Oil and Gas Asset Management: 6 Ways to Optimize Performance

In the oil and gas industry, unplanned downtime can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour. Oil and gas operators manage massive, aging infrastructure under harsh conditions, so optimizing asset performance can significantly improve safety, reliability, and profitability. 

By leveraging oil and gas asset management, technology, and proactive strategies - from predictive analytics to regular inspections, maintenance, and operations, professionals can reduce potential failures, extend asset lifespans, and cut costs. Below, we explore six proven oil and gas asset management strategies with supporting data and real-world case studies to illustrate their impact.

Key takeaways

• Unplanned downtime can cost up to $200,000 per hour in the oil and gas sector, making proactive asset management essential for profitability.
• Taking a full lifecycle approach to assets enables companies to extend infrastructure lifespans well beyond original design parameters.
• Integrating asset management systems with enterprise systems eliminates data silos, streamlines workflows, and enables faster, more informed maintenance decisions.
• Regular inspections and audits are critical safeguards against catastrophic failures.

1. Implement predictive maintenance using advanced analytics

Predictive maintenance uses advanced analytics, IoT sensors, and AI to continuously monitor equipment conditions and predict failures before they happen. Instead of fixing things only after they break (reactive) or on a fixed schedule (preventive), predictive maintenance analyzes data (vibrations, temperature, pressure, etc.) in real time to warn of anomalies. This helps oil and gas companies schedule repairs just in time, avoiding unexpected outages in critical assets like compressors, turbines, and pipelines.

Unplanned equipment failures in oil and gas are extremely costly: An hour of downtime can cost nearly $200,000. This cost fluctuates with the price of oil and gas. Thus, just as an oil and gas company is making more money, they are spending more on unplanned maintenance. Predictive maintenance minimizes these incidents by addressing issues early. It also optimizes maintenance frequency, so oil and gas companies aren’t over-servicing equipment, thereby minimizing costs. The result is improved asset uptime, lower maintenance costs, and enhanced safety.

By implementing AI-driven predictive maintenance, Shell prevented equipment failures before they occurred, reducing unplanned downtime by 20% and slashing maintenance costs by 15%. Their maintenance teams now address potential issues proactively and schedule repairs during planned production lulls, maximizing operational efficiency.

2. Use condition-based monitoring for real-time performance tracking

Condition-based monitoring (CBM) involves tracking the actual condition of assets in real time (or near-real time) and performing maintenance based on indicators of decline. CBM uses sensors and devices to continuously measure parameters like vibration, temperature, pressure, lubrication quality, and more. When these indicators fall outside of normal ranges, the system flags that maintenance or adjustment is needed.

By detecting early warning signs of trouble, CBM prevents minor issues from escalating into major failures. This approach maximizes asset availability as oil and gas companies don’t have to take equipment offline unnecessarily (as they might with purely scheduled maintenance), and they can intervene before a failure causes downtime. The result is improved reliability, extended equipment life, and lower maintenance costs. 

CBM is especially valuable in the oil and gas industry, where assets are widely distributed (offshore platforms, pipelines, refineries), and manual inspections are costly and infrequent.

3. Look at the full lifecycle of all assets

This strategy emphasizes managing assets with a “whole asset lifecycle” perspective from initial design and procurement through operation and maintenance, all the way to decommissioning or replacement. In practice, it means considering the long-term operational costs and performance of assets, not just short-term fixes. Lifecycle oil and gas asset management involves processes like lifecycle costing (evaluating total cost of ownership), asset lifecycle planning (planning upgrades or replacements years in advance), and asset integrity management (ensuring aging equipment remains safe and effective). 

Oil and gas assets are expensive and long-lived, think of offshore platforms designed for 20-30 years of use, pipelines stretching thousands of miles, or refineries operating for decades. Taking a lifecycle view also means actively managing aging assets. Many oil and gas operators now run asset life extension (ALE) or asset integrity programs to safely extend the usable life of facilities that are reaching their original design life. For example, in the North Sea, many offshore platforms built with a 25-year design life are still producing after 40+ years (the Ekofisk 2/4 B Platform has been producing since 1974).

A recent industry survey showed 97% of oil and gas producers identified “field life extension” as a key business driver for reassessing their assets. Instead of building new platforms, oil and gas companies are using engineering analyses, upgrades, and rigorous maintenance to prolong the life of existing infrastructure. Notably, platforms like Statfjord B and C (Norway) have had their lives extended to 2035 through such efforts. These life-extension projects can defer billions in new capital expenditure by squeezing more value out of current assets.

4. Implement preventive maintenance to minimize downtime

Preventive maintenance involves performing regular, planned maintenance tasks on equipment to prevent failures. This includes scheduled inspections, servicing, part replacements, calibrations, lubrication, cleaning, and other routine tasks conducted at predefined intervals (e.g., based on time or usage hours). In oil and gas, common preventive maintenance activities might be:

• Overhauling a compressor every six months
• Inspecting and cleaning heat exchangers annually
• Testing backup generators monthly
• Changing out seals and gaskets on a schedule

The primary goal of preventive maintenance is to reduce unplanned downtime. By systematically conducting maintenance in advance, oil and gas companies can avoid a significant portion of these unexpected failures. While preventive maintenance does require scheduling downtime for maintenance, these are planned events that can be aligned with low-production periods or coordinated across the operation. The cost of planned maintenance is almost always far less than the cost of emergency repairs and lost production from a sudden failure.

In one case study, a fuel refinery transformed its maintenance approach from reactive to preventive, reducing the percentage of total operational time lost to maintenance from 46% to 21%. This represents a 25 percentage point reduction in maintenance downtime. By implementing structured maintenance schedules and proactively planning repairs, the facility significantly boosted its overall production capacity.

Oil and gas assets are expensive and long-lived, think of offshore platforms designed for 20-30 years of use, pipelines stretching thousands

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5. Integrate asset management systems with enterprise systems

This strategy involves connecting your asset management and maintenance systems (such as an enterprise asset management (EAM) system or computerized maintenance management system (CMMS)) with other core enterprise systems (like ERP, supply chain, procurement, finance, and operations systems). 

In many oil and gas companies, maintenance and operations data historically live in separate “silos.” This leads to inefficiencies like slower decision-making and duplicate work. For instance, maintenance teams might spend hours hunting through different databases or spreadsheets for asset maintenance history or parts availability.

Integration means breaking down these data silos ensuring that maintenance data, asset performance data, inventory levels, work orders, etc., are shared across departments in real time. Integration can be achieved through software platforms or middleware that link the CMMS/EAM with ERP modules (for purchasing, inventory, HR, etc.) and even with real-time operations data (SCADA or production systems). 

The goal is a seamless flow of information. For example, when a maintenance work order is created, the automated systems can check the spare parts inventory in the ERP. Or, when production schedules change, the maintenance plan can adjust accordingly.

As an example, Deloitte helped a global oil and gas company discover that its legacy asset management processes and system (over 20 years old) had become heavily customized and poorly integrated with the rest of its IT landscape. This hindered operational efficiency and data sharing. In response, they embarked on an EAM transformation, upgrading to SAP S/4HANA and related modern tools across the business. The new solution featured tight integration between maintenance, integrity management, supply chain, and mobile field tools.

6. Plan and schedule regular asset inspections and audits

Regular inspections are the front line of defense against asset failure. They help catch problems that automated monitoring might miss and provide a comprehensive assessment of asset condition. 

This strategy entails conducting regular inspections, audits, and tests on assets to ensure they remain in good condition and comply with safety/operational standards. In oil and gas, this can include routine equipment inspections (daily operator rounds, weekly checks), detailed periodic inspections (e.g., ultrasonic testing of pipelines for corrosion, borescope inspections of turbine interiors, structural inspections of offshore platforms), and audits of maintenance programs or asset records. 

Scheduling these activities means they are done consistently and tracked. It also involves planning for any preventive maintenance shutdowns or turnarounds well in advance so that inspections and audits are part of the workflow with minimal impact on production. Essentially, it’s a proactive regime to check asset integrity and performance on a regular basis.

For example, an internal inspection of a pressure vessel might reveal cracks or corrosion that sensors on the outside can’t detect. In an industry where accidents can be catastrophic (explosions, spills), inspections are vital for safety and environmental protection. Failing to inspect can lead to disasters: A famous example is BP’s Prudhoe Bay oil spill in 2006, caused by unseen pipeline corrosion, 267,000 gallons of oil leaked, and the company paid over $20 million in fines/cleanup, largely because corrosion went undetected due to infrequent inspections.

Maximize asset performance for a sustainable future in oil & gas

Asset management isn’t just a maintenance function; it’s a strategic lever for operational excellence, safety, and long-term profitability in the oil and gas industry. As the sector evolves, with growing pressure to reduce emissions, optimize output, and extend the life of aging infrastructure, effective oil and gas asset management becomes even more essential.

By embracing predictive and condition-based technologies, aligning maintenance with asset lifecycles, and integrating systems across departments, oil and gas companies can unlock measurable performance gains. Fewer outages. Smarter spending. Safer operations.

But more than that, these practices support sustainability, both economically and environmentally. Efficient assets consume less energy, require fewer resources to maintain, and have a smaller carbon footprint. In other words, better asset performance isn’t just good for business, it’s good for the future of the industry.

With the right tools and a proactive mindset, maintenance and operations professionals can lead the charge. Comprehensive solutions like MaintainX make it easier to track asset history, schedule inspections, and capture insights all in one place. The result? A more resilient, future-ready operation.