By Ammar Sabbagh, Vice President of Industry and Partnership – Energy, Ericsson, and Brajesh Sinha, Consulting Manager, Ericsson
As oil and gas companies strive to boost productivity, efficiency, and worker safety, digital transformation is at the forefront of their strategies. By investing in a wide range of data-driven, advanced use cases, such as drone inspections, connected workers, asset management, remote operations, and automation, they are transforming operations with optimal results.
Private cellular networks provide superior coverage, high throughput, and low-latency connectivity, making them crucial for Oil and Gas 4.0 applications. However, as oil and gas companies embrace this digital transformation and implement industrial use cases, two critical questions arise: What is the business value realization of these use cases? And how can we best drive adoption among the operations team?
Ericsson’s ROI value calculator helps answer these questions by evaluating the financial impact of integrating private networks into operations over time. The tool allows oil and gas businesses to estimate the potential returns for specific scenarios. It also factors in various inputs and use cases applications, facilitating the projection of potential gains and savings throughout the investment period.
Establishing connectivity in the oil and gas sector requires overcoming unique and complex challenges. Refineries and oil platforms and other facilities are vast and intricate, with a mix of both outdoor and indoor environments. Over time, companies have pieced together a patchwork of Wi-Fi and wired connections that struggle to meet the demands of Oil and Gas 4.0.
Wi-Fi networks, in particular, face limitations in scalability, reliability, security, and coverage issues, rendering their service inadequate in meeting the high standards required by industrial applications in this sector. In addition, there is a huge cost for cabling and managing hundreds of Wi-Fi access points in the live production environment. Mobile assets are impossible to connect via cables. Cellular wireless connectivity, on the other hand, can provide the connectivity and coverage for every corner of the facility.
Also Read: Factory of Tomorrow: Private 5G Networks Redefine Manufacturing
Driving Efficiencies with Cellular Connectivity
Private 5G cellular networks are tailor-made to enable advanced use cases and future scalability. They provide unmatched coverage, mobility, reliability, low latency, and built-in security. Together, these features enable Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applications such as asset condition monitoring, the connected worker and drones.
During the development of the ROI calculator, Ericsson focused on the top use cases currently being implemented in the industry, as identified by global business intelligence firms. These key use cases include:
Connected Worker: Field workers equipped with smartphones, 5G tablets, or video-connected helmets, utilizing applications for e-permits, workforce management, maintenance databases, and AR-based remote support.
IoT Connectivity: Private 5G networks serve as the backbone, providing full-facility coverage and backhauling to existing wireless or wired networks.
Robotics/Drone Inspection: Drones are employed for site inspections, leak detection, infrastructure integrity checks, and monitoring flare and smoke.
Translating Operational Gains into Business Value
While many oil and gas companies are already leveraging cutting-edge, 5G-powered solutions, deploying these technologies requires a significant investment. The key question remains: What kind of return can be expected when investing in a private 5G network? The Ericsson oil and gas value calculator is designed to answer this question.
Every site is unique, and the oil and gas value calculator supports various models and scenarios, based on the specific needs. The Ericsson oil and gas value calculator can:
- Review how different use cases—such as drone surveillance, connected workers and wireless IoT connectivity—can drive financial benefits.
- Discover how increased throughput and reduced plant downtime can affect CapEx/OpEx.
- Compare the relative value of the benefits against the Total Cost of Operation (TCO).
Empowering Data-Driven Decisions in a More Connected Future
By leveraging Ericsson’s research-based calculator to account for the additional savings, labor costs are reduced, maintenance expenses are minimized, and the productivity of 5G-ready private cellular networks is enhanced.
A wide array of use cases, either developed for, or enabled by, private 5G networks, are now transforming the oil and gas sector. These include connected workers, remote operations, drones, asset condition monitoring, video analytics, and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs). Ericsson’s value calculator showcases the ROI of select use cases and highlights the paths that offer the highest return.
Discover your potential savings and efficiency improvements with Ericsson's Oil and Gas ROI calculator and evaluate your return on investment today: calculate now.
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