Abstract
E-Business initiatives are common today in medium and large size oil companies, and new ones continue to develop as companies identify and review opportunities to use Internet technology to improve their operations and productivity. Opportunities for sustained efficiency gains through the use of electronic commerce and communication solutions offer benefits for all portions of the petroleum value chain. The technical and business problems are often similar and therefore offer leveraging opportunities to port technology and solutions across different sectors of the value chain. The impact on petroleum industry professionals continues to increase as capabilities in the different business sectors continue to grow. Asset Teams, whether they are in the upstream, midstream, or downstream sectors are likely to be active participants in one or more type of business space: Business-to-Consumer (B2C) commerce (e.g. purchasing of data, materials and services); Business-to-Government (B2G) activities (e.g. permitting and acquisition of lease information from government agencies), and Business-to-Business (B2B) commerce (e.g. direct linking of suppliers and business partners to receive products and services to directly link work processes such as AFE approvals).
This paper will discuss some experiences and observations of asset teams relating to e-Business solutions. Examples of these would include improvements in teamwork, productivity, joint venture communication, management information reporting, property acquisition and divestment, and virtual workgroups. Barriers to success, lessons learned and future development predictions will be described.