ExxonMobil: Closed-Loop Automation & The Digital Ecosystem

In today’s world, IT and business are inseparably intertwined, with the rise of e-commerce and search engine supremacy cementing this reality.

Adopting an informed digital strategy is crucial to remain competitive, taking advantage of the complex technological web that keeps businesses, people and systems connected. 

This is especially true in the manufacturing sector, where greater interconnectedness improves every aspect of the business, from the supply chain to the production line. 

One manufacturer highlighting this is oil and gas giant ExxonMobil, which is building its own Digital Reality Ecosystem.

This system, a form of the Industrial Metaverse, offers seamless immersive experiences across the company’s asset fleet and increased visualisation of their sites. 

It's fuelling profitable growth and creating an impressive, differentiated portfolio within the organisation, which announced industry-leading second quarter earnings for 2024.

“We delivered our second-highest Q2 earnings of the past decade as we continue to improve the fundamental earnings power of the company,” comments Darren Woods, Chairman and CEO at ExxonMobil.

These earnings were a colossal US$9.2bn, which Darren credits in part to the company's Permian and Guyana assets.

“We achieved record quarterly production from our low-cost-of-supply Permian and Guyana assets, with the highest oil production since the Exxon and Mobil merger," he continues. 

"We also achieved a record in high-value product sales, growing by 10% versus the first half of last year.”

While the Industrial Metaverse remains in its infancy, ExxonMobil is already embracing it to landmark success. 

The company has been digitally optimising approaches to consumer applications, manufacturing, assembly and drilling. 

One area of particular note is its success in integrating closed-loop automation into drilling and laying a foundation for it in oilfields. 

Closed-loop automation: Drilling and the oilfield 

Oil and gas is one of the most hazardous industries, with high injury and fatality rates.

According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), more than 4,000 oil field employees are wounded and more than 100 killed on the job every year.

Oil is also an extremely dangerous commodity if mishandled – to both people and the environment. 

Drilling, a vital process to these industries, also introduces further safety risks.

To enhance the safety and efficiency of drilling, ExxonMobil has turned to automation, a critical component of its Digital Reality Ecosystem. 

ExxonMobil: Pioneering automation

ExxonMobil is pioneering autonomous drilling in deep water, developing a proprietary drilling advisory system.

This system leverages AI to determine ideal drilling parameters, enabling closed-loop automation that removes the need for human intervention. 

This automation solution is currently being used in the company’s Guyana operations, significantly enhancing safety and efficiency.

Rig personnel no longer have to engage in repetitive, hazardous drilling tasks, enabling them to focus on other critical work. 

This automated system incorporates more than a century of drilling expertise, maximising rates of penetration whilst minimising the risk of technical issues.

In the oilfield, similar risks apply.

Optimising the oilfield is of paramount importance for oil and gas manufacturers who are seeing to maintain a competitive market edge. 

Industry 4.0 has been the key to doing this, with ExxonMobil collaborating with Microsoft to build its Digital Reality Ecosystem on this front. 

In the Permian Basin in West Texas, ExxonMobil is using IoT to monitor and optimise a diversity of its widely dispersed field assets.

From an interconnected network of sensors, data is collected and then stored in the cloud, allowing the company’s engineers, analysts and scientists access at any time. 

The resulting insights can be utilised to optimise performance and workflow automation, lowering costs, reducing methane emissions and increasing production over the course of an oilfield’s life. 

By heightening the accessibility of data, continuous improvement and quick decision making is made significantly easier, without lengthy periods of data collection and research required.  

This development puts Exxon Mobil on the map for the ultimate optimisation of its oil fields – closed-loop automation.

In this system, sensors will identify data which is stored and analysed in the cloud. Then, if issues or opportunities arise, the response will be coordinated by machines without human intervention. 

Automation has contributed to the company's record production in Guyana and the Permian Basin, where production grew by 15% or 574,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day from the first quarter of 2024.

As ExxonMobil continues to build it's Digital Reality Ecosystem, incorporating more Industry 4.0 tools and technologies, it looks set to continue enhancing the efficiency and results of its manufacturing processes. 

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