For oil and gas producers, technology has to achieve two goals. In the short term, it needs to help companies dealing with rapidly changing commodity prices. In the medium to long term, technology is about making the most of dwindling reserves – and easing the transition from oil and gas companies to diversified energy businesses.

In the past two years, oil prices have hit new highs and then rapidly dropped back to levels that have forced many producers to look again at the economics of exploration and extraction. Elsewhere in the industry – refining, distribution and retail – margins remain thin.