Reducing Capex with a digital way of working

According to December’s Energy Sector Capex Spending Report from S&P Global, the global energy sector capex will have increased by 8% in 2023 when compared with the previous year's levels.

Expenditures will reach $2.0 trillion in 2023, and the bulk of the spending will be in upstream oil and gas ($565 billion), renewable energy ($463 billion), and transmission and distribution ($349 billion).

Furthermore, over the five-year period from 2021 to 2025, cumulative global energy sector capex is estimated to increase by 49% compared with the 2016-20 period.

It’s a reality that Capital Projects can be challenged by inefficiencies, delays, and cost overruns that can negatively impact project outcomes.

That’s why the Yggdrasil multi-field development on the Norwegian continental shelf is setting a new standard for project execution in the energy industry.

Streamline planning and execution of capital-intensive projects

‘Historically, we have developed these kind of projects that we're talking about now through making a lot of documents describing everything through documents, making drawings. And what we've seen is that really we're losing the digital thread.’ says Geir Glømmi, SVP New Build Projects at Aker Solutions.

‘Aize has a number of features that were an excellent starting point to support our work processes and also capture these data in one consistent way. So we’re actually developing an array of applications that cover the EPC value chain. And what these do is ultimately enable end users to take corrective action early on, on one single source of truth, collaboratively. And ultimately, this is helping us to reduce costs, making late changes, and so on, for the project’, says Glømmi.

Aize offers a solution designed to streamline the planning and execution of capital-intensive projects.

• You can transform and connect the way engineering and construction planning are executed in capital-intensive projects, securing the project alignment needed for an optimised construction phase with minimal changes.
• You can simplify fabrication engineering and secure a design that is optimised for an efficient construction phase. Improve collaboration between design and fabrication engineering.
• In project execution, you can untangle complex deliveries in the execution of capital-intensive projects, making a better and more interconnected project environment.
• Aize lets you access vendor data directly in 3D. Aize provides a platform for validation of tag data, 3D model information, interfaces and documents.

Collaboration leads to work effectiveness and quality

‘The Yggdrasil project is one of the large remaining field development projects on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, comprised of several assets, subsea tiebacks, new platforms, and existing assets. Our remit within that project is to produce software that will really push productivity in getting that field up and running,’ says Geir Glømmi.

Construction planning, validation & monitoring directly in a shared workspace, have a lot of benefits, including:

• Improving efficiency in method, fab and construction engineering by allowing concurrent development of the 3D model
• Reducing execution risk by simpler and earlier alignment between the respective E, P and C plans
• Improving construction productivity by operating in a more predictable environment
• Reducing cost impact of changes by visualising consequences and ensuring optimal implementation

‘Even though we still have a lot of manual processes doing our tasks, we are cutting a big percentage of man hours, reducing waste and making the work environment safer for our workers at the yard’, says Jarand Helland, Digitalisation Expert, Aker Solutions.

SVP Geir Glømmi adds:

‘We truly believe that in order for us to be really competitive, we need to transform the way we work, and we will not be able to do that unless we digitalise and use tools like the ones Aize is creating. But what we do know is that when we look back five years from now, we will have radically changed the way of operating. And these tools will be the foundation of that.’

Want to learn more about how Aize helps the transformation? 

Read more about how companies are using digitalisation to reduce OPEX