Oil and gas companies estimate that the implementation of digital solutions will bring them an average increase of 10% in revenues, due to reduced project start-up time and increased production in the next five years, according to the report “2020 Digital Operations study for oil and gas,” conducted by PwC by reviewing over 200 companies worldwide. At the same time, these companies anticipate an 8.5% decrease in costs due to improved operational efficiency.

Although most executives in the oil and gas sector are aware of the gains from digitization, only 7% say that their organizations are advanced in the process of digitalizing operations, and 70% that they are still in the beginning. The most digitally advanced are companies in the chemical industry, followed by oil and gas and utilities.

Oil and gas companies faced very high challenges in terms of efficiency, durability and profitability before COVID-19. As a result of the pandemic, prices have plummeted, so the urgency to address these issues has increased dramatically. One of the clearest and most viable answers to these systemic challenges is to accelerate digitalization strategies to become more resilient to such shocks and to remain attractive to investors.