Empowering the energy sector in 2024: navigating challenges, leveraging opportunities and pioneering digital solutions with FieldTwin

A new year brings fresh beginnings – but what does 2024 hold in store for the energy sector? The oil and gas industry has garnered positive momentum in recent times, and I hope that trajectory will continue in what could be a challenging 12 months ahead.

We’ve started January with a prediction from the EIA of flat oil prices for the foreseeable future, while the factors that have influenced the macro environment in recent times – energy security, allocation of capital and the need to hasten the journey towards net zero – are expected to continue front and centre.

Beyond that, project teams are grappling with a challenge set down by the C-suite. They are being told they must do more with less: less investment, less time, and less personnel with less experience.

But is it time to change perceptions? Are these challenges or opportunities? The team at FutureOn, which I’ve had the honour of leading for the past six months, firmly believes it’s the latter. It’s a time of unprecedented operational change for the energy sector, but it’s fortunate that it’s happening at a time of extraordinary technological change.

There is an opportunity to leverage the power of digital and AI-driven solutions in a way never seen before. This isn’t applicable only to energy but across industry and across the world.

New figures suggest that global digital twin market will reach $110.1bn by 2028, growing at a rate of 61.3% CAGR. The reason? Simply, investment in digital technologies leads to cost reduction, process efficiency and acceleration of technology, all while opening the potential for expanded or new revenues.

That’s something our groundbreaking digital design and visualization platform, FieldTwin, is already delivering. It has a proven track record of accelerating timelines, delivering efficiencies and derisking activities across the asset lifecycle, creating a digital working environment where project teams, regardless of location, can work collaboratively at pace.

The challenge we’ve set ourselves for 2024 is to take the success FieldTwin has achieved and go further. Helping our customers solve the puzzle of doing more with less is mission critical for FutureOn in the next 12 months.

Our ambitious growth trajectory pivots around three core channels.

Firstly, we’re laser-focused on broadening our client base within the existing oil and gas subsea market. We aim to forge meaningful connections with new clients, leveraging our expertise, innovative solutions and industry reputation to establish strong partnerships.

In parallel with that, we’re going the extra mile for our existing customers by introducing new value-creating use cases. We don’t want to just meet their needs but surpass expectations, offering solutions that enhance efficiency, optimize operations, and deliver substantial added value.

We’re also focused on supporting digital adoption in the energy transition sector with adaption of FieldTwin for offshore wind as well as integrated Power-to-X and electrification projects. With FieldTwin, the energy source is just that – a source. We’re committed to staying at the forefront of technological advancements and working with the sector to develop sustainable solutions.

FieldTwin for wind marks an exciting phase in the platform’s evolution. Our initial release, leveraging libraries from DTU (Technical University of Denmark), already provides the sector with a decision support tool that accelerates planning and costing phases. Looking ahead, we plan to expand towards operational use cases, aiming to seamlessly integrate FieldTwin deeper into the project development phase.

We want our platform to remain cutting edge to and adaptive to the evolving needs of our clients: we’ve show this through previous innovation of FieldTwin and the introduction of the digital project sharing forum, Collaborate.

This module was designed with the power of co-creation in mind and is paying dividends for clients with dispersed project teams. It is helping them make a shift away from different disciplines operating in and taking decisions in siloes, with all the associated problems of uneven and outdated record keeping and recall.

It brings project teams and contractors together in one space, ensuring accessibility, integrity and real-time updates. It doesn’t just accelerate projects, it supercharges them, making processes more efficient, expediting the testing of new ideas and concepts, and reducing costs along the way.

The road ahead for FutureOn is dynamic and promising. Over the next five years, we’ll solidify our position as a leader of digital solutions for the energy sector. We’ll continue positioning for new frontiers beyond subsea oil and gas, putting ourselves at the forefront of the transition to empower clients with sustainable solutions.

We’re here to tackle the problems of the energy industry today, while innovating to solve the challenges of tomorrow.