AI could fix costly downtime in the oilfield services industry

Unplanned outages are on the rise globally from both equipment failures and damages.

Smaller operators do not have the excess capital to conduct the same level of planned outages. As traditional methods of predicting equipment failure can be unreliable in a dynamic operating environment, they can be hesitant to sanction significant shutdown work unless it is absolutely necessary. Thus, they are forced to ride out operational uncertainty and have unfortunately seen unplanned outages increase.

Unplanned outages have severe negative cost and production consequences for the operator. Viewing this problem with upside potential, many service companies are now turning to technology companies in the hopes that artificial intelligence (AI) can help solve the problem and, ultimately, to grow revenues. Rystad Energy forecasts the application of artificial intelligence to monitor and predict equipment failures will continue to rise in the oilfield services industry.