Robots driving oil and gas industry growth

Robotics, thanks to automation and technology advances, is expected to be a key driver in oil and gas industry growth according to a report by GlobalData.

By GlobalData January 3, 2023
Courtesy: Chris Vavra, CFE Media and Technology

Robotics in oil and gas insights

  • Robots in the oil and gas industry have been a mainstay, but growing digitalization and advances in artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT) and more are helping expand their role.
  • Robots are used in the oil and gas industry for tasks such surveys, material handling, inspection, repair and maintenance and can operate safely in environments that are dangerous for people.

Robotics can drives improvements in efficiency, productivity and safety. Automation enables extensive inspection and maintenance tasks to be conducted while feeding back data to help limit operational costs and improve efficiency. Advances in modular and customizable robots is expected to result in growing deployment of robotics in the oil and gas industry, according to a report by GlobalData.

Their report, ‘Robotics in Oil & Gas’, noted that, while robotics has been a part of the oil and gas industry is nothing new, growing digitalization and integration with artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and the Internet of Things (IoT), have helped diversify robot use cases within the industry.

Anson Fernandes, oil and gas analyst at GlobalData, said, “A huge number of robots are now being deployed in oil and gas operations, including terrestrial crawlers, quadrupeds, aerial drones, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs).”

Robots have applications across the oil and gas industry in various tasks ranging from surveys, material handling, and construction, to inspection, repair and maintenance. They can be customized for various tasks to ease the work and improve efficiency. During the planning phases of an oil and gas project, robots can be deployed to conduct aerial surveys, or they can be employed to conduct seismic surveys during exploration. Aerial or underwater drones can be adopted depending upon the project location and work requirements. 

“Robotics is a fast-growing industry,” Fernandes said. “According to GlobalData forecasts, it was worth $52.9 billion in 2021 and will reach $568 billion by 2030, recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30%. Robots will be the industry’s growth engine, and the oil and gas sector will greatly benefit from emerging use cases.”

Data analytics and robotics improve insight obtained from surveys and surveillance exercises. This symbiotic relationship between robotics and wider digitalization technologies is expected to be further evolve through collaborations between technology providers and oil and gas industry players.

“The volume of robotics use cases in the oil and gas industry is expected to grow rapidly, in tow with digitalization,” Fernandes said. “Industrial robots with analytical support from digital technologies is expected to become the mainstay across the oil and gas industry, especially in the upstream sector, where personnel safety and operational security concerns are heightened.”

– Edited from a GlobalData press release by Chris Vavra, web content manager, Control Engineering, CFE Media and Technology, cvavra@cfemedia.com.