As traditional energy producers struggle under the burden of oil prices that have dipped below $30 per barrel and face the need to reduce costs, technological advances in the way they operate are expected to soften the blow — and maybe even allow for some profits during the current price collapse.
Many oil producers already have figured out ways to find, extract and refine oil more cheaply, helping to promote lower oil prices during the past decade. Credit the discovery of large unconventional oil reserves in the United States for lower prices, and add the muscle and dash of technology advances that have allowed faster and better drilling techniques, as well as automation processes, cloud computing and the use of advanced analytics. Shale oil companies such as Pioneer Resources and EOG proudly talk about their data science teams and their big data platforms being a significant help in keeping them cost-competiti
