Dr. Najib Abusalbi, currently directory for university collaboration at Schlumberger, presented his views on IT trends that are affecting the oil and gas industry at the Schlumberger Information Solutions (SIS) Global Forum, in Paris.

Statistics presented in Abusalbi’s talk show that as of 2006, world hydrocarbon consumption stood at 30 Bbbl and is forecast to grow to 40 Bbbl by 2030. “The world has consumed over a trillion barrels of oil,” he said. “Today, the industry has the challenge of finding another trillion barrels if not two trillion. These challenges are real, and we have to meet them.”

There is an increased demand for innovation in all aspects of the business, Abusalbi said, noting that this need has resulted in greater investment in R&D. “We hope this continues to be the trend because innovation is needed across the board.”

Operations will have to evolve to meet the needs of the future. Autonomous rigs will be required, along with faster computers and networks to assimilate, interpret, and transmit information. Another necessity is to locate experts in safe remote environments from which they can monitor, control, forecast, and make decision, he said.

Abusalbi also talked about how disruption leads to development, noting that model-based drilling will increase and that there will no longer be optimization for individual components, but rather that optimization in the future will examine processes as a whole. The aim of E&P solutions will be to optimize reserves replacement and to control lifting costs. This will be achieved in part, he said, through automation and robotics.

Solutions will be needed for some time to come, Abusalbi said. “These are not the ‘end times’ for oil and gas. Energy is indispensible to our lives.”