According to GlobalData, a top data and analytics business, robots have uses across the oil and gas industry in a variety of jobs, including surveys, material handling, and building, as well as inspection, repair, and maintenance. Additionally, they may be customized for different jobs to facilitate work and increase productivity, it claimed. Robots can be used to conduct seismic surveys during exploration or to conduct aerial surveys during the planning stages of an oil and gas project.
Aerial or underwater drones can be adopted depending upon the project location and work requirements, it added.
According to GlobalData, the single major advantage of robotics is automation, which drives other improvements in efficiency, productivity, and safety.
Automation enables extensive inspection and maintenance tasks to be conducted while feeding back data to help limit operational costs and improve efficiency, it stated.
Advances in modular and customizable robots is expected to result in growing deployment of robotics in the oil and gas industry, it added.
GlobalData in its thematic report, ‘Robotics in Oil & Gas’, pointed out that while robotics had been a part of the oil and gas industry for several decades, growing digitalization and integration with artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and Internet of Things (IoT), have helped diversify robot use cases within the industry.
Anson Fernandes, Oil and Gas Analyst at GlobalData, said: “A huge number of robots are now being deployed in oil and gas operations, including terrestrial crawlers, quadrupeds, aerial drones, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).”
“Robots have applications across the oil and gas industry in various tasks ranging from surveys, material handling, and construction, to inspection, repair, and maintenance,” he stated.
Fernandes said they can be customized for various tasks to ease the work and improve efficiency.
During the planning phases of an oil and gas project, robots can be deployed to conduct aerial surveys, or they can be employed to conduct seismic surveys during exploration. Aerial or underwater drones can be adopted depending upon the project location and work requirements, he noted.
Fernandes said robotics was a fast-growing industry.
“It was worth $52.9 billion in 2021 and will reach $568 billion by 2030, recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30%. Robots will be the industry’s growth engine, and the oil and gas sector will greatly benefit from emerging use cases,” he stated, citing GlobalData forecasts.
According to him, the volume of robotics use cases in the oil and gas industry is expected to grow rapidly, in tow with digitalization.
“Industrial robots with analytical support from digital technologies is expected to become the mainstay across the oil and gas industry, especially in the upstream sector, where personnel safety and operational security concerns are heightened,” he added.
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