Lower oil prices and the search for lower upstream cost structures are prompting the shale sector to look to digitisation as a potentially game-changing approach to exploration and drilling. Oil companies will continue to reduce costs through drilling longer lateral wells, narrowing the gap between hydraulic fracturing stages and using more sand and water in completions. But the gains will not be sufficient to bring about sustainable reductions. "What happens when operators run out of lateral length, or cannot pump more sand?" oil field service provider Baker Hughes' chief executive, Martin Craighead, says. The industry has to achieve lasting and "disruptive changes" to ensure that it is less vulnerable to increased volatility in prices, he says.
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