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Artificial intelligence innovation: Leading companies in predictive maintenance systems for the oil and gas industry
The oil and gas industry continues to be a hotbed of innovation, with activity driven by the need for improved productivity and reduced downtime, enhanced safety and long-term sustainability. Digital technologies are playing a transformative role in meeting these objectives. This is characterised by the growing importance of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, internet of things, and robotics, within the industry. In the last three years alone, there have been over 534,000 patents filed and granted in the oil & gas industry, according to GlobalData’s report on Artificial Intelligence in Oil & Gas: Predictive maintenance systems.
However, not all innovations are equal and nor do they follow a constant upward trend. Instead, their evolution takes the form of an S-shaped curve that reflects their typical lifecycle from early emergence to accelerating adoption, before finally stabilising and reaching maturity.
Identifying where a particular innovation is on this journey, especially those that are in the emerging and accelerating stages, is essential for understanding their current level of adoption and the likely future trajectory and impact they will have.
150+ innovations will shape the oil & gas industry
According to GlobalData’s Technology Foresights, which plots the S-curve for the oil & gas industry using innovation intensity models built on over 256,000 patents, there are 40+ innovation areas that will shape the future of the industry.
Within the emerging innovation stage, sensor guided flow mixing, AI-assisted cheminformatics, and intelligent embedded systems are disruptive technologies that are in the early stages of application and should be tracked closely. Automated drilling tools, AI for workflow management, and AI-assisted CAD are some of the accelerating innovation areas, where adoption has been steadily increasing.
Among maturing innovation areas are mixing ratio control techniques and wellbore drilling optimisation, which are now well established in the industry.
Innovation S-curve for artificial intelligence in the oil & gas industry
Predictive maintenance systems is a key innovation area in artificial intelligence
Predictive maintenance is an approach that relies on data-driven insights to determine the condition of equipment and anticipate its maintenance requirements. AI-based predictive maintenance solutions provide fast and accurate insights on equipment condition. Hence, it is being increasingly adopted in new-build as well as legacy oil and gas infrastructure for early detection of potential faults.
GlobalData’s analysis also uncovers the companies at the forefront of each innovation area and assesses the potential reach and impact of their patenting activity across different applications and geographies. According to GlobalData, there are 20+ companies, spanning technology vendors, established oil & gas companies, and up-and-coming start-ups engaged in the development and application of predictive maintenance systems.
Key players in predictive maintenance systems – a disruptive innovation in the oil & gas industry
‘Application diversity’ measures the number of different applications identified for each relevant patent and broadly splits companies into either ‘niche’ or ‘diversified’ innovators.
‘Geographic reach’ refers to the number of different countries each relevant patent is registered in and reflects the breadth of geographic application intended, ranging from ‘global’ to ‘local’