First Mile Wireless and Beyond: Future Applications for Wireless in Oil and Gas

Oil field asset owners and operators face two primary issues in exploration and production; asset productivity and operating efficiency. Typically, operators do not have visibility to sense the current state of the oil field and respond with actions to reduce well down-time or increase the oil flow. These sense-and-respond capabilities have been limited by the remoteness of this "first mile" and its fundamental lack of connectivity. Recent advances in wireless technologies resolve this limitation, and operators are looking to extend the office experience into the first mile, creating sophisticated sense and respond capabilities that increase asset productivity while reducing costs and improving communication and collaboration. This paper will briefly review current state of wireless in oil and gas and discuss the future applications enabled by first mile wireless.