Challenge
Shale oil and gas have become a vital energy source, especially in the United States. Extracting them requires specialized equipment capable of withstanding immense pressure to fracture rock miles underground—a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Efficient operation depends on timely maintenance; equipment failure downhole leads to costly downtime and expensive logistics for replacement delivery.
The oil and gas extraction equipment market is fiercely competitive. Our client, a leading oilfield service company, sought to differentiate their products and boost sales by offering software solutions that complement their equipment. While they understood the software services needed, they lacked the expertise to develop and deliver cloud-based software solutions.
Solution
By bringing together industry and technology experts and applying Agile methodology, Luxoft developed a comprehensive hydraulic fracturing hardware control and automation software suite, delivering the minimum viable product in under four months. The project encompassed IoT and cloud architecture development, data collection and visualization, manual and automated testing, and ongoing support for the hydraulic fracturing software.
Leveraging IoT, big data analytics, cloud computing, and predictive maintenance technologies, the solution monitors equipment usage in real time, assessing its condition well before potential failures. When abnormal parameters are detected or scheduled maintenance is due, users receive automated preemptive alerts with recommended actions. This predictive maintenance system, integrated with hydraulic fracturing equipment, has driven transformative improvements in operational reliability and efficiency.
In oil and gas, you drill a well, build facilities, and link the well to those facilities. By connecting machines via the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), however, we gain invaluable insights that enable incremental changes with monumental impact.
Energy & Utilities Director at Luxoft and Morgan Eldred, Managing Partner at Digital Energy
Result
Luxoft’s cloud infrastructure solution delivers:
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Increased revenue: Our client boosted hydraulic fracturing equipment sales by bundling it with this innovative oil & gas software solution.
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Significant cost savings: The predictive maintenance system prevents costly failures worth millions by accurately forecasting equipment breakdowns well in advance.
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Operational efficiency: A user-friendly dashboard, equipment health reports, and automated alerts provide powerful insights that help users continuously improve processes.
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Transparency: The platform allows our client’s customers to access raw data from hydraulic fracturing equipment and, if desired, integrate their own analytics tools for deeper analysis.
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Scalability: Built on a cloud-based SaaS infrastructure with a competitive pricing model, the solution scales effortlessly.
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Competitive advantage: Bundling hardware with cutting-edge hydraulic fracturing software helps our client’s products stand out in the market.
