Reimagining the service model: holistic asset management is the key

Angus Rodger, Proserv’s Vice President, Services says leading providers must root their offering around partnership and technology to succeed.

The days of effective service support simply being measured by speed of turnaround, local know-how and maintenance agility are disappearing fast in the rear-view mirror. That’s to be expected when the energy industry is transitioning and accelerating towards more and more sustainable energy projects and smarter, cleaner and highly efficient means of production. If strategic roadmaps and operational demands are changing fundamentally, then so must expectations around service provision and delivery.

Impressive on the ground qualities are undoubtedly always vital when issues arise affecting critical infrastructure in the field, but as 2023 approaches, operators and asset owners need service partners to be able to deliver a much more joined-up, holistic support template.

Defining “services”

But what are “services”? Well, we can reference some core elements such as equipment installation, upgrades, modification or maintenance but there can be no set definition. Different geographies represent different activities and priorities and require different skills and support.

You cannot shoehorn a template that works well topside in the Middle East into a subsea service operation in the Gulf of Mexico and expect that to succeed there too. To deliver what your customer actually needs comes down to understanding the market, listening to the voice of that customer, drawing on your wealth of expertise, and, critically, predicting where your team can add value.

Historically too, services have been regarded as rather piecemeal, ad hoc activities demanding an agile team that has a broad bandwidth of capabilities and know-how. Proserv built the foundations of its service offering on such qualities and any business must have these go-to strengths in its locker. But we see clear value in moving away from a more transactional model towards one which is founded on a holistic and rooted relationship where a service team becomes a trusted partner embedded in day-to-day operations and able to action a suite of deliverables as part of a tailored asset and infrastructure management template.

Positives of predictability

Our approach to building an asset management framework is focused on working with a client’s decision-making team to establish requirements. Our aim is to be entrusted with supplying the necessary obsolescence management, testing and certification, and regular status reporting to that team’s key individuals to offer a tangible degree of security, certainty and predictability to their planning. When such collaboration occurs and this visibility is available, it is easier for us to predict and schedule O&M campaigns, potential failures are mitigated and production is safeguarded.

Although no two service offerings are the same, we employ continuity and a common methodology around how we look after our customers’ installed base, bringing reliability and certainty to their activities. If one client has purchased three multi-million dollar subsea control systems or another has acquired a few dozen pumps, both equally want to be able to know that either their round-the-clock 24/7 asset support, or their obsolescence and maintenance management, are taken care of allowing them to stay ahead of possible issues. Those customers who fully engage with our approach truly benefit from more secure and seamless operations.

Digital gains

Joined-up asset and infrastructure management leads to operational excellence, but the integration of digital technologies, such as real-time predictive condition-monitoring, can deliver a powerful leap forward in service support.

At Proserv, we are renowned for technology collaboration and innovation. In the past year, we have rolled out a disruptive holistic cable monitoring system for offshore wind, ECG™, while, working with leading independent operators in the Gulf of Mexico, we have been developing unique data analytics solutions to supply early warning of minor anomalies in production performance, identifying issues long before they become problems.

Our goal is to increasingly drive these digital solutions into our various service offerings across the world, from wind farms in the North Sea to remote wells in the Arabian desert. The insights that we can bring would offer another layer of certainty and predictability for our customers. Maintenance could solely be condition and not calendar based, inspections would be reduced, fewer personnel would be needed on site – the benefits would offer efficiencies around time, money and carbon footprints.

Maintenance and modification can sometimes be a bumpy road, with uncertainties and unknowns, but asset and infrastructure management, harnessing the latest digital technologies, can leapfrog and smooth out those bumps, allowing essential remedial action and future upgrades to be planned ahead of time. But whenever a failure threatens, we can trust in that traditional rapid response and broad skill set to take action when absolutely necessary.

Today’s world is fast-moving and volatile with the transition and energy security accelerating political and economic policy. As an industry agnostic service business, propelled by digital technology innovation, we can leverage our asset management provision to support future clean energy generation by monitoring the health, and extending the life, of critical infrastructure. At the same time, we can give oil and gas operators greater visibility of performance to ensure production remains both reliable and efficient.

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