oil and gas technology

There is a lot of buzz nowadays about “Digital Twins”, and every Digitalisation Director out there is thinking they need to have a Digital Twin of their assets. It makes sense: If you have a digital representation of your assets; you can simulate, test scenarios, plan operations and visualise data within the context afforded by the twin, without having to visit or “be present” in the real asset, especially if these assets are remote.

Ah, the old ones still the best ????. But such questions can sometimes be worth considering. For example, when is Agile not Agile?

In an earlier blog, I wrote about what Agile is. And that’s all well and good, but what has Agile ever done for us?

I’ve been using Apple products since 2007. Every smart phone I’ve had has been an iPhone but yesterday I ordered a new Android phone. I’m so fed up with shelling out around £1000 every couple of years but I’ve been trapped because all my music is in iTunes, all my family have iPhones and we run Macs*. Man, I hate being locked in! I wouldn’t mind if it was still value for money, but it’s not – I feel like I’m being taken for a ride now.

In November (this month as I write this) we have not long closed out possible two of the best custom software projects we have done. Sure there were bugs in the testing and there will be more found by the users I’m sure, but what made them so good? We hit the schedule to within a week on both of them and there were no scope changes over the entire project, so we hit the budget as well. This is particularly impressive for one of them because it was a completely new piece of software, written from scratch; taken from powerpoint to in production in 5 months.

This picture makes me laugh and if it makes you laugh too then you’ve probably been involved in purchasing or project delivery at some point.

Production Well Testing is an essential part of managing an Oil & Gas field if the field has more than one well and production measurement resources are limited, as is generally the case.

You have probably heard software developers talk about being Agile, and maybe wondered what they mean. Perhaps they do star jumps and touch their toes before breakfast, or write code while limboing under desks? Well, it’s nothing like that… read on to find out more!

I’m really excited about the long term partnership we have recently signed with Wintershall Dea for a number of reasons not least because it’s a great team and we have a lot of fun working together!

Back in July I asked myself the question “Why are we still in business after 11 years?”. A small specialist company in a big competitive industry. We’ve been through 3 downturns now and we continue to develop longstanding relationships with some of the most innovative operators in the business. Clearly we are doing something right but what is it?