An increasing industry awareness of the risks associated with humans doing jobs in some high-risk areas in the oil and gas industry is likely to see the volume of robotics use cases grow rapidly, according to a Rigzone article published late last year.
The Rigzone report quotes the world-renowned date and analytics company, GlobalData, as saying late last year that robots will be the oil and gas industry’s “growth engine” in the period ahead. Rigzone quotes GlobalData Oil and Gas Analyst, Anson Fernandes, as saying in a statement that “the volume of robotics use cases in the oil and gas industry is expected to grow rapidly, in tow with digitalization.” According to the statement attributed to Fernandes, and sent to Rigzone, “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.”
In the statement, Fernandes noted that robotics is a fast-growing industry, adding that, according to GlobalData forecasts, it was worth $52.9 billion in 2021 and will reach $568 billion by 2030. “The oil and gas sector will greatly benefit from emerging use cases,” Fernandes said in the statement. According to a recent GlobalData report, leading robotics adopters in the oil and gas industry include BP, Chevron, China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec) and Equinor. Some of the leading robotics vendors in the oil and gas sector include Cognex, Cyberdyne, Estun Automation and FANUC, the report highlighted. In a report sent to Rigzone early last year identifying themes that were “set to have the most influence” on the oil and gas sector in 2021, GlobalData highlighted “tech themes such as robotics, industrial internet, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and cyber security”.
In October 2021, Nabors Industries Ltd. announced that the world’s first fully automated land drilling rig had reached total depth on its first well, which was for ExxonMobil in the Permian basin. In June 2021, Heriot-Watt University announced that a robot made famous by dancing on YouTube was set to help save lives and cut carbon dioxide emissions by supporting hazardous environment research at the National Robotarium.
