Business Strategy: Assessing IT Impact to Unconventional Gas Initiatives

This IDC Energy Insights report provides analysis — based on our interviews with oil and gas professionals — on the IT implications for unconventional gas initiatives. Unconventional oil and gas has transformed the natural gas industry in North America and offers great hope for other regions, enabled by hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" and horizontal drilling technologies. However, exploration and production companies in the unconventional gas business are facing very tight profit margins because of low gas spot prices and the higher cost of drilling. There are many process inefficiencies that E&P professionals can address with the help of IT teams, resulting in reduced operational cost. The question is, How will the use of IT solutions transform the unconventional gas business and help create a repeatable and manufacturing approach?

"IT's involvement in the unconventional gas project is limited to date," says Usman Sindhu, senior research analyst, Utilities and Oil and Gas, IDC Energy Insights. "E&P companies will gradually move to improving their processes using IT solutions. The use of information and communication technologies will help companies make unconventional gas exploration a repeatable process, very much like manufacturing."