Research Article

Special Issue

VIRTUAL REALITY APPLICATION IN OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

M. Shammar and F. Abdul Aziz

Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, 43400

Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

Published online: 16 April 2018

ABSTRACT
This paper reviews the applications of Virtual Reality (VR) with an emphasis on oil and gas
industry. Application of virtual reality (VR) technology offers much promise to enhance and
accelerate the development of energy exploration and operations while simultaneously
reducing developmental and operational costs. The need to shorten production time, improve
efficiency and save cost allows advance technology being used. The capability to provide the
user of the needed information about a process or a procedure directly on the work
environment, is the key factor for considering AR as an effective tool to be used in
maintenance work. Works related to applications of VR for energy exploration and safety
training for petroleum industry is critically reviewed in this paper.
Keywords: Virtual Reality, Oil and Gas, Training, Exploration, Process

INTRODUCTION
Virtual reality (VR) is beginning to gain traction in a wide range of industry’s from defense,
aerospace, automotive to the oil and gas sector. Ever since the first time the term "Virtual
Reality" (VR) has been utilized back in the 60s, VR has advanced in various manners
becoming more and more similar to the real world. Two various types of VR can be
recognized as non-immersive and immersive. The former is a computer-based environment
that can simulate places in the real or imagined worlds while the latter takes the idea even
further by giving the perception of being physically present in the non-physical world.

Author Correspondence, e-mail: author@gmail.com

doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jfas.v10i5s.61

Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0
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M. Shammar et al. J Fundam Appl Sci. 2018, 10(5S), 746-752 747

While non-immersive VR can be based on a standard computer, immersive VR is still

evolving as the needed devices are becoming more user-friendly and economically accessible
(Grigore and Philippe, 2008).

INTRODUCTION
In production industries it is already a standard to use Virtual Reality and its methods to
improve product development, increase quality and optimize final design. Computer
visualizations and analysis software significantly helps to reduce growing production costs
and allows prototypes manufacture and arduous testing in research laboratories (Kozlak et al.,
2014). This speeds up development project and improves communication between engineers,
allowing for intuitive experience and data exchange while using intelligible environment of
virtual reality. Today’s competitive business climate intensifies the need for well-trained
operators with all types of skills and in all industries. Companies are pushing facilities to their
limits, while both processes and automated systems are becoming more and more
complicated. This is where 3D communications are becoming ubiquitous, independent of
specialized software and formats, and cost effective. The use of 3D data and tools is helping
accelerate the communication of information.

AR and VR Applications in Various Industries

AR and VR are very similar technologies, but have one distinct difference. AR is a live view
of a physical real world environment, whose elements are augmented with computer,
generated sensory input such as sound, animated graphics, or GPS led data. In comparison,
VR immerses the user in an enclosed environment by replacing the real-world with a
simulated one (Slobounov et al., 2015). The number of applications utilizing augmented
reality and virtual reality is increasing continuously and the outcomes are clear in many
domains for example in health care, education, aerospace, tourism and automotive. It is well
known that AR has presented new ways of submitting information.

a) Healthcare
The health care world would be re- organized to be represented in a mobile AR way. Such
health related information can be submitted by AR in its extreme visual. The AR became
widespread by virtue of the smartphones that are supplied with sensors and camera. Such
sensors permit the provision of precise context information to the environment aware
M. Shammar et al. J Fundam Appl Sci. 2018, 10(5S), 746-752 748

situations, the matter that permits doctors to gather information, illustrate and identify the
measures and procedures (Mohana et al., 2012).

b) Education
In education, digital games have been designed not only for amusement but also to boost the
learning process. Matching Objects and Words (MOW) application is an AR game that is
designed and developed to help learning words in various languages (Barreira et al., 2012).

c) Aerospace
Back in the 60s, Tom Furness, who is considered to be the grandfather of virtual reality, was
at Wright Patterson Air Force base working on VR solutions to solve various problems pilots
were having in the cockpit. The military still uses AR and VR technology in similar ways. On
the space side, NASA has been using VR at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas to
train astronauts for spacewalks since 1992 (Erin, 2015).

d) Automotive
Hyundai Motor Company has developed an AR manual application for users using their
smartphones or tablets in which they can access how to information regarding their car.
(Samuely, 2015). The guide proved consumer an easy option to access important vehicle
information without the need of manual instruction to find desired information.

Virtual Reality in Oil and Gas Industry

Computer-based training systems are playing an increasingly important role in process
industries, and particularly in training people for upstream oil and gas roles. In fact, it is in the
continuing debate whether more or less automation is beneficial in view of the risks and
benefits associated with human involvement in controlling engineered systems. A crucial
realization is that automation can be highly beneficial, as long as humans maintain situation
awareness (Norman, 1990) and retain critical manual skills (Wiener and Curry, 1980), so that
they can take appropriate action in situations for which automation is unprepared. In the oil
and gas industry, the project of deep-water production systems, including oil platforms or
ships and all equipment that plays a part in the production process, is currently designed by
means of complex computer modeling systems.
M. Shammar et al. J Fundam Appl Sci. 2018, 10(5S), 746-752 749

The development of deep-water oil & gas reserves constantly faces the challenge of trying to
reduce the costs of all components and activities. Therefore, high performance computing,
visualization and remote collaboration technologies are being extensively used to improve
productivity, leading to better cost-effectiveness (Ismael et al., 2012). Visualization and
remote collaboration technologies help to bridge the cost-effectiveness problem. Oil
companies were among the first to make industrial use of virtual reality centers, equipped
with immersive projection systems with large display walls and videoconference tools, among
other solutions. Three-dimensional geometric modeling, scientific visualization and
immersive virtual environments, commonly used in these facilities, pushed the limits of
teamwork activities in geosciences and engineering (Dodd, 2004).

Virtual Reality in Energy Exploration

As energy companies continue striving to find better ways to meet a growing demand for
clean, reliable, and affordable energy, virtual reality and 3D visualization provides a path to
success. Energy companies are leading the way in creating virtual decision-making centers
including collaborative team rooms, integrated operations centers, and advanced training
facilities designed to enable new ways to discover, collaborate, and share information.
Leveraging advanced visualization technology ensures:
 Streamlined operations and reduced costs
 More precise and accurate placement of drill sites
 Consistent training and safety procedures

Having the ability to improve asset utilization, reuse complex models, and visit hazardous
locations virtually using 3D simulated environments allows time savings to accumulate. An
example of time savings is creating a virtual walkthrough of a production facility (Blackey et
al., 2014).
Realistic 3D display technology allows touring a facility virtually from just about anywhere
emulating real-life experiences and remote collaboration among teams. EYESIM a virtual
simulator of oil platform used 1:1 full scale immersive display system an operator is being
trained on a complex functionality, which is not possible in real life due to cost restraints and
potential risk. Such a system might be classified as an "Operator Training Simulator" (OTS)
which is fundamental to production facility operations and abnormal situation management.
OTS allows beginners to learn the basics, while more experienced staff is able to deal with
unusual or emergency situations in a safe environment (Mainwaring, 2012)
M. Shammar et al. J Fundam Appl Sci. 2018, 10(5S), 746-752 750

Operators can interact with equipment controls while service step-by-step instructions
augment the user’s experience. Applications and simulators can be designed to appear on the
mobile devices such as electronic tablets or smartphones, replacing printed material with
always current, best practice instructions. This solutions help to transform an employee with
general understanding of an environment or equipment into the knowledgeable worker for the
21st century (Raposo et al., 2006).

Safety Training using VR

Interactive disaster training can be tailored to specific users as well as companies. These
designs may be based on their resources and hazard vulnerability analysis and can be
developed for instructional task-focused training, in which the program responds to user
inputs and provides instant feedback, such as performance of the task in hand.
In addition, a “Virtual” exercise can also allow for the testing of action plans in order to
assess their effectiveness and also identify gaps in knowledge and areas for improvement
(Mazuryk and Gervautz, 2006). Digital applications can also facilitate consistent training
standards over geographical and organizational divides. Applications can provide a consistent
synchronous localisation, the language and culture, and cross organizational training for both
technical and natural occurrences in the workplace. Ideas such as this reduce the need for
classroom based and lightly loaded infographics that supply limited information. All these
ideas may be readily embedded within the digital environment and made accessible in novel
ways for trainees.
With VR technology, engineers are able to analyze risky scenarios and minimize potential
incident-prone areas, with safe virtual environments; the ability to make and learn from
mistakes while performing complicated procedures and instructions is a hallmark of the way
to designs training and educational solutions. The objective of all operators training is to
improve a skill set as rapidly and effectively as possible. The realism associated with Virtual
Reality training greatly accelerates learning and skill acquisition. In fact, the combination of
VR and traditional training has been proven (Kozlak et al., 2014).
It could be argued that the greatest benefit of AR and VR training scenarios and exercise play
is that it can be stored digitally. This allows an evaluation to be carried out more effectively
with the ability to view individual elements of the exercise. The ability of these platforms to
support data and video capture of time and critical action elements is an invaluable tool for
the analysis of the individual and the training provider itself. This can be used to more
accurately gather lessons learned and develop corrective actions necessary for the after-action
M. Shammar et al. J Fundam Appl Sci. 2018, 10(5S), 746-752 751

review process. Currently the authors are in a stage of developing an virtual reality
application that can assist inspection and maintenance in oil and gas industry in Kuwait. The
application will be evaluated and tested and the results will be compared with normal training
method.

CONCLUSION
The development of Virtual and Augmented-based technologies can now be applied to an
unlimited number of uses in the oil and gas industry. It currently offers significant advantages
over traditional forms of training and productivity improvement methods. VR is currently
gaining increasing acceptance in forward-thinking industries as a valuable tool for process
improvement. In conclusion, VR application will benefit the oil and gas industry and more
work should be done to incorporate VR in many aspects of process and maintenance in the
industry.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research is supported by PIPPT grant 6387700.

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How to cite this article:

Shammar M, Abdul Aziz F. Virtual reality application in oil and gas industry. J. Fundam.
Appl. Sci., 2018, 10(5S), 746-752.