IIoT Applications in the Oil and Gas Industry 5th Edition

Oil and gas operators utilise wireless industrial IoT (IIoT) solutions to increase operationalefficiency, secure assets and achieve regulatory compliance throughout the entire value chain.Industrial control systems such as Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) andDistributed Control Systems (DCSs) are used to monitor and control remote facilities. Thesesolutions enable operators to remotely monitor a multitude of data points such as pressure,volume levels, flow rates, temperature and operating status and conditions of various equipmentat well sites, tank farms and pipeline facilities. A combination of wired and proprietary radiosolutions is typically used for communications between sensors, controllers and systems,although cellular, satellite and non-3GPP LPWA technologies are increasingly used for nonmissioncritical applications.

Berg Insight estimates that the number of installed wireless devices featuring cellular, satelliteand LPWA connectivity for oil and gas applications reached 7.8 million units worldwide in 2023.Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.3 percent, the installed base isexpected to reach 18.8 million units by 2028. Remote monitoring of assets such as industrialequipment, tanks and pipeline infrastructure in the midstream and downstream sectors comprisethe most common applications for wireless solutions in the oil and gas industry. The expected growth in cellular device shipments is attributed to a higher adoption rate of sensor applications based on LTE-M and NB-IoT technologies and continued preference for cellular communications in the remote tank monitoring segment. Since many remote monitoring applications have limited requirements on bandwidth, non-3GPP LPWA technologies such as LoRa can achieve a significant position on this market as well.

Internationally, the upstream oil and gas market is dominated by National Oil Companies (NOCs) and Integrated Oil Companies (IOCs), which are largely served by major industrial automation vendors including ABB, Emerson, Hitachi, Honeywell, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Siemens and Yokogawa. These companies are increasingly focusing on selling complete and integrated systems rather than individual control systems. Today, the major automation suppliers’ IIoT solutions are aimed at helping customers acquire data from assets and optimise processes further through data management and analytics. Industry players that specialise in data-oriented software applications for SCADA systems and asset management include Quorum Software, AUTOSOL, eLynx Technologies, Inductive Automation, Peloton and PSI. Vendors of wireless instrumentation solutions include Banner Engineering, Endress+Hauser, OleumTech and Pepperl+Fuchs. Providers of remote terminal units (RTUs) for SCADA applications include Ovarro, High Tide Technologies and Willowglen Systems.

Solutions for remote monitoring and tracking of assets such as wellheads, storage tanks and pipelines are also offered by a large number of specialised vendors. The market for remote tank monitoring (RTM) is led by Canadian Otodata with an installed base of about 2.0 million units. Additional providers of RTM solutions include Anova, Skybitz, Sensile Technologies, Dunraven Systems, Kingspan, PowTechnology, ATEK Access Technologies, SilentSoft and Varec. Companies specialising in remote pipeline monitoring solutions are Abriox, American Innovations, Atmos International, OmniMetrix and OptaSense. Specialists in gas leak detection include Blackline Safety and GasSecure. Asset tracking solutions for upstream, midstream and downstream operations are offered by ORBCOMM, Quake Global, Geoforce and Tektelic.

Due to the remoteness of oil and gas facilities, cellular and unlicensed proprietary radio solutions are typically used for data acquisition and backhaul communications. The largest providers of cellular IoT gateways and routers in the industrial space are Cisco, Belden, Semtech (Sierra Wireless), Digi International, Moxa, HMS Networks, Advantech, InHand Networks, MultiTech and Eurotech. While cellular solutions are today primarily used for non-mission critical applications, there is growing support for use of private cellular networks across critical infrastructure industries. In contrast, unlicensed proprietary radio solutions are today already used in mission critical applications, primarily at well sites, where wired installations are unfit. Vendors of proprietary radio modems include 4RF, FreeWave Technologies, RACOM, GE Vernova and Schneider Electric.