WHY YOU NEED ICT TRAINING FOR JOB PLACEMENT IN THE OIL AND GAS SECTOR

he importance of Information Communication Technology in every aspect of human endeavor has come to stay. In this era of digital revolution, the oil and gas sector is not left aside. There are a lot of things that are done in the oil and gas sector with information and communication technology. As every sector seeks to achieve efficiency and effectiveness in their operation, the oil and gas adopts ICTs to promote the sectorsâ effectiveness and efficiency. The level of application of ICTs in Oil and gas firm is increasing by the day because the oil and gas sector is becoming is becoming competitive by the day, thus every company is looking for a smarter way to carry out their operation.

Where can ICT be employed in the oil and gas industry?

It is important to mention that the oil and gas is majorly divided into three sector: the upstream, midstream and the downstream sector.

There are a lot of activities that go on in the oil and gas firm and these activities are either carried out in the upstream, midstream or downstream of the oil and gas sector. Whether an activity is located within the upstream, midstream and downstream depends on where the activity is located in the supply chain of the oil industry.

The upstream sector

The upstream is the sector in charge of exploration and production of crude oil popularly known as (E&P) in the oil industry. The activities under this sector includes all exploration activities like searching for, recovering and production of natural gas from either underground field or underwater field. The operational activities of companies under this sector therefore is to search out potential oil fields, and drill crude oil from oil them and other existing oil fields.

Use of ICT in

the upstream sector

The major concern of both government and companies operating within the upstream sector has is always how to increase crude oil reserve to keep up with the growing demand for petroleum products. This pushes oil companies to invest heavily on research and development to be able to come up with better ways to increase crude oil production and recovery. ICT in this sector has solved this problem to a large extent by providing advanced technologies which help oil companies to have a real time view of oil wells which has in turn increased oil recovery. By providing more advanced data collection tools, companies in this sector are able to gather enough data about oil wells which guides them in making decision on oil recovery and production.

The use of ICT in the upstream sector is shown in the development of âSmart Fieldâ by shell oil multinational. A âSmart Fieldâ is an oil well remote controlled and operated on a constant basis using the interpretation of near real time data captured by sensors that are installed within oil wells and obtaining information about various physical and chemical parameters of the oil well.

How does it work?

Oil field are connected to ICT network through the internet and can be monitored and viewed anytime from any part of the country by the authorised persons. Oil wells, pumps and pipelines are interconnected with IP address which oil companies use to monitor changes in the oil field. Before the introduction of smart fields, communication among the many units of the sector was very poor and difficult which made every unit to almost work separately. But the introduction of  smart fields powered by ICT bridges this communication gap. Companies install smart technologies that help them to remote control their different oil wells without

needing to be in the field physically. For instance, the use of SCADA an industrial computer system made up of human machine interface, supervisory computer system, Remote terminal units, programmable logic controller and other communication infrastructure helps companies to control and oversea multiple oil sites from a remote area or a far distance. SCADA system helps oil companies in decision making by making information gathering easy and quick.

The midstream sector

The midstream sector serves as the connector between the upstream and downstream. This sector handles every activity that has to do with getting the crude oil produced within the upstream to the final sector (Downstream) for the finish work. It handles moving the extracted crude oil and natural gas to the downstream for the final processing. The activities under this sector includes: oil transportation & Gas transmission, derivative processing/production, transporting crude oil through pipeline, rail, barge, oil tanker etc. to the downstream for marketing and distribution. The midstream sector is also involved in transporting the finished product to the distributors.

The downstream sector

The downstream handles the refining, marketing and distribution of refined crude oil and natural gas from the upstream. The downstream sector is also involved in marketing, and distribution of refined petroleum products. By this, oil firms operating in this sector refine and distribute the final product to the middle men oil markers who in turn sells to the retailers. Thus the major activities of companies within the downstream sector is to refine, sale, market and store petroleum products.

Application of ICT in the midstream and downstream sector

All these activities mentioned under the midstream and downstream can be done more effectively and efficiently by employing ICTs. ICT enables oil companies under this sector to gather, store and manipulate data on crude-oil prices, inventory, delivery costs refining and

distribution of end petroleum products. The figure below summarises the use of ICTs in the oil and gas sector:

What is the advantages of ICT in the oil and gas sector?

Reduce costs

Oil and gas sector deals a whole lot with data; the industry almost survive on data and information. It spends a huge sum of money in gathering information through the traditional method .However, with the application of ICTs in the oil and gas sector the cost of traditional data handling is reduced to the barest minimum. For instance, cloud computing enables oil industries to generate, store and disseminate information at a very lower cost. With cloud computing the cost of installing hardware to handle data is reduced since it only requires simple IT gadgets like I-pad, Laptop, desktop etc. This saves the huge money oil industries often spend on installed hardware that manage their data. It also saves collaboration and communication cost as the different units of the oil industry are interdependent.

Improve and increase Productivity

ICT in oil industry enables real time monitoring and remote control of oil industries to promote efficiency in oil production. It also enables and promotes collection of accurate data within a short period of time which helps in taking decision concerning development and recovery of oil fields. The whole essence of developing smart oil field is to increase productivity in the upstream sector.

Real time information gathering and communication

Data and information communication is the life wire of oil and gas industry and this is where ICT has come to play an important role. By connecting to the internet and installing several applications and software, oil companies are able to maintain effective in-house and external communication which helps them oil production and

company management

Almost every oil company in the oil industry has employed ICTs in their management and administration process.This is why you should endeavor to acquire at least basic computer skill if you have eye for job in the oil and gas industry.

There is always an upsurge in the number of applicants looking for job in the oil and gas sector but most of them have little or no idea of computer operation and this is why you may not have gotten that job even though you have applied many times.

You can increase your chances of getting that job by enrolling in ICT training . Step up your value by getting the most important 21st century skill which is ICT.