2022 Trends We’re Watching

As the year comes to an end, Studio X is looking ahead at the future of geoscience and our role in it. Recently, Gartner released its list of business trends for 2022, and it got us thinking about what trends we’re expecting and keeping an eye on in the coming year. Read below to learn what trends we are forecasting, as well as how the oil and gas industry will be affected by some of Gartner’s predicted trends.

Trend #1: Energy Companies Will Utilize Geoscience Expertise to Reduce Emissions and Find New Energy Solutions

The oil and gas (O&G) industry is uniquely equipped to help reduce emissions and find new energies, because it already has the technology, geoscience talent, data, and engineering skills that are needed to tackle new energy solutions in the industry. Carbon sequestration, geothermal power, and geo-engineering are just a few areas where O&G companies are active partners and provide expertise. For example, O&G geoscientists collect data and build models to understand thermal gradients in the Earth — the same scoping that is needed for geothermal power. Furthermore, O&G reservoir engineers are already skilled at injecting CO₂ into subsurface sands. And it’s not just the science that O&G firms can contribute. Safety is another key area. These companies are well-versed in creating safe environments, and that can help the industry at large establish a strong safety culture.

Trend #2: The Energy Industry is Enabling a Better Understanding of Geoscience That Can Be Used Academically and For Other Industries

Data that has been collected by the O&G industry has primarily been used for finding hydrocarbons. But there’s so much more information that can be gleaned from these datasets. For instance, maps of the seafloor and organisms that live there, the nature of the Earth’s crust, and the evolution of continents are all areas where this type of data can provide insight. As a subsidiary of Shell, Studio X is particularly committed to using these insights to further academics. We seek to be a hub for anyone learning more about geoscience, enabling access to unique datasets to professionals, students, and data scientists.

Trend #3: Africa is the Next Great Startup Hub and Will See a 30% Increase in Developer Talent

Africa is poised to become a world leader in the startup space across industries, including energy. Studio X has already seen a rise in the number of Xeek contestants from Africa. In fact, the FORCE Hackathon was won by a Nigerian student. According to Gartner, the rise of information education channels for developers is making software development more accessible on a wide scale increasing the overall talent in areas like Africa.  

Trend #4: Modular Business Redesign, Through Composability, Will Provide Accelerated Business Performance

A modular business, also known as a composable business, is one that empowers a company to rearrange itself due to external or internal factors, such as a supply chain problem or a shift in customers’ perspectives. At Studio X, our goal has always been to make geoscience work more composable. Xeek Tools is a great example — we release small tools that touch different parts of the larger, more intricate workflows in geoscience. These tools range from bread-and-butter data organization to ML solutions for 3D data, and they seek to provide users with a library of resources so that they can pick and choose those that they need on any given day. We just released our “Go With The Flow” tool in Beta.  XCover is also a leader in this trend. Through XCover, we’re building modular virtual environments that allow users to access the right tools and data for them to accomplish the task at hand. Right now, these environments are being utilized to connect Shell teams with external talent to solve challenges or assignments that they don’t have the resources to handle.

Want to learn what else to expect in 2022? Read the full Gartner’s business trends article here.