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Digitalization for survival – Halliburton’s attempt at transforming the oil and gas industry
W
Posted on November 15, 2017 at 6:39 pm
A world of fully automated robotic rigs may be around the corner. Read how Halliburton plans on going about doing it.

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On December 1, 2017, W commented on “I wouldn’t trust them to build a canoe”: Building the Australian Navy :

Paul, great article! It reminded me of day 1 of our finance class, when Prof. Cohen argued that the world as a whole is better off if markets are left to decide how labor should be spent in each country since that results in the biggest pie for everyone. Today it is the shipping industry that the Australian government is essentially subsidizing. What happens when other industries, such as automotive, ask for similar subsidies? If the goal is to save jobs, $30Bn for 7500 jobs seems to be quite a steep price to pay.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/rendezview/counting-the-cost-of-killing-australias-car-industry/news-story/cb10862b3405a9b26ce9f4541bbdbc08

On December 1, 2017, W commented on Collaborative Robots as a hedge against Isolationism :

Very informative article! I was completely unaware of the advent of this technology. Reflecting a bit further, I am not surprised. As the world shifts further towards isolationism, the penetration of this technology will only increase. Isolationism is primarily a result of frustration against cheap offshore labor. I am curious how governments will react as people’s focus shifts from cheap labor to technologies such as collaborative robots being the reason of their unemployment? Will people protest en masse to limit the usage of such technology? Will governments succumb to the pressure?

On December 1, 2017, W commented on The Vikings Attack Climate Change: Statoil’s Quest to Reduce Emissions. :

To answer your first question about whether or not other oil majors will share Statoil’s vision, I think this recent article in the financial times perfectly captures how some of the biggest energy groups are making a conscious effort of doing their part in reducing emissions. Exxon’s announcement on Wednesday of reducing emissions despite the Trump’s administrations efforts of reducing regulation goes to show that the oil majors are very conscious of their responsibility in curbing emissions. It also shows that government intervention is not a requirement for oil companies to realize their responsibilities in curbing emissions.

https://www.ft.com/content/75bd8114-cf9c-11e7-b781-794ce08b24dc

On December 1, 2017, W commented on No Longer One Single Shade: Sephora and the Beauty Industry :

I feel viewing digitalization from the lens of job destruction is the wrong way to go. I would argue digitalization is a matter of survival for Sephora. With stiff competition from Ulta, and the beauty industry being viewed as one of the top performing industries of 2016 and 2017 more and more competitors are looking at how they can enter and disrupt this industry. By investing in digitalization for not only inventory management but also customer experience enhancement, Sephora is ultimately setting up barriers to entry. The magnitude of job losses from a company no longer being able to compete are far greater than the magnitude of job losses that may, which is a big may, occur from digitalization.

On December 1, 2017, W commented on How the leading Latin American airline affects and is affected by climate change :

Very informative article! I loved how you started out by quantifying the impact the aviation industry has on the global CO2 emissions.
I am curious how LATAM airlines, and the aviation airline in general, is weighing the tradeoffs between shifting towards bio-fuels and food security for the poor. If the aviation industry has a whole moves further towards bio-fuels, does it risk causing a spike, particularly in the less developed parts of the world, in food prices? Given how climate change is already threatening food security for poor countries of the world, would the shift towards more bio-fuels only serve to exacerbate the issue?

On November 29, 2017, Waqar commented on Nordstrom and Uber: A Match Made in Heaven? :

Conner, brilliant article! Like the person above me, I also had no idea about Nordstorm partnering up with Uber. I was also not aware of Uber diversifying away from restaurants and moving into the retail delivery space. You raised some very valid concerns.

Given how this has the potential to significantly disrupt companies such as FedEx, I am surprised they haven’t tried to venture into crowd sourcing local deliveries as of yet. Maybe the big players do not see the model being viable and are banking on this being a fad.

On November 29, 2017, Waqar commented on Digitalization In the Upstream Oil and Gas Industry :

Hi Khush- very well written article. Rig of the future is an interesting concept. From what I understood, rig of the future is primarily focused on the drilling aspect of a well. Given how for shale wells majority of the costs reside in the completions, do you think an automated drilling rig would lead to significant economic improvements for shale wells?

On the offshore front, in the post deepwater horizon world do you think operators will be hesitant in deploying a fully automated rig?

On November 29, 2017, Waqar commented on Shell: “printing” your oil :

Pretty informative article. I wasn’t aware of how operators are utilizing 3d printing technology to their advantage. Services companies, such as Halliburton looked at the technology a couple of years back but I haven’t seen much progress. Why do you think the service companies have failed to go mass scale with 3D printing? Could it be because of push back from operators? Maybe Deepwater Horizon incident has significantly reduced any operators appetite for innovative technologies?

https://www.reuters.com/article/ge-3dprinting/oil-industry-joins-world-of-3d-printing-idUSL5N0KW2OA20140123