Trends in Oil and Gas Control Rooms

Today, the need for oil is high. And as such, the oil and gas industry is constantly changing and adapting to new technologies to better serve customers. The oil and gas industry has many emerging trends that are welcomed largely by the operator. There are a few trends in the industry that are making their way to the norm.

Large monitors are making their way into oil and gas control rooms. The need to read and display more information is growing, and larger PC monitors are becoming the norm. Large monitors create the challenge of limited space in the control room, but many find the extra information displayed is worth it. In the future, leadership must take into account space in the control room, including large displays.

Remote PC’s are used more today than before. Remote technology enables operators to do their jobs from any location around the world. It also allows for easier office moves, as PC’s no longer need to be in close proximity to the equipment or site. With technology becoming better and more efficient for remote capability, this trend will become the norm of the future.

Today, sit-stand consoles are becoming more popular and common. With operators working long hours and periods of time with no breaks, it’s easy to see why sit-stands are the preferred type of console.

However, there have been challenges in implementing such changes.

The most common challenge is the budget. Cost of a control room widely differs based on a variety of factors. This presents various challenges for leadership when trying to plan the best solution for their control room.

With technology continuously advancing, control rooms tend to be slow in adopting new technologies. Part of the challenge is it is difficult to update technology in a fully operational control room - even making small upgrades. This leads to leadership holding off on an upgrade in an effort to complete them all at once. Leadership would rather hold off on sporadic upgrades and plan to complete all system upgrades at once. This limitation is due to budget constraints and/or the type of hardware that needs to replaced.