IBM and Amazon team up to help oil companies manage data as industry seeks innovations
IBM and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are teaming up to provide oil companies with more tools to manage data and to share production information more efficiently.
The duo has worked together to ensure oil companies can use IBM technology OpenShift to record and store oil production information.
In 2018, AWS worked with Royal Dutch Shell to create technology that turns data from over a century of oil production, largely from paper records, into a standardised format for multinational oil companies to improve efficiency across operations.
The technology is being shared on an open cloud basis, but countries such as Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Russia lack Amazon data centres, even while requiring companies to store data within the country’s borders.
Companies operating in countries without Amazon Web’s technology can now use IBM’s programme to manage oil production data.
The innovation follows an IBM Survey that less than half of oil and gas executives are using data to drive innovations.
With energy companies in need of solutions drive up efficincies to free up capital, time and resources to make their operations sustainable, IBM and Amazon believe the new technology can help senior teams make more out of data.
Explaining the value of the latest programme, Bill Vass, vice president of AWS said: “Much of the data needed to solve the complex energy challenges, such as superior subsurface decisions, already exists, yet is untapped. This is because one of the greatest values of that data is derived when it can be effectively combined, but usually this data is locked by data residency requirements, legacy applications or proprietary data formats.”
The announcement also comes fresh from the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, and continued commitments from many of the world’s largest economies to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Manish Chawla, global managing director, energy, resources and manufacturing, IBM, added: “Our collaboration with Amazon Web Services is addressing the need to make it easier for energy customers to access their data and provides the industry with a flexible solution to meet the challenges of today, as well as more easily adapt as the industry evolves.”