Petroleum Development Oman strikes oil with automation

Saud Al Zakwani, Head of Data Science at Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), never looked back after implementing his first robot. Since then, automation has handed 21,800 hours back to staff and saved the business $1 million. Now he wants to save $5 million.

Oil was first discovered in Oman in 1962. Since then, PDO has been leading exploration and production in the Sultanate. It has about 209 producing oil fields, 55 producing gas fields, and more than 8,000 active wells, employing a diverse workforce of more than 8,500 employees, comprised of 70 different nationalities, and more than 70,000 contractors.

To say this is a huge operation is an understatement. In fact, total oil and gas revenue accounts for 72% of the state’s income at OMR 7,700 million. This is about the equivalent of $20 billion. PDO is responsible for a significant proportion.

Rather than being daunted by the prospect of introducing robotic process automation (RPA) to such a large organization, Saud Al Zakwani, Head of Data Science at PDO, saw it as a huge opportunity. “We first became aware of RPA in 2016 and instantly knew it could revolutionize the business,” he recalls. “But it wasn’t until 2018 when we attended a UiPath conference that we began to really explore it.”

The start of the journey

The spark that ignited PDO’s desire was RPA’s ability to automate repetitive, volume-heavy, and rules-based tasks without interfering with existing IT systems. With such a long history, the business had many siloed pieces of technology. Integrating them fully would be a huge task. But equally, getting them to work in unison required herculean human effort. People needed to go from one system to another frequently, acting as the connecting tissue to ensure processes run smoothly.

“RPA could sit over the top of our existing software,” enthuses Saud. “It would allow us to digitize and automate processes without affecting the integrity of the systems.” This is because RPA works just like a human, emulating the on-screen actions and keystrokes or mouse clicks of a person using a computer. It’s a virtual assistant that can do the repetitive, unrewarding, yet often vital tasks that keep organizations running.

From pilot to revelation

PDO began by exploring how RPA could be used in the finance department where a pilot programme was implemented. “Our finance team had to stay on top of over 800 contracts, ensuring delivery of services and monitoring progress. Prior to automation, it was all done by staff. But the sheer scale of the task meant half of the contracts didn’t get the attention they deserved,” according to Saud’s colleague [NAME], [TITLE]. The biggest challenge was staying on top of email communications.

We created software robots to email contractors, ask for information, update our databases and take appropriate action where needed. The speed with which they could do this was fantastic. [NAME]

The automations also kept track of exchange rates on a daily basis. Previously, these were managed on a monthly basis by staff, meaning over the course of the month, PDO may have lost revenue as rates fluctuated.

With a successful pilot complete, the team turned to the HR department, which handled about 3,000 internal moves every year as people changed roles. The paperwork and process of managing this is vital, yet tedious. Furthermore, one missing piece of information could lead to a weeklong delay. The process was automated. “Managing the internal staff market is a complex process,” [NAME] says. “There are policy changes to be made and 51 criteria to be managed.” Yet RPA could take it on.

Following this, Saud focused on something right at the core of the business: the central velocity calculation. This is the calculation of how much oil and gas is in the ground, based on data from every single drill and well. The process used 200 servers and six apps to calculate the figure, which was produced manually every six months. With software robots in place, the calculation could be made every three weeks. It took five months to achieve this, but it was worth it.

We had attended robots working in unison with staff to collate all the information and process it accordingly. It was a huge success and allows the business to make more informed decisions about its core activity.

At this point, Saud had a revelation. “I realized that if we could use RPA to calculate the central velocity calculation, we could use it anywhere.” The health, safety, and environment (HSE) department was next. Every morning begins with a report of incidents from the day prior, which was completed manually. “We automated the execution of data and the reporting, meaning teams got a report every day at 6 am.”

This was followed by software robots to manage inventory management to ensure teams never ran out of materials. There was also an automation to collate data from the 2,000 equipment alarms to flag if sites needed attention. This was previously a full-time job for seven people. It can now be managed in the equivalent of a week by one automation.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented new challenges too. Staff needed to be prompted to follow guidance and maintain social distancing. Software robots managed this process and reminded people to take daily tests and submit results. RPA also issued permits to 700 staff in an instant, which would have taken the HR team 12 working days.

Encouraging staff and citizen developers

PDO now has four robots undertaking 30 processes across PDO and they’re growing quickly. “The demand from the business is huge,” [NAME], [TITLE] adds. As a result, the company is introducing citizen developers who can create their own automations around the organization, governed by a Center of Excellence (CoE).

Despite this huge success, [NAME] agrees there were challenges introducing RPA. “The problem is dealing with tradition and mindset. People have been doing the same processes for seven to eight years or more. Now we’re telling them to use robots.”

[NAME] says education is key. He/she also makes it clear that PDO is not in the business of taking jobs away.

We don’t replace people, we replace the management of tasks so staff can become more productive. We also encourage people to name the robots they work. This helps build trust. [NAME]

In the finance team, they have Fatma. The HSE team has Musaed, which is Arabic for ‘helper’. The engineering team named its automation XXX. In the exploration team, they have Najma, who was celebrated with a cake and party when ‘she’ completed the central velocity calculation. “I don’t know why,” muses [NAME], “But all the robots have female names.”

Great results are just the beginning

To date, they’ve handed back 21,800 hours to staff and saved the business $1 million. But this is just the start. “We have a big appetite,” smiles Saud. “We’ve saved a million and now we want to save five.” The CoE has a roadmap to get to the next stage, which includes deploying RPA to each employee’s desktop. While there are six citizen developers at present, with 20 being trained, there could be 8,500 enthusiasts if every employee created their own automation. In fact, Saud wants to get to a position where staff regard RPA as a tool just like Excel – available to everyone to get work done.

Other businesses in the region are now looking to PDO to understand how they can begin their own automation journey. In doing so, Saud gives them sage advice, “Choose simple processes to start with, don’t expand too quickly, but show value as soon as possible. Also, create strong governance and communicate the benefits early. But most important of all, remember that a robot is not a person – and certainly not equal to a person.”

Saud is convinced that as soon as other businesses start using RPA, they’ll never look back either.