说起来容易做起来难，但谈到油田时则不然。

在石油和天然气生产商经常发现的广阔空间中，基本手机服务仍然是一个问题。

Digi International等科技公司 是通过改善和现代化油田通信来引领现代化努力的公司之一。

信息共享方面的进步甚至反复变化都是 E&P 向提高效率和节约成本迈进的一部分，而这是使运营商免受该行业经常遭受的价格冲击的关键方法。

“当我们经历 [大宗商品价格] 暴跌和 COVID 时，Digi 公司业务开发副总裁 Curt Ahart 告诉 Hart Energy，“我认为所有生产商都必须考虑并说，‘当油价为每桶 40 美元时，我们如何赚钱？’因此，自动化和效率才是关键。除了资本支出外，任何人最大的成本就是人力。如果你能用更少的资源做更多的事情，而这些人的效率会更高，我认为这就是最大的好处。”

即使行业进一步追求运营数字化，企业仍面临挑战。

主要障碍之一是勘探与生产公司运营的偏远地区的通信基础设施不足。Ahart 从业内专家那里听说，在主要高速公路一定范围之外，依赖公共蜂窝网络往往不够用，他说。随着业务进一步延伸到偏远地区，手机信号塔的覆盖范围变得越来越不可靠。

公司正在转向专门的射频（RF）工程技术来缓解这种连接不足。

“为了解决这个问题，人们使用射频工程，他们会使用定向天线和高增益天线之类的东西来到达那个偏远的站点，”Ahart 说。“建立自己的私人蜂窝网络是我们认为的一项新兴技术，有人可以利用该运营商网络建立自己的网络，并将该网络扩展到偏远的站点。”

作为一家物联网 (IoT) 解决方案公司，Digi 的主要收入来源是其无线技术产品组合。其中包括该公司的无线蜂窝路由器。Digi 的路由器是无线的，可为油田范围内运行的所有设备提供私密且安全的蜂窝连接。路由器与行业进一步数字化的举措相结合，为操作员提供了多种远程应用：井下压力和温度监测、火炬排放监测和简单的视频监测。

另一个关键障碍是难以访问和集成来自现有专有系统和 SCADA（监控和数据采集）设置的数据。

Ahart 表示，传统的 SCADA 系统以其拉动和响应机制为特征，正逐渐被更灵活的基于消息的架构所取代，例如 MQTT（消息队列遥测传输）Sparkplug B。该技术可实现从边缘设备到中央节点或代理的无缝数据传输，从而促进与历史学家和 ERP 平台等其他系统的集成。

“最酷的是，您可以灵活地添加新的应用程序并进行更改，而不必集成和测试所有组件，因为它们都解耦了，而且您使用的是开放系统类型的架构。”

随着油田数字化进程的加快，网络安全风险也随之上升。采用数字化和自动化技术不仅是为了提高运营效率，也是为了解决网络安全问题。

“我们在产品内部做了很多事情来确保它们的安全。所以我们发货时没有设置默认密码。固件需要作为 Digi 固件进行验证。我们在设备保护端口上设置了加密存储，”Ahart 说道。“我们刚刚为联邦政府进行了 FIPS 140-2 认证，我们的许多关键基础设施客户对此感到非常高兴。”

随着数字化转型重塑石油和天然气行业的工作流程，人们越来越重视解决劳动力技能差距问题。虽然年轻的专业人​​士往往更熟悉技术，但培训和部署流程仍然需要精简和直观。Ahart 表示，零接触配置等工具越来越多地用于简化安装和减少运营停机时间，优化资源利用率并增强安全协议。

Ahart 预计，向开放和可互操作的系统转变将继续下去，这与他几十年前在 IT 行业看到的发展如出一辙。包括蜂窝网络和卫星通信在内的网络技术的进步有望将连接扩展到以前无法访问的资产。基于云的基础设施集成用于数据处理标志着摆脱以大型机为中心的传统方法，从而实现更大的可扩展性和运营灵活性。

“我们看到我们能够以更经济的方式覆盖越来越多的资产。”蜂窝网络不断建设，技术在全球范围内变得越来越普及。我们将看到这种情况继续下去，成本将继续下降，而性能（无论是速度还是延迟）将继续改善。”

Talk is cheap, except when it comes to the oilfield.

Basic cell service remains an issue in the wide open spaces oil and gas producers often find themselves in.

Tech companies such as Digi International are among firms leading modernization efforts by improving and modernizing oilfield communication.

Advancements, even iterative changes in sharing information, are part of E&Ps’ march toward efficiency and cost savings—a crucial way to insulate operators from the price shocks the industry routinely suffers.

“When we went through the [commodity price] crash and COVID, Curt Ahart, vice president of corporate business development for Digi, told Hart Energy, “I think all the producers had to look and say, ‘How do we make money when oil’s at $40/bbl?’ And so automation is really the key to that, and efficiency. And the biggest cost anybody has … besides their capital expense expenditures, is people. And if you can do more with less and those people can be a lot more efficient, I think that’s the major benefit.”

Even as the industry pursues further digitization of its operations, companies are encountering challenges.

One of the primary obstacles is inadequate communication infrastructure in remote areas where E&Ps operate. Ahart hears from industry professionals that reliance on public cellular networks often proves insufficient beyond a certain range from major highways, he said. As operations extend farther into remote locations, cell tower coverage becomes increasingly unreliable.

Companies are turning to specialized radio frequency (RF) engineering techniques to mitigate this lack of connectivity.

“To address that, people use RF engineering, they’ll use things like directional antennas and high gain antennas to reach that remote site,” Ahart said. “Putting up your own private cellular networks is something that we see as an emerging technology where somebody can take that carrier network and put up their own network and extend that network out to remote sites.”

As an Internet of Things, or IoT, solutions company, Digi’s bread and butter is its wireless technology portfolio. Included among these are the company’s wireless cellular routers. Digi’s routers are wireless and provide a private and secure cellular connection for all devices running within its range in the oilfield. The routers, combined with the move to further digitize the industry, have led to several remote applications becoming available for operators: downhole pressure and temperature monitoring, flare monitoring for emissions and simple video monitoring.

Another critical barrier is the difficulty accessing and integrating data from existing proprietary systems and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) setups.

Traditional SCADA systems, characterized by their pull-and-response mechanisms, are gradually being replaced by more agile, messaging-based architectures like MQTT (message queuing telemetry transport) Sparkplug B, said Ahart. The tech enables seamless data transmission from edge devices to central nodes or brokers, facilitating integration with other systems such as historians and ERP platforms.

“What’s cool about that is having the flexibility of adding new applications and changing things without having to do integration and testing of all the components because they all become decoupled and you’re using an open systems type of architecture.”

As the move toward oilfield digitization gathers steam, the risks for cybersecurity also rise. The adoption of digital and automated technologies aims not only to enhance operational efficiency but also to address cybersecurity concerns.

“There are a lot of things that we do within our products to make sure they’re secure. So we ship them with no default password. Firmware needs to be authenticated as Digi firmware. We have encrypted storage on our devices protected ports,” Ahart said. “We just did a FIPS 140-2 certification for [the] federal government, which a lot of our critical infrastructure customers are really happy about.”

As digital transformation reshapes workflows in the oil and gas sector, there is a growing emphasis on addressing workforce skill gaps. While younger professionals tend to be more comfortable with technology, training and deployment processes still need to be streamlined and intuitive. Tools such as zero-touch provisioning are increasingly employed to simplify installation and reduce operational downtime, optimizing resource utilization and enhancing safety protocols, Ahart said.

Ahart expects a shift toward open and interoperable systems to continue, mirroring developments he saw in the IT industry decades ago. Advancements in networking technologies, including cellular networks and satellite communications, promise to extend connectivity to previously inaccessible assets. The integration of cloud-based infrastructures for data processing signifies a departure from traditional mainframe-centric approaches, allowing for greater scalability and operational flexibility.

“I see us being able to reach more and more assets in a more economical way.… The cellular networks keep getting built out and the technology becomes more pervasive on a global basis. We’re going to just see that continue, and the cost of that can continue to go down while performance, whether that’s speed or latency, continues to improve.”