Better together: OSIsoft and AVEVA bring opportunities for oil and gas

Russell Herbert, the industry principal for oil and gas at AVEVA, can’t remember another time in his career when he was more inspired to be working in industrial software. “The projects that we’re working on now really have the potential to significantly improve the value operators get from their investment in digital technology,” Russell said in a recent episode of his Intelligent Oil & Gas Podcast series. “Even more exciting are the things that are going to be coming out in the months and years ahead. It’s going to mean a big change in the world of oil and gas.”

Traditionally, oil and gas has been a very conservative industry. According to Russell, only relatively recently has the oil and gas industry started to fully realize some of the benefits of more advanced industrial applications and analytics tools, including digital twins, machine learning, and predictive maintenance systems. As they have gained experience, industry leaders have started to understand the crucial need for robust data management strategies to properly support and underpin all their digital initiatives. Data needs context, structure, and proper management for these systems to operate at their full potential.

“For a long time, there’s almost been two sides of this discussion happening in parallel,” Russell said. There were companies like OSIsoft that focused on data management, and then there were companies like AVEVA which focused on providing powerful analytics solutions to its customers. Now that AVEVA and OSIsoft have combined, for the first time there is “one company that has the data, the applications, and the analytics pieces of the puzzle all in one portfolio,” he said. With the PI System’s data management capabilities at the center of AVEVA’s suite of advanced analytics solutions, there’s an opportunity to integrate these tools, systems, and platforms in new ways.

Russell is most excited about the new capabilities that integration can bring. Things that five to seven years ago seemed unfeasibly challenging suddenly don’t look so daunting, such as using digital twins in operational environments or combining predictive tools with live operational systems. “What we’re going to be helping customers do in the months and years ahead,” Russell explained, “is link these tools together in smarter ways. We can expose functionality between the different systems and the different tools that will bring value.”

These fields of industrial technology have come quite a way already, but this industry expert is confident that the next two or three years alone will see even more profound transformations in the oil and gas industry. On the horizon, Russell sees optimized supply chains, increased contextual integration in the cloud, a more intelligent and integrated midstream sector, and more innovations which will modernize and optimize the oil and gas industry for many years to come.