Cost pressures and emissions reduction mandates are among the factors pushing the oil and gas sector toward new technology, which has already led to improved efficiency and production growth.

However, DNV GL CEO and Group President Remi Eriksen believes a technological revolution is near.

“It may be hard to believe we’re on the cusp of a technological revolution at a time when the global economy as a whole is slowing. But our view at DNV GL is that we are indeed entering a new ‘renaissance’ in industrial progress, with the accelerated uptake of cyber-physical systems,” Eriksen said in the risk management company’s “Technology Outlook 2025” report.

Key to it all will be digitalization—sensor technology making way for labs on chips and energy harvesting, big data analytics driving a software revolution and smart technologies unlocking autonomous systems and machine learning, to name a few, according to DNV GL.

For the oil and gas industry, opportunities for further efficiency gains are abundant. But the company singled out a few technologies in particular that it believes will shape the oil and gas industry’s future, enabling companies to become even more efficient in their drive to meet the world’s growing energy needs safely and cost-effectively. Among these is automated drilling, which is already in use on some drillships, including automated drill pipe handling, managed pressure drilling, single trip drilling/drilling while completing and drilling process monitoring and diagnostics, according to the report.

“It is a technology that will help us to become safer because you can take people off the drill floor. It’s a very dangerous workplace,” Pierre Sames, group technology and research director for DNV GL, said during an April 13 event about the outlook in Houston. “But it will also help us become more efficient.”

Such technology, which is driven by sensors and algorithms, could lower drilling time and costs by between 30% and 50%, compared with a conventional rig, DNV GL said.

Automated drilling technology can better process a multitude of information and operate complex systems, which will result in improved operations that won’t be interrupted as often by unexpected and extreme events, Sames said.

Automation is already a large component of subsea operations, but a “smart subsea solution” is missing, he added. This means more sensors, more computing power and wiring that allows each subsea component to share information—such as flow rates, possible leaks and reservoir conditions—are needed. In some of these remote places, unmanned aerial vehicles—also known as drones—can step in to fill the knowledge gap, he added. But the drones would not just be airborne. They would also swim, dive or troll, depending on the task at hand.

“In 2025, we expect subsea solutions to rely actively on monitoring and data analytics to achieve the necessary flow conditions for stable production,” DNV GL said in the report. “Better prediction of flow-related problems leads to quicker action to assure continuous flow, which has a significant impact on field economy through reduced downtime.

“More importantly, improved control over the flow and process conditions allows operation closer to the physical limits for a stable multiphase flow. This is especially relevant for heavier or waxy oil, gas with high liquid content and large sand production.”

Other technology areas expected to shape the oil and gas sectors future include:

Smarter Completions: The systems, which aim to better monitor and control production zones to increase recovery, involve autonomous or remote-controlled choking back of high gas and water-producing zones, the report said, noting smart completions can be easily reconfigured without a rig. “Smart completions with multiple drainage points per well, which can be easily opened or closed can fundamentally improve well performance through improved reservoir management.”

Rigless Plugging & Abandonment: To cut down on P&A costs, DNV GL said P&A activity should be done without a rig and with well tubing in place. Although most wells require a rig for P&A work, some low-risk wells are already taking advantage of such technologies, leaving rigs available for E&P activity. Sames said there are about 8,000 wells in the North Sea, including about 5,000 in the U.K. North Sea, that need to be plugged and abandoned. Rigless P&A is possible in this area for certain platform wells, which will save cost and time, he added.

LNG as fuel for trucks, particularly heavy duty, and rail along with use of biodegradable polymers for EOR were also listed among the ways to improve operational efficiencies.

“Our view is that the coming decade will be about implementation. It will be about action,” Eriksen said. “Technologies that until now have been considered breakthrough—from subsea to renewables to driverless cars to digitalization to the cloud—are all going to be deployed on a large scale by 2025 or not long thereafter.”

Velda Addison can be reached at vaddison@hartenergy.com.