How to Build a Digital Twin with Strong Justification & Return of Investment: Case Study from OQ Oman

Abstract

OQ recognizes the significancy of new technologies driving all industries, and in these days alongside with the latest generation of information technologies, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing, internet of things and big data, The roles of virtual space are becoming more of a value and the links between the physical and virtual worlds are more intense than ever before. Introducing such development of virtual spaces is allowing for more technologies, and it is well considered an enabler for a proper digital transformation. OQ is an integrated energy company working on oil & gas, where asset reliability and availability are a key aspect to be monitored and maintained. At OQ we admit the fact that this revolution of technology -if implemented in the right way- could result in enhancing the operation, reducing maintenance costs, and increasing profits. This was the driver of the study, which started by reviewing the readiness and needs across OQ brown assets and ended up with a design of Digital Twin (DT) technology with the highest return of investment and strong justification. The case study summarized the procedure for building a digital twin for OQ brown fields, initiated by assisting OQ assets, highlighting the areas of impact, building strong use cases, selecting the most critical for a pilot project, and designing the project rollout. The procedure was built based on internal and external involvements, internally with different stakeholders inside OQ, and externally with some of the top technology providers of digital twin globally, which allows for proper alignment and for discovering the most recent available solutions and related technologies in the scope of the project. This case study has its value as it is contributing in guiding similar industries in designing their own deployment plan of digital twin considering digital twin strategies to support the consistent and systematic rollout of the technology.