The Oil & Gas industry cannot afford a reduction in production reliability. The efficiency of their equipment and machines is paramount, according to Ghassan Barghouth, president, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, at energy management and automation specialist Schneider Electric.
“Shut downs are costly and just a small 1% improvement in reliability means that oil and gas companies can forecast when the next LNG shipment can be dispatched, for example, and there is a big spot market. So, it is very, very important,” said Barghouth.
To enhance reliability, Schneider Electric suggests an open IT management architecture designed to allow for all aspects of the upstream producer’s architecture to work together, even if it is from a range of different suppliers.
“Having software platforms that are able to integrate different data sources, creating a system that can provide better efficiency and better reliability for the oil and gas industry is essential,” said Ghassan Barghouth.
There are a range of different software systems available on the market at the moment, including those offerings from Schneider Electric, which integrate all of the different IT network components that the company can do or can buy from different manufacturers on an upper network level.
“If any Oil & Gas company wants to integrate all aspects of its IT network together into one single system, it needs to use one software whether it is Schneider Electric’s software or any other type of IT network integration software,” said Barghouth.