Digitalisation advancing in offshore energy – survey

The UK offshore energy industry is progressing in the pace and integration of digitalisation but there is a lag in data maturity, a new survey from Deloitte reveals.

The 2023 UK Offshore Energy Data & Digital Maturity Survey, which updates the 2020 study that forms the baseline, found that digital maturity has improved by 8% across key metrics relating to strategy, leadership, training and capabilities, with the larger organisations showing greater improvement than the smaller ones.

However, data maturity is typically lagging in terms of organisations having a standalone data strategy and often the data strategy is a ‘reactive’ response to issues discovered during implementation of digital solutions rather than a separate initiative.

Nevertheless, there has been significant growth in the use of data platforms and data visualisation capabilities, suggesting that this will improve in the future.

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The survey was undertaken by Deloitte for the Offshore Energy Digital Strategy Group, which is comprised of Offshore Energies UK, Opportunity North East, Net Zero Technology Centre, Technology Leadership Board, North Sea Transition Authority, the Crown Estate and Crown Estate Scotland.

While the baseline study involved only the oil and gas sector, the new study has included the renewables sector – and together with cross-industry organisations account for about a third of respondents – with the finding of similar trends across the sectors.

Another finding of the survey was that access to data and digital skills is a significant barrier to the delivery of data and digital strategies, with challenges related to both the upskilling of the existing workforce and recruiting new personnel into key roles.

Moreover, while collaboration has made some progress, organisations continue to be wary of data sharing.

Organisations are increasingly adopting data related technologies such as cloud platforms and data visualisation tools that enable greater levels of collaboration, but collaboration based on data remains a challenge, particularly where the sharing of data may be seen to be a risk to an organisation’s competitive advantage.

"Data and digital technologies play a key role in driving greater collaboration and efficiency across the UK energy sector,” comments Daniel Brown, Head of Data & Digital at Offshore Energy UK, the country’s offshore energy trade association.

“This survey provides invaluable insight of how and where we can work together to shape and accelerate our digital efforts in support of delivering net zero.”

Recommendations to advance digital maturity

Based on the survey's findings the Offshore Energy Digital Strategy Group offers various recommendations to drive the energy transition forward.

These include increasing efforts to improve digital maturity, with a focus on smaller organisations and equally across the wind, oil and gas sectors.

Moreover, there should be a strengthening of collaboration both between operators in each of the energy sectors but also between operators and the supply chain and between the energy sectors to drive effective cross-industry digitalisation.

A culture also should be fostered of leaders encouraging staff to adopt data-driven work practices and equipping employees with the necessary skills and knowledge.