Top Challenges and Solutions in Oil and Gas

The oil and gas industry faces many challenges, but efficiency enhancement, risk diminishment, and sustainable growth under complex, competitive market conditions require persistence in developing new ideas.

FREMONT, CA: The oil and gas industry operates within a web of complex global and national frameworks. Expanding into new regions can open up exciting opportunities for revenue growth, but it also brings increased complexity and risk. Additionally, the ever-changing regulatory frameworks enforced by different governments add to the growing complexity that oil and gas companies must navigate.

These factors and an increasingly competitive market create several challenges for the energy industry. Based on current research and our experts' experience, here are the top six challenges energy companies face regularly, along with recommended solutions.

Increasing Visibility into Complex Operations

Oil and gas companies operate under some of the most difficult physical and political conditions worldwide. They face unstable market prices, fluctuating demand, complex compliance and regulatory systems, projects involving multiple third-party suppliers, and a workforce with varying education and skill levels. Companies need increased visibility into their operations to manage risks, control costs, and optimize performance. One effective strategy is adopting a digital oilfield or integrated operations approach to optimize production and reduce economic, environmental, health, and safety risks.

Improving Collaboration with Oilfield Services

Even industry giants like Chevron and ExxonMobil rely on third-party suppliers for specialized equipment and expertise. Oilfield services perform critical functions, and any mistake or inefficiency can significantly impact. Poor collaboration and communication lead to project delays, making them even more inefficient. Energy companies and oilfield services can work more effectively using cloud-based collaboration platforms like an Energy CRM solution.

Developing a High-Performing Culture

Employee onboarding, retention, and training are critical issues in the oil and gas industry, especially as competition for talent intensifies. Emerging markets are increasing global demand for oil and gas while competing for talent. The looming retirement of the industry's most experienced workers exacerbates the talent shortage. Companies must focus on retaining skilled staff through robust learning, development, and succession planning opportunities.

Connecting Improved Asset Management with Execution Excellence

Operational excellence is difficult without well-designed, maintained, and managed assets. Successful asset management can be achieved through IoT devices, which enable proactive maintenance, remote monitoring of equipment, and automation of business processes. These practices impact the integrity of infrastructure and equipment, and best practice facilities have comprehensive, fully integrated systems with IoT.

Enabling Knowledge Transfer to Maximize Operations

Different oil and gas sectors, such as midstream, exploration & production, and oilfield service companies, have traditionally operated differently. However, there are benefits to leveraging unified best practices and standardizing processes where practical to achieve maximum efficiency. Experts from operations, safety, maintenance, and management must collaborate to design a broad enough model applicable to all assets.