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Seizing opportunities
Embracing digitalization is key for O & G EPCs to thrive .
By Gian Mario Tagliaretti
According to the International Energy Agency , global oil demand is forecast to be 3.2 million barrels per day higher in 2030 that in 2023 , driven by emerging economies in Asia and by greater use of jet fuel and feedstocks from the booming petrochemicals industry , notably in China . In line with this , the global oil and gas energy , procurement and construction ( EPC ) market is also set to double in size to circa $ 93 billion by 2031 . The scale of this predicted growth should emphasize the importance of managing projects efficiently , on time and on budget , and investing in ways to drive improvements . What is clear is that change needs to happen , because right now , many of the large EPC projects come in over budget by circa ten percent , with three out of four projects at least 40 percent behind schedule . When a medium-sized powerplant may cost between € 100 million and € 400 million to construct , ten percent represents a significant amount of lost profitability .
A lack of willing to embrace new technology
Critically , this issue is driven by an unwillingness to embrace digitalization and the available technologies that currently exist . No one is suggesting that EPCs should turn to machine learning and AI overnight . What we are talking about is fundamentally more basic and is centered around the limitations of the widely used scheduling systems that the majority of EPCs use .
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