Does Augmented Reality in Oil and Gas have a future? What does the industry think ? Are the day-to-day workers actually utilizing it in any capacity? Do they have high hopes for the technology? Or do they view it as just another headache of technology that will soon come and go?
These are questions many of us are wondering. We’ve heard some of the “corporate” success stories of O&G giants adopting the technology, but that represents such a small faction of the entire industry.
To answer this question, I asked 55 workers in the O&G industry what their current view is on AR and whether or not they’ve used it before and or plan on using it in the future. The responses are packed with gold and I’m thankful to everyone who took the time out of their day to educate the rest of us. You can go ahead and skip straight to the responses if you’re ready to start unpacking them.
And if you’re interested, it’s worth checking out a similar survey on the broader industrial augmented reality market which we conducted a few months ago.
As some mental prep before diving in, here’s a little foundational background on AR in the O&G space.
Oil and Gas AR Use Cases
While there are way more than these three use cases, to keep things brief, I wanted to only mention the most prominent ones that pertain to O&G.
Remote Repairs
Dead gauges may be a significant annoyance for employees, especially if they are positioned in difficult-to-reach or distant locations. Engineers often spend excess time locating the gauge before beginning to troubleshoot the problem.
This implies that several processes are frequently delayed until the issue is remedied. What if you could restart the gauge in a matter of minutes?
Here is where AR shines.
Remote repairs may be a breeze with a headgear that combines realism with readily available, computerized information. With augmented reality, technicians can obtain a step-by-step guidance for resolving an issue, even if it is positioned in an awkward-to-reach location.
I’m not sure augmented reality (ar) would work 100%… however one could use AR to troubleshoot, which we kind of already utilize, by checking production trends and temps and pressures using digital transducers that report based on setting parameters.
For example, we can monitor a separator’s liquid level (ll) and if it’s low it will trigger an alarm where we could determine if there is a leak on the separator.
However we still need an experienced operator to go out to location to repair or replace the leaking component. Or even as far as recalibrating the transducer that is sending the alarm.
Mixed Reality Training
The use of augmented and virtual reality in oil and gas training can aid in the improvement of safety and compliance standards, as well as the execution of procedures in the case of an emergency safety crisis.
Apps that provide these AR/VR capabilities are beneficial for both onboarding and continued training of field staff. Employees may quickly become familiar with new safety rules, updated machinery, or procedures by using mixed reality training simulation.
Instead digging through manuals and handbooks, AR-enabled applications can be utilized by workers for a more engaging and dynamic training experience.
And with virtual reality providing such a high degree of realism, it’s opening the door for workers to train themselves and get up to speed before they ever step foot on the job.
I worked in upstream production operations which is essentially day to day production. I imagine augmented reality would be an extremely valuable tool during the design and construction phase of oil & gas projects. Particularly as end users would often reside in completely different areas as construction personnel.
As for operations, I think it would be a valuable training tool to upskill frontline personnel while safeguarding them from the associated risks of being around live plant.
Field Asset Maintenance
Current Status of AR in Oil and Gas
Just as the internet and mobile revolutions were propelled by consumers, AR/VR is being driven by gamers. They are the ones who are most eager to try new technologies and experiences, and they are the ones who are pushing the industry forward. Nevertheless, these applications are starting to gain popularity in many industrial settings.
The oil and gas industry has not yet embraced augmented reality and virtual reality as aggressively as other sectors have. But companies are beginning to see success with augmented reality in refineries, especially in maintenance and inspections.
Oil and Gas Companies Using AR
Shell, Baker Hughes, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Saudi Arabian Oil Company are just a few of the prominent oil and gas firms participating in the coming wave of AR.
Shell
Shell is leveraging technology to connect field employees with skilled experts from across the world who can assist them with their jobs. For instance, if a worker needs assistance performing an operation, they may use a video conference to connect with a distant expert and receive real-time support. This enables the expert to observe what the employee sees and provide guidance.
The remote expert can communicate pertinent documentation with the worker by sketching on the head-mounted display. This implies that a single expert may remotely assist dozens of locations located around the world. This technique enables speedier settlement of issues, while also minimizing travel and its environmental effect.
They employ a helmet-mounted augmented reality gadget that is fundamentally safe. This gadget has a voice-activated micro-display that simulates the experience of viewing a seven-inch screen. The information is presented below the line of sight of the user in order to avoid interfering with normal eyesight. When not in use, the screen may be folded away.
BP
BP determined that mixed reality would be a beneficial tool for their teams since it would enable them to access digital outcrop models. Outcrops are exposed portions of the earth’s surface caused by geological activity such as erosion. The examination of these models and their characteristics reveals a wealth of information on well integrity and soil porosity, which may be utilized to drive BP’s exploration plan.
ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil, the largest oil and gas company in the United States, recently teamed up with Groove Jones to create an augmented reality experience that educates consumers about ExxonMobil’s efforts to achieve a low-carbon future.
The teams created cross-platform experiences that depict emissions data using 3D data visualizations and WebAR and WebGL technologies.
Fifty-Five Insider Responses
And now for the meat of this article. Below are the responses received from fifty-five insiders who work in the O&G industry performing varying roles.
A huge thank you to everyone who provided such valuable and current knowledge of how the industry actually views augmented reality.
So my terminology might not be correct. But when I worked for another
pipeline company they were supposedly talking to google about google
glasses.
They wanted to use google glasses to locate pipelines. Pipelines are
buried under ground so you normal use a device like rd8000.
With the google glasses we could use a kmz file and super impose it.
Not sure if this is what you are talking about.
I can tell you that nobody has ever heard of augmented reality in O&G
sean. Could be useful for training purposes but I am unfamiliar with
the technology.
O&G in the past has been resistant to change as far as technology but
may be more keen on it now..
Actually I do! I have used hololens technology. It was a blessing
during covid-19 lockdowns because it allowed non-essential personnel
to virtually walk out jobs or to field verify piping/routings during
meetings on the fly without assigning someone a follow-up item to do
the verification.
Plus we could see what a plant looked like before scaffolding was set
up and blocked out view of overhead pipe racks. Augmented reality is
pretty cool.
I think the next step for it will be virtual training for new
operators.
I would be interested, and would like to see your ideas for how to implement it and make it useful to assist the guys that work in the field.
Hey there. Interesting question.
Short answer, no but I think it would be interesting to see AR applied
to safety situations/ training and especially navigation to locations.
I don't know how many times i've been lost trying to find my way to a
rig in the middle of nowhere with awful directions.
So first a disclaimer…two things: i'm not a cat, and I don't work for
shell. But I do have almost two decades of experience in the O&G
industry, and in that time i've worked in most facets of the
industry.
Currently i'm on the automation and controls side of things. I don't
know of any companies in the sector that currently have any AR
deployed, but that's not to say that there aren't any.
I do remember a few years ago there was talk of “ar” in the industry
but if I remember correctly it was like what you would expect a boomer
thinks is ar. Basically using facetime to help t-shoot shit in the
field.
I personally haven't given much thought to it since then but I can see
how it would be incredibly useful in certain situations. Mostly around
greenfield projects/commissioning and maybe even some ops stuff.
Like I would love to put on some glasses, look at some shit, and the
glasses configured to display whatever info I have decided is helpful
to me. That would be badass.
Where I think you will have issues (at least on the controls side), is
in three areas really. OEM's giving you access to their shit, many
oem's have their own flavor of things, just one example would be in
the comms area…modbus.
It's open source/no standards really, and I swear every company has
their own version of it and it's a pain in the ass. Which is a nice
segway into ics.
A lot of companies have realized that they need to tighten up on their
security but really seem to have non idea about industrial lot so they
just wanna lock everything down so that could also be an obstacle for
you guys. Lastly when I think AR I think data but when I think O&G I
think remote so that could be difficult with older legacy
equipment…maybe not so much with newer stuff using mqtt? I feel like
there's lots of low hanging fruit in this area but i'm also not very
well educated in how complex the development of these types of
applications would be.
Sounds pretty cool though and I wish anyone working on an AR project
the best of luck.
I have seen depictions of it, but never directly experienced AR in my field. Seems to me that it would be a neat tool for geologists to use.
Currently? No. In the next 5 years? I would think so.
No but once headsets stop being so primative, I could see it catching on for live troubleshooting.
I haven't personally used it. However I have heard of it being used in certain training instances.
Depends on what you mean by "augmented reality" I'm on the drilling /
exploration side and we use 3d visualization programs to help use
guide the well bore. Other than that, it's hard to get seismology and
gamma readings, etc.
To be granular enough for anything resembling an accurate picture.
Even well bore paths have enough uncertainty that while we generally
know where things are, we could be 20 feet off or more by the time we
get out to 15k ft.
Td. We have gis visualizations and guided navigation, but are always
looking for markers to confirm where we think we are such as gamma
radiation, mud logging, etc.
Ar isn't something that works terribly well with any accuracy that is
meaningful for us, and though we have 3d plots we can use, it's more
of a rough guide.
I have no experience with augmented reality. It's still in
development.
But if you google maersk drilling + augmented reality I know they had
a project looking into the use of it offshore and they have tried it.
I have not used AR at work and I don't know anyone who has.
Hey sean, no, sorry, I have never amused any augmented reality in my workplace. I'm very much a hands-on type in the field — an ‘implementer' if you will — I take the bad ideas that come out of my office and am expected to implement them as designed by some engineer who has never turned a wrench of rigged something up his entire life.
I've never seen nor heard about augmented reality being used in the oilfield.
Never used AR for day to day operations, haven't worked with an operator that could care to use it, but I do see an implementation and a way that can be use to prevent downtime on surface production equipment at graveyard shift operations. That's all I can share with you because the rest i'll be throwing away free money to you and I rather give that information to our engineers.
Um I don't, but I know in coal mining they use remote control on those massive dump trucks using gps and monitors.
Short answer is no, never use it, and have to say I've never seen it used.
No, never used augmented reality.
I have not used any AR in my time in oil and gas. I could think of a handle of situations where it would be useful but so far no real use cases.
Definitely can't use it. I have to be on site as a regulatory
requirement.
If a pipe gets hit it's game over literally.
No, because it's a fucking gimmick. Our jobs are to produce real
molecules, not virtual molecules.
Also how the hell are we supposed to use technology like this when
wifi and electronics aren't allowed on-site? I used to work in r&d and
got tired of all the technological snake oil peddling. Operations is
so much more human, and I hope it stays that way.
Just think about it. You're trying to replace experienced steady
hands/operators with lowly-paid recently graduated engineers based in
india doing remote monitoring of high-pressure, high-temperature
equipment they've never seen.
You think that's a good idea? Sadly mckinsey types will push it on the
bean counters and they'll buy it probably. They're not the ones in
danger if the plant explodes.
I never use it in day to day. Because I don't need it.
Me: no. But the tech is there from few years ago and some may already
use it.
Imo, using augmented reality in physically challenging job and
environment is just adding the headache.
Yes. We used it to guide a junior employee through a process.
It wasn't encouraging. It had a hard time understanding his voice
commands, items wouldn't appear in a useful place and getting it to
actually connect and be even barely useful was a challenge.
Overrated, not as useful as sales teams believe, and way more 'google glass' than people believe. Works well for demo's with leadership.
Most people don't show up when the work starts so on the job training is better.
The only times I used augmented reality was back in school. It was
used as a way to give us a tour of oilfield facilities.
Augmented reality was used as a safe way to teach us about daily
oilfield operations. In the wireline side I imagine we could use it to
demonstrate how deadly explosives really are.
Since we use them on a day to day basis, we get comfortable around
them. The only people that are continuously cautious around explosives
are those who have seen how deadly they really are.
I have not used AR in any way at my job. I'm not opposed to it, the
need just never arose really.
The only high tech thing we use is a drone for video inspection.
My company has started investing in virtual training such as fire training, emergency response, field tasks.
I do think it's coming, and can be beneficial. That being said, most
companies that would use it have lacked the capital needed to even
keep their current equipment running and employees paid, let alone
invest in new technology.
As capital starts to flow back into the industry, i'd imagine we're
all looking for every advantage we could gain. I have heard of some
drilling companies experimenting with wearables.
Wrist devices that alert when they're entering danger zones, etc.
I have never used augmented reality in my work as a petroleum
engineer. I believe it probably has to come down to cost of the
overall application.
In my career I have worked principally with mid to small sized
operators who didn't have a lot of cash for something like that.
There's also a bit of a conservative slant in smaller oil companies,
in that the old guard doesn't see the value in newer tech because "we
never needed it in the past".
Getting past that hurdle may be harder than working with the cost
aspect. I see the value in augmented reality for the oil and gas
industry and wish I had the chance to use it in the past.
I could envision applications in reservoir characterization,
geological assessments, helping field personnel in their day-to-day
work, etc. I look forward to seeing where the technology leads, but
the old guard needs to get out of the way of progress.
Hi sean, happy to answer whatever questions you have. Unfortunately,
you're unlikely to get much value out of me haha.
I worked in upstream production operations which is essentially day to
day production. I imagine augmented reality would be an extremely
valuable tool during the design and construction phase of oil & gas
projects.
Particularly as end users would often reside in completely different
areas as construction personnel. As for operations, I think it would
be a valuable training tool to upskill frontline personnel while
safeguarding them from the associated risks of being around live
plant.
As for both of the examples above, I have no experience.
I've never used augmented reality in any capacity offshore.
Specifically my work is with machinery overhauls and installation if
that makes a difference.
I've seen some sparse implementation of AR in my industry for some
troubleshooting tasks but very rarely.
I have not used AR in my day-to-day operations. In my experience the
technologies have not matured to meet the use case potential, which is
why I suspect that adoption has been low.
Also, consulting and service companies typically focus on gimmicky use
cases (due to their lack of domain knowledge), resulting in revenue
generating upstream organizations' hesitancy to adopt (e.G.
'You can step into your reservoir simulation model!). Different
organizations within an organization will have different receptions to
digital technologies that have not already been proven in their
respective domains.
For instance, an upstream operations organization that has a heavy
emphasis on keeping operating costs low is less likely to pursue an
emerging digital technology. However, a digital department supporting
upstream organizations (that seem to have unreasonably high budgets
lately) will be more receptive.
I have definitely not used augmented reality in any of the different roles I've had. I don't know much about it or how it would apply but interested to see the other answers.
Our site is considering adopting AR to onboard new employees. It's
just not on the top of our list at the moment.
But I'm personally looking forward to when it is.
Yes. I have used a company called r2s (return to scene) to build a
virtual model which we overlaid onto our pdms model.
Long term plan was to then start attaching data and metadata within
that combined model. The technology we have tried isn't quite good
enough yet.
It's not something we have used to date. I can't think of a practical
application in my area.
The other constraint is ensuring the equipment is intrinsically safe
and rated for hazardous areas.
I haven't directly but I know some people who are.
Depends on what you mean by augmented reality. The big oil company I
worked for was already working on a virtual rig tour when I left.
Many companies already have remote engineering and data analysis. If
you're talking about an online component, you'll always have a severe
bottleneck on data transmission rates until something like star link
is widely available.
Other than that, I'm not sure what would actually help to be
augmented.
Ummmm….No.
I have not used augmented reality, at least not in the oil field. For
the operations on the field it's not really needed.
Operations can be done fine just monitoring the numbers on the screen.
Pressure, water, sand, etc.
Augmented reality would be cool, I suppose, but not needed.
Hello. Nope.
I've never used augmented reality at work. My only exposure is 2 weeks
of pokémon go.
Sorry, don't have any experience with augmented reality.
I'm not even fully sure of what that is. So I would go ahead and say no.
Sorry but I'm just as clueless what my job is I'm a new hire as well.
My previous job was in semiconductor manufacturing as a equipment
technician.
According to the interviewer my experience with high voltage made me a
good fit for there power generation team.
Hey, I don't have any expertise there, im gonna do my bachelors this year and ask the question just to get an idea.
No I don't have any experience with augmented reality.
No we don't use any form of augmented reality in our line of work.
Never have seen it in my time in the industry.
I've never seen any augmented reality in the patch. Anything that
requires people to be on their phones while working isn't going to
fly.
I don't see a usage case for it either.
While it sounds cool, it's not really something that the oil industry
needs. Ignoring the fact that most facilities have strict rules about
phones at their locations, operators don't want to have to use extra
higher end technology over cheaper and simpler technology.
Looking at it from a cost perspective, what would AR add to the
industry besides a newer interface. Additionally, operators might have
facilities that are spread over miles.
Your not going to want to have to walk to each area checking equipment
with a camera that's just pulling data from those sensors anyway. Your
going to want something that fits on on screen.
I'm an electrician and we do not use any form of augmented reality for
any of our positions in the field. We have enough trouble with hazard
awareness on a drilling rig without distracting people from regular
old reality.
I can't speak about any of our office level positions, because I
really don't know what they're working on or have implemented.
That is a lot to take in! My general gist from it is this – Oil & Gas is going to be on the tail end of industries that adopt augmented reality. So much of the work in this field is done in extreme and remote environments where current headsets and phones won’t suffice, by a slightly older generation which may be less apt to change, and with roles that are so hands on and specialized that it just adds more of a headache rather than a value add.
But I do believe AR will soon see adoption in regards to general maintenance/inspection in refineries and processing facilities, as well as training and educating new workers. But for the more extreme niche cases that O&G requires, this technology and its implementation into useable apps still has a ways to go.
