Oil and gas operators are grappling with an ageing workforce, a looming demand peak and the age-old, sector-defining four Ds: dull, distant, dirty and dangerous. It is a headache-inducing combination, but emerging technologies promise to reshape at least some of oil and gas’ aggravating factors.
A recent report by Offshore Technology’s parent company, GlobalData, notes: “Combining automation with Internet of Things or AI technologies enables the collection and analysis of data, facilitating predictive maintenance and uninterrupted production, and can aid exploration through seismic data analysis.
“Consequently, the skill set required in the oil and gas sector is changing. Proficiency in digital tools will become essential for workers, while the significance of manual labour skills will diminish as automated systems take on these tasks.”
Among the wealth of burgeoning technologies and their multitudinous use cases, a handful are already changing practices at every stage of oil and gas operations.
Drilling is reaching higher levels of accuracy, AI is supercharging pipeline management, while embedded sensors and augmented reality (AR) overlays are rewriting employee connectivity and offering improved communication between offshore teams.
Measurement-while-drilling: Halliburton and Baker Hughes
In exploration and drilling, measurement-while-drilling (MWD) technologies can provide real-time information to guide a drill bit towards the target, improving efficiency and accuracy. The technology has been around since the 1970s, but innovation is constantly driving potential.
Major players in MWD for oil and gas include SLB, Baker Hughes and Halliburton, who continue to bring emerging technologies to market.
Jim Collins, vice-president of Sperry Drilling at Halliburton, highlights the company’s launch of the StreamStar wired drill pipe interface system in the fourth quarter of 2025.
He tells Offshore Technology: “Over the past several years, the most significant advances in Halliburton’s MWD technologies have focused on one core objective: increase the speed, reliability and usability of downhole data while drilling.”
In the case of StreamStar, wired drill pipe is used to achieve continuous electrical power and ultra-high-speed, real-time data transmission, supporting closed-loop automation and improved geosteering accuracy, as well as improved hydraulics management for more precise well placement.
Marrying precision and speed has long been the ideal of oil and gas operators, but achieving faster data transmission with reliability in extreme high-temperature and high-pressure environments presents a challenge. Bottom-hole temperatures can exceed 150°C, while pressures can reach upwards of 10,000 pounds per square inch.
Collins explains: “Extended well lengths, complex trajectories, limited rig time and higher operational costs demand greater confidence in real-time decisions. As a result, the industry requires telemetry and power systems that can keep pace with higher-resolution sensors and more automated drilling workflows.”
For Halliburton, these challenges have positioned mud-pulse telemetry (MPT) as a focus area. Operators need high-rate, real-time data at extended depths, where legacy systems risk losing bandwidth.
However, MPT has historically suffered from low data transmission rates (often around 0.5–10 bits per second), alongside signal attenuation and dispersion issues, aggravated by the long distance pulses must travel up drill strings. Halliburton is using automated pulse mechanisms and AI-improved detection in unison to utilise logging-while-drilling sensors, without sacrificing rate of penetration (ROP).
In a recent maximum reservoir contact well in the Middle East, Collins explains that the company’s PulseStar technology delivered a 300% increase in data rate, a 25% boost in ROP “and real-time reservoir mapping inversion quality comparable to memory data, directly supporting faster decisions, shoe-to-shoe drilling and reduced well cycle time”.
Cedric Rouatbi, global portfolio director of well construction at Baker Hughes, tells Offshore Technology: “Industry-wide, some of the most exciting innovations include dynamic survey accuracy improvements using error-model enhancements, higher-speed telemetry systems, enabling richer real-time data streams, and high temperature MWD and telemetry products.”
Yet for Baker Hughes specifically, the most significant MWD advancement has been its rotational continuous survey (RCS) technology. By taking survey measurements while the drill string is rotating, rather than stopping to take a static survey, the principles of accuracy and efficiency are married without the expense of real-time data monitoring.
“It delivers continuous, definitive survey data while drilling, and mitigates the downtime, risks and inefficiencies associated with static surveys,” says Rouatbi. “RCS represents a major leap forward in MWD performance, enabled by improved digital signal processing, advanced filtering algorithms and a robust directional sensor package.”
He explains that RCS solves two particularly persistent challenges: rig time lost to static surveys (which can add hours to a well and increases the risk of stuck pipe in unstable formations) and maintaining accurate wellbore placement. By removing the need to stop drilling for static surveys, RCS offers continuous data and a reduced risk of micro-doglegs and tortuosity.
Baker Hughes’ RCS service uses a combination of high-precision six-axis accelerometers and magnetometers for directional survey.
“Our Directional sensor measures inclination, azimuth, toolface and magnetic/gravitational field vectors that define the wellbore’s directional path,” explains Rouatbi. “In the RCS service, data is processed continuously during rotation using advanced signal transformation and filtering techniques, overcoming vibration-induced noise, eddy current impact and providing a definitive survey without the need for static conditions.”
AI in pipeline management: Oceanit
In pipeline management, AI analysis and improved sensors are making pigging ‘smart’. Multi-spectral imaging, inertial navigation systems (INS), ultrasonic and computer vision are among the technologies being incorporated to more accurately identify and pinpoint corrosion, build-up and integrity defects in pipelines.
One example is Oceanit’s AI PiggyBack solution, which collects, analyses and stores visual inspection data. AI analysis of this data can be used to create surface quality reports related to corrosion, surface cleanliness and quality control, particularly following the application of internal surface treatments and coatings.
PiggyBack was originally developed as a quality control tool for DragX, Oceanit’s nano composite surface treatment technology. Patrick Sullivan, CEO and founder of Oceanit, tells Offshore Technology: “We were seeking a low-cost and rapid way to inspect the quality of the internal nanocomposite application and periodically monitor the integrity of the surface treatment over time. The goal was to avoid using current smart pigs, which require significant cost and intervention to use.”
The result was an AI-driven pipeline inspection gauge system that incorporated multi-spectral imaging, on-board INS for precise geolocation data and predictive AI. The AI system flags any anomalies identified within pipelines and uses pattern recognition alongside progressive condition sensing to provide insights on asset health and life cycle stage, as well as any potential need for maintenance.
“As a part of our development process we successfully demonstrated that AI could be used to quantify the internal surface condition, including severity of corrosion, integrity of internal coating and projected time to intervention of pipelines using data from the visual spectrum only,” explains Sullivan.
Multispectral imaging captures images across the electromagnetic spectrum, including in bands such as near-infrared, short-wave infrared and ultraviolet. Applied within oil and gas pipelines, it can reveal additional details about the condition of materials, beyond the red, green and blue spectrum visible to the human eye. Pair this super-human vision with AI, and multispectral imaging provides insights beyond traditional visual analysis.
“As an example, non-visible tracers can be added to optically clear surface treatments and coatings to allow tools to simultaneously inspect the underlying metal substrate of the pipe, while also assessing coverage of the surface treatment,” says Sullivan.
Seeing and understanding are only two parts of a triad, however – identifying the problem is of little use unless you know where it is. INS provides this final piece of the puzzle, enabling operators to make precise interventions.
While the technology is still young, the interest is there. “In the US, many mid-stream operators have expressed interest in having the ability to conduct assessments of pipeline infrastructure while minimising impact to operations,” says Sullivan. “Internationally, we have seen a significant increases in demand from oil and gas operators that are managing aging fields with high water cut and the associated flow assurance issues that come with it.”
Wearable technology
Often both remote and dangerous, offshore roles in oil and gas require reliable communication, stringent health and safety equipment (HSE) and provisions to protect workers. Increasingly, wearable devices are becoming an important part of the picture, with technologies offering integrated communication software and hardware solutions including in-gas detection, fatigue monitoring and GPS tracking.
Connected personal protective equipment primarily revolves around smart glasses and smart helmets, although solutions in gloves, masks and other clothing are also becoming popular for safety in oil and gas operations. They enable remote assistance, stretching limited resources further as off-site experts guide on-site colleagues through tasks that would have required expensive and time-consuming travel to perform themselves.
TNO has been developing a smart glasses technology for use cases in offshore wind, which faces the same glaring remoteness hurdles as oil and gas operations. Speaking to sister publication Power Technology, TNO project manager Janaki Mohanan Nair noted: “These glasses can be quite heavy, and the technicians can feel as if someone is watching them, but they also see the advantages because if you have faulty equipment, then an engineer in the office can point it out and help to rectify it.”
Smart helmets are also emerging as a defining HSE technology, with extensive use cases in oil and gas. Designs from leaders including Realwear and Anro Gravitas include overlayed augmented reality (AR), embedded gas sensors, real-time location tracking and automatic alarm systems to implement preventative and reactive safety measures.
TotalEnergies is an early adopter, using Realwear’s HMT-1Z1 headset, connected to Microsoft Teams, to facilitate real-time collaboration across international experts. Realwear has also provided Prysmian with HMT-1 devices, running OverIT’s SPACE1 AR application, while Burns & McDonnell uses Realwear’s headsets integrated with Manitoba Hydro International’s VisualSpection application.
“Smart helmets in the oil and gas industry have strong use cases in equipment maintenance, training, health and safety and extending the careers of an industry impacted by an aging workforce,” comments Sophie Gallagher, associate analyst at GlobalData.
“Embedded tech can include thermal cameras, which scan for temperature abnormalities that could indicate gas leaks or equipment failures. AR in the smart helmets can overlay schematics or sensor data, allowing workers to view the data while working. Other safety features incorporate GPS tracking to locate workers, body temperature monitoring, vibration alerts and panic buttons.”
The smart helmets market is expected to reach $2.3bn by 2031, but the price of equipment may be a limitation for growth. However, Gallagher describes the market as a “growing niche”, noting its alignment with the developing trend of connected worker safety.
