Knowledge Management for the Oil and Gas Industry - Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

AbstractIn the current era of knowledge-driven society, knowledge becomes the most critical success factor in the current business environment. It needs to be handled and utilized effectively and efficiently to compete in the global market by creating a sustainable competitive advantage for the organisation. A technology-driven organisation needs to leverage knowledge management process to be effective and competitive, where professional can play an important role while managing the knowledge to handle the challenges comfortably. But the ability of handling cannot be inculcated within a day like technology, it is culture to be cultivated since a long time through experts and their experience they gained practices.The Oil and Gas industry has seen massive changes in the recent years influencing all its sectors, including searching, production, drilling and refining which in turn has great effects on their market and marketing strategies, production strategies and research and development strategies. These changes can only be achieved through effective knowledge management, covering both knowledge production or generation and knowledge sharing or transformation and distribution. That is not the issue today, where making the most of an oil field is a knowledge-intensive affair involving expertise in engineering, earth science and facilities maintenance.Keywords: Knowledge management, Knowledge and information management, Oil and gas industry, Energy sector.IntroductionThe primary objectives of Knowledge Management initiative in any organisation are to enhance the performance of the people involved along with the organisation. It is not mere knowledge sharing but also valuable by-product of the business process, by explicitly designing and implementing tools, processes, systematic approaches, structures, principles to improve the decision making with indirect improvements in identifications, capture validations and transformation of knowledge relevant for decision making.Today we have significant number of the tools to do successful business, methodology, methods to handle knowledge, to analyse its flow in organisation, way to improve the flow, opportunities to utilize up and way to observe.Today, with the help of Knowledge Management, ample number of tools, crisp methodologies, methods to provide ability to blend and various approaches to knowledge management are available to organization to enjoy competitive advantage. This progress gives strength to organization to handle and tackle real business problem easily. Thus, Knowledge Management becomes a solution provider to business problem with drastic difference; there are growing recognition to apply knowledge management to handle any business issues and progress. Apart from that it helps to create user friendly technologies to handle information with collaboration and access but Knowledge Management cannot be measured quantitatively but either impact gauged. Thus, Knowledge Management becomes a systematic approach to make decisions where and how to invest.Knowledge ManagementKnowledge Management can be defined as information practices and learning strategies accepted in organizations as a set of practices which help to improve the applications and use of data and information during decision making. Knowledge Management in any organization can be implemented by hiring a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) to improve information sharing, similarly as a system to support staff involved in the organization with help of technology, to enhance the information flow, to enhance evaluation of outcomes, to improve learning strategies and to develop a framework for the betterment of the organizational growth. To commence a project for the application of knowledge towards knowledge sharing also Knowledge Management can be implemented, to understand and estimate the long term effects of learning system.Knowledge Management Approach in the Oil and Gas SectorOrganisation are functioning with help of system, not machines, in organisational development the machine model describes different inputs for specific process into outputs, may not be accurate or useful in understanding the complexity of the functions. …