Houston-based Halliburton Co.’s efforts in digital technology in the energy space aren’t just focused on its customers — it’s consuming the new technology as well, the company’s top executive said.
The applications of digital technology in, for instance, well planning and automated drilling present clear value to Halliburton’s customers, said Jeff Miller, president, CEO and chairman of Halliburton. But the company is also directing that technological advancement inward, he said.
“Internally, we’re doing a lot of the same things, and so it’s not only an outwardly facing effort,” Miller said. “We’re consuming it as well.”
Miller was speaking in a video published by RBC Capital Markets May 17.
Halliburton uses digital technology to manage maintenance and data acquisition for its fracking and drilling operations, Miller said.
The company’s digital strategy over the next five years is centered around what’s important for the industry generally, things like well productivity and production optimization for mature fields, Miller said.
“Those are the base things we are solving,” Miller said. “Digital helps solve those.”
Miller said he thinks digital technology in the context of the oil and gas business needs three attributes. Those are open architecture — that means a hardware or software structure that makes changing or adding components easy — the ability to evolve over time and a business case that delivers clear value, he said.
“Clearly it’s an important component of how we do something better, more efficiently, gain more insight,” Miller said. “But it doesn’t take the place of delivering more barrels of oil and gas every day.”