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Digitalisation

The digital energy company

Digitalisation and technological innovation offer the pathway to the future of energy supplies and achieving carbon net zero. So, when we talk about digitalisation in our industry, we mean:

Replacing manual or physical tasks with digital solutions
Streamlining work processes by reducing time spent on manual or repetitive work
Advanced analysis of data – to better understand and utilise the vast and complex data sets that can improve our decision making and performance
Robotisation and remote control, improving operational regularity, reducing cost and improving safety by reducing human involvement in dangerous tasks and environments
The internet and industrial internet of things (IoT, IIoT), big data, predictive and prescriptive analytics and artificial intelligence.

Opportunities for digital professionals

Our digital topics

Evmorfia Andritsopoulou. Senior Data Scientist, Equinor.

The brains behind artificial intelligence

Pumps, turbines, generators run our plants. We monitor them to prevent malfunction. But machines can fail. Data scientist Eva Andritsopoulou and her team use machine learning to predict malfunctions before they occur. This is artificial intelligence at scale, with direct impact on operations and safety.

Find out more about AI on heavy rotating equipment

Subsea drone sets new world record

A subsea drone working for Equinor recently set the world record for the longest period ever for an operational remotely controlled vessel underwater, spending 165 days at a depth of 330 metres.

The Saipem Hydrone-R drone has been working at the Njord field in the Norwegian Sea, performing regular drill support, production support activities and some autonomous operations at Njord field, giving important information about potential leaks or hazards.

Transforming through robotics

Equinor is robot-ready — and they are already in daily use in many areas of our business.

Years of investment in IT infrastructure, advanced data analytics, machine learning and AI, software development and third-party solutions, a cloud first strategy, all based on the recognition that data and connectivity will transform Equinor, our industry and society. We have the technical core to transform through robotics.

We use drones and robots to do more of the dangerous, dirty, distant and the dull jobs for us, leaving our employees to focus even more time on innovative tasks and solutions.

From inspection of chemical tanks to subsea pipelines, and maintenance work such as sand blasting and painting, robots and drones are transforming the way we work. They extend our reach and capability in environmental monitoring and are also being tested for logistical flights offshore.

Find out more about drones and robots in Equinor

Looking for a job?

Do you see chaos or opportunity in 70 petabytes of data? And do you find purpose in developing the digital solutions for the future of energy? What about Europe’s energy security of today? Equinor offers a unique range of challenges and development opportunities for digital professionals, and we are hiring.

We have opportunities for digital professionals. Find out more

Equinor “street view” for platforms and plants

Wouldn’t it be great if Google Street View and Google Maps could show where to go in the vast jungle of pipes and valves in a plant? Our specialists agreed, and developed Echo, a “street view” and visualisation tool for digital twins. The operators have all they need on a tablet, and can find equipment, simulate modifications, plan maintenance and collaborate in real-time. Or just find their way back to the office.

Find out more about digital twins in Equinor

3D printing parts to cut costs and emissions

If a part breaks down and impacts operations, it quickly gets very expensive. But so is having duplications of every possible part that can break. The solution is a digital inventory and 3D printing. Additive manufacturing can save money, the production can be done closer to where the part is needed and the process is often less CO₂ intensive than traditional manufacturing. Coupled with a digital inventory, we can produce parts on demand, close to where the need is. And in the not-to-distant future, drones will fly the part from the production site to where it is needed.

Equinor innovation stories

In our latest wells, we’re not just counting barrels. We’re counting gigabytes.

Did you know Equinor has one of the fastest computing clusters in all of Europe? 40 servers process data from fibre optic cables in our wells and have already helped us save millions of NOK – and they’re only getting started.

The brainwave that became the Hywind floating turbine

Two becalmed sailors started to doodle on the back of a napkin – and had a brainwave. Today, nearly 20 years later, those strokes of genius have been transformed into Hywind — a technology that is virtually synonymous with floating wind turbines.

Building Dogger Bank Wind Farm: a sneak peek behind the scenes

It’ll be the largest offshore wind farm the world has ever seen, powering the equivalent of six million British homes. And although all 277 turbines won’t be operational until 2026, excitement has been growing in the buildup to 10 October, when we announced first power. We paid a visit during that final, exciting phase.

A rock-solid cruise control

We will buy software solutions and applications if they are available, and if not, we can develop them ourselves. Like “Automated drilling control”, a cruise control for drilling, developed by a supplier in cooperation with Equinor’s engineers. With ADC we can avoid incidents, drill faster, take better decisions, reduce cost and improve safety in our operations. And that is no small matter when we drill 100 to 150 wells on the Norwegian continental shelf every year.

Data as a high-value biproduct of oil

In Equinor we use data in new ways to find oil, produce it more efficiently and with lower CO₂ emissions. From the wells at the enormous Johan Sverdrup field, data flows up from the ground faster than the oil does. Many times faster. In fact, 10,000 Netflix movies-a-second fast. To keep track, our engineers and subsurface specialists have turned to data science. They can livestream vast amounts of data from 3,000 meters underground, and are developing machine learning algorithms to make it easier for the engineers to view the right “movie” to optimise the operation.

Find out more about data in Equinor

Data sharing

We’re sharing our data with the world.
Here’s why.

Did you know that data sets from our Northern Lights, Volve and Hywind Scotland assets are open and available to researchers and students?

If you didn’t — here’s why we’re sharing them, what they contain, how to access them, and what it’s been used for so far. Data is the new oil, and we’re sharing a lot of it!

By sharing data, we can foster new ideas to solve complex energy problems.

Data sharing in Equinor