A lot has happened in the industry over the last ten years especially in the focus are commonly known as the digital oil field.

Operators, both big and small, international and national, oil field service companies and IT vendors to the Upstream community have all grown in their appreciation and understanding of the opportunities and in their capabilities to offer products and services to the industry. Many case histories have been published documenting that the digital oil field has become a reality.

As I take my turn in the “Big Crew Change” procession, I wish to offer some personal observation and reflections about this journey, at least the part that I experienced. I will discuss five critical challenges that I believe are still to be overcome before the digital oil field can achieve its full potential. Those are in the areas of organizational capability, innovation, integration, data foundation and knowledge exchange.