccessible. Without high-tech made in Germany, production in difficult environments was no longer possible.

Offshore Compressors

World's First Subsea Gas Compression Systems Operate in the North Sea

Is a Wave of Innovation due Now?

The longer the oil prices remain at historically low levels, the more the pressure will increase on the oil and gas companies along with service companies. The industry is calling ever louder for innovation leaps which were never really approached during the past decade. More efficient and smarter products nourish hopes for cost benefits.

Buzzwords such as ‘digitalization’ (in Germany: Industrie 4.0), ‘intelligent automation’, ‘modularization’ or ‘re-engineering’ are making the rounds. The VDMA welcomes this development and sees it as a great opportunity for its members.

Some German pump providers have had more energy-efficient products on offer for years or have their drafts and drawings ready and are waiting for the market. It remains to be seen whether the long overdue revision of some obsolete US regulations that effectively prevent the use of such efficient products, will now finally get abolished. The VDMA and its member companies are ready to help and accompany this process towards smart technology.

* VDMA Oil, Gas, Petrochemistry

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