Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has been named Operational Excellence Company of the Year (Excellence In Remote Operations) at this year’s Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) Awards, which recognise excellence across the global oil and gas industry.
The winning project was ‘PDO leading nodal acquisition and processing: from whitespace to exploration leads in record time.’
Driven by the continual need to improve seismic data quality for Oman’s challenging geology, the project involved deploying a new PDO Smart Crew equipped with smart hardware to ensure a safer, faster, and more cost-effective seismic acquisition process. This enabled PDO to maintain productivity with 50% less equipment and 13% lower cost per square kilometre in comparison to manual handling.
PDO Exploration Director Dr Hisham al Siyabi said: “We are honoured to have received this award which is testament to PDO’s technical expertise honed over the past decades. This is indeed a game changer for the future of the oil and gas industry in the region and we are looking forward to lead more technological advancements”.
PDO Head of Geophysical Operations Taimur al Wadhahi, who accepted the award on behalf of PDO at the ADIPEC event and other management members, said: “The Smart Crew provides an additional layer of operational flexibility that allows resources to be rearranged in short times to improve further productivity and quality that lead to cost efficiency.”
Utilising nodes has also supported PDO’s long-term mission of reducing workforce exposure. The field headcount was reduced by 46%, while the number of required vehicles and driving exposure was reflected in 57% less kilometres driven. This helped the Company improve safety performance by eliminating the need to daily transport and maintain tonnes of cables and batteries whilst reducing the environmental footprint.
PDO Chief Geophysicist Saeed al Yarubi said: “Our ambition is to change the future of seismic acquisition in the industry, reducing the environmental footprint with technological innovations, automation, and re-engineering of processes, and ultimately reducing the time between investment and ultimate value realisation.”
