2026 Top 10 Trends and Priorities for Oil & Gas Operations
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View Our Research and Analyst ServicesTop Priorities for 2026
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01
Free up IT spend to fund transformation
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02
Unite IT and OT across the asset base
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03
Embed resiliency within operations amid rising disruptions
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04
Build a trusted, field-to-boardroom data foundation
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05
Convert technology investment into operational value
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06
Scale AI safely across the value chain
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07
Modernize the digital backbone for connected operations
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08
Defend critical infrastructure from cyber and physical threats
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09
Ready the workforce for digital and AI operations
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10
Turn emissions reporting into verified, audit-ready data
Free up IT spend to fund transformation
The Challenge
IT budgets are stretched between keeping the lights on and funding the future.
Oil and gas operators must sustain complex legacy estates across upstream, midstream, and downstream while financing digital, AI, and energy-transition initiatives, and without disciplined cost management, run-the-business spend crowds out transformation. The constraint is rarely ambition; it is freeing the capital to act on it.
Why It Matters
Funding discipline is what makes transformation affordable.
Rationalizing infrastructure, vendors, and applications releases capital that can be redirected to higher-value digital and operational priorities. With BCG estimating that AI alone could lift oil and gas EBIT by 30% to 70% over the next five years ("The AI-First Oil and Gas Company," BCG, 2025), the operators that fund transformation through cost discipline rather than new spend will compound an early advantage.
The Solution
Separate run, grow, and transform spend.
Segment IT spend to identify what keeps the business operating, what improves current capabilities, and what supports future transformation. This creates a clearer basis for executive tradeoff decisions.
Use a two-track investment model.
Manage foundational technologies such as ERP, infrastructure, cloud, and core platforms differently from innovation technologies such as AI, advanced analytics, automation, and digital twins. Stable platforms require optimization and training, while emerging technologies require controlled experimentation and scale planning.
Tie cost decisions to business outcomes.
Use value measures, service consumption data, and portfolio reviews to show where IT spend supports productivity, reliability, risk reduction, and growth. This helps reduce waste while protecting investments that enable strategic outcomes.
Unite IT and OT across the asset base
The Challenge
IT and OT were built as separate worlds.
Upstream, midstream, and downstream assets run on OT with different lifecycles, risk tolerances, and ownership than enterprise IT, leaving gaps in visibility, security, and data flow across the asset base. As field systems grow more connected, those seams become the hardest part of the operating model to manage.
Why It Matters
Convergence is now where reliability and risk are decided.
Real-time optimization, remote operations, and predictive maintenance all cross the IT/OT boundary, so coordinated governance is what lets operators modernize without compromising safety or uptime. A recent study shows that 81% of OT architecture reviews showed poor segmentation between IT and OT ("2026 OT/ICS Cybersecurity Report and Year in Review," Dragos, 2026), making the divide both an operational and a security liability.
The Solution
Create shared IT/OT governance.
Establish joint decision-making for architecture, cybersecurity, data access, vendor management, and modernization priorities. Shared governance reduces conflict and clarifies accountability.
Secure operational connectivity.
Modernize networks, segmentation, identity, monitoring, and access controls across IT and OT environments. This enables operational data flow while reducing exposure to cyber and operational risk.
Scale use cases with operational discipline.
Work with operations to prioritize use cases such as predictive maintenance, remote monitoring, digital twins, production optimization, and safety analytics. Grounding initiatives in operational realities improves adoption and reduces implementation risk.
Embed resiliency within operations amid rising disruptions
The Challenge
Disruption is no longer the exception.
Operators face extreme weather, aging assets, cyber threats, and tightly coupled systems where a single failure can cascade across production, processing, and export. Traditional continuity plans rarely map the dependencies that actually keep hydrocarbons flowing.
Why It Matters
Resilience directly protects production, safety, and license to operate.
Unplanned downtime carries immediate revenue, safety, and regulatory consequences, so a stronger resilience posture is what lets operators absorb shocks and recover fast. Oil and gas companies are navigating economic variability and technology disruption while working to build a more resilient operating model ("2026 Oil and Gas Industry Outlook," Deloitte, 2026), making disruption-readiness a baseline expectation rather than a contingency.
The Solution
Map critical services and dependencies.
Identify the business processes, systems, assets, vendors, data, and infrastructure that support critical operations. This helps prioritize resilience investments where disruption would have the greatest impact.
Modernize recovery and response capabilities.
Update disaster recovery, incident response, crisis management, and continuity plans for cloud, OT, hybrid infrastructure, and third-party dependencies. Regular testing improves readiness and exposes gaps before disruption occurs.
Build resilience into technology decisions.
Assess resilience requirements during system design, vendor selection, architecture planning, and modernization initiatives. Embedding resilience early reduces recovery risk and improves long-term operational stability.
Build a trusted, field-to-boardroom data foundation
The Challenge
Oil and gas data is abundant but disconnected.
Subsurface, production, asset, HSE, and commercial data sit in siloed systems and incompatible formats, so leaders struggle to get a single trusted view from the field to the boardroom. Every AI and analytics ambition collides with that fragmentation first.
Why It Matters
Trusted data is the precondition for AI and better decisions.
Integrated, well-governed data underpins optimization, forecasting, safety, and reporting, so a strong data foundation turns digital ambition into dependable decisions. Energy leaders expect AI agents to reinvent how digital systems are built ("Technology Vision 2025," Accenture, 2025); the operators that fix their data core now will be the ones able to scale AI safely.
The Solution
Clarify ownership and governance.
Define data ownership across IT, operations, engineering, finance, and corporate teams. Clear accountability improves data quality, access, stewardship, and trust.
Connect operational and enterprise data, securely.
Prioritize integration across core enterprise systems, OT environments, asset systems, subsurface data platforms, and analytics tools. Better interoperability helps stakeholders use data across the full value chain.
Prepare data for analytics and AI.
Improve metadata, data quality, access controls, and common data models so advanced analytics and AI can be applied safely and consistently. Strong data foundations reduce duplication and improve confidence in digital outputs.
Convert technology investment into operational value
The Challenge
Technology spend does not automatically become value.
Operators invest heavily in digital, automation, and AI, but value leaks when initiatives are not owned by the business or tied to operational outcomes. Pilots multiply while measurable impact stays thin.
Why It Matters
Value depends on business ownership, not just deployment.
When operations leaders own outcomes and pair technology with workflow change, returns become real and repeatable. Disciplined deployment can unlock 10% to 15% productivity improvement in oil and gas ("The AI-First Oil and Gas Company," BCG, 2025), but only for operators that manage technology as a business program rather than an IT project.
The Solution
Anchor technology decisions in business value.
Work with business stakeholders to define value drivers, operational pain points, and measurable outcomes before selecting or scaling technology solutions. This helps IT focus resources on initiatives that directly support enterprise goals.
Create shared ownership for digital initiatives.
Establish clear roles for IT, operations, engineering, data owners, and product owners. Shared accountability improves adoption, reduces handoff friction, and keeps initiatives aligned from planning through execution.
Build trust through transparent engagement.
Use regular stakeholder engagement, portfolio reviews, and value reporting to show how IT investments support business priorities. This creates stronger alignment with executives and improves confidence in IT’s ability to deliver.
Scale AI safely across the value chain
The Challenge
AI is moving from pilots to the core of operations.
Operators see AI and automation opportunities across exploration, drilling, production, maintenance, and trading, but these use cases touch safety-critical environments where errors carry physical and financial consequences. Scaling without guardrails is the real risk now.
Why It Matters
Responsible scaling is both an upside and a safety imperative.
Governed AI improves throughput and decision quality, while ungoverned AI introduces opaque, hard-to-audit decisions in high-hazard settings. With 25 percent of energy executives expecting a significant increase in AI agent use within three years ("Technology Vision 2025," Accenture, 2025), the operators that build governance and human oversight now will scale fastest without compromising safety.
The Solution
Prioritize use cases by value and risk.
Evaluate AI and automation opportunities based on business impact, feasibility, operational risk, and required oversight. This helps IT focus on use cases that are valuable, practical, and defensible.
Build reusable AI foundations.
Establish the data, integration, security, model governance, and platform capabilities needed to support repeatable AI deployment. Shared foundations reduce duplication and make it easier to scale successful use cases.
Keep humans in control where risk is high.
Define clear approval points, monitoring requirements, fallback procedures, and accountability for AI-enabled decisions. This enables automation while protecting safety, compliance, and operational integrity.
Modernize the digital backbone for connected operations
The Challenge
Aging systems cannot carry connected operations.
Many operators still run core ERP, engineering, and operational platforms built for a different era, with brittle integrations that resist real-time data exchange and rapid change. Technical debt quietly caps the speed of every digital initiative.
Why It Matters
A modern backbone is what makes everything else possible.
Modernizing core platforms and connectivity improves scalability, security, and the real-time data flow that smart operations depend on. As Deloitte describes the shift toward smart, connected operations with embedded digital tools and satellite connectivity to remote sites ("2026 Oil and Gas Industry Outlook," Deloitte, 2026), the digital backbone becomes the enabler of remote operations, AI, and resilience alike.
The Solution
Modernize core platforms deliberately.
Assess ERP, cloud, infrastructure, integration, and enterprise architecture against current and future operating needs. Targeted modernization reduces technical debt and improves the reliability of business-critical systems.
Connect field and enterprise environments.
Improve integration across OT systems, edge environments, cloud platforms, enterprise applications, and analytics tools. Better connectivity enables operational visibility and supports scalable digital use cases.
Design for reuse and scalability.
Use common architecture patterns, integration standards, and platform capabilities to reduce duplication. This helps the organization scale successful solutions across assets and business units more efficiently.
Defend critical infrastructure from cyber and physical threats
The Challenge
Oil and gas is a top target for adversaries.
Pipelines, refineries, terminals, and control systems are increasingly connected and dependent on outside vendors, so the attack surface spans IT, OT, cloud, and the supply chain. Adversaries are now probing exactly these operational seams.
Why It Matters
Cyber risk has become operational and safety risk.
A breach can halt production, threaten safety, and trigger regulatory and reputational fallout, so stronger cyber and physical security protects the assets themselves. With the number of industrial ransomware incidents up 95% year over year, intruders pivot from a midstream pipeline's cellular gateways into engineering workstations ("2026 OT/ICS Cybersecurity Report and Year in Review," Dragos, 2026); defense across IT and OT is now nonnegotiable.
The Solution
Extend security across the ecosystem.
Assess cyber risk across vendors, contractors, cloud providers, OT suppliers, and managed service partners. This helps reduce exposure created by third-party access and interconnected operations.
Secure critical operational environments.
Strengthen segmentation, identity, monitoring, vulnerability management, and access controls across IT and OT environments. This reduces the likelihood that cyber events can spread into operational systems.
Align cyber response with operational response.
Coordinate incident response, crisis management, business continuity, and operational recovery plans. Integrated response planning helps the organization act quickly when disruption affects both digital and physical operations.
Ready the workforce for digital and AI operations
The Challenge
The workforce is changing faster than the talent pipeline.
Operators face retirements, a thinning pipeline, and intense competition for digital, data, automation, and OT-security skills, while traditional roles were not designed for connected, AI-enabled operations. The capability gap widens just as the technology demands intensify.
Why It Matters
Modern operations need modern skills, and everyone is hiring.
Transformation depends on people who can run digital, automated, and AI-supported operations safely, so a strong workforce strategy sustains every other priority. 66% of the oil and gas workforce sits in mechanically intensive roles being reshaped by automation and AI ("2026 Oil and Gas Industry Outlook," Deloitte, 2026). Reskilling and knowledge transfer are now urgent, not optional.
The Solution
Redefine critical digital roles.
Clarify the roles needed to support data, AI, cloud, cybersecurity, OT integration, product ownership, and digital operations. Clear role design improves accountability and helps close capability gaps.
Invest in practical upskilling.
Provide targeted training, certifications, cross-training, and hands-on learning tied to real business use cases. Practical development helps employees apply new skills directly to operational and IT priorities.
Build cross-functional delivery teams.
Create teams that combine IT, operations, engineering, data, security, and business expertise. Cross-functional delivery improves adoption and ensures digital initiatives reflect real operating constraints.
Turn emissions reporting into verified, audit-ready data
The Challenge
Emissions reporting is shifting from estimates to measurement.
Regulators, investors, and customers increasingly demand measured, verifiable emissions data, yet many operators still rely on engineering estimates and fragmented systems that cannot withstand scrutiny. The gap between what is reported and what can be proven is narrowing fast.
Why It Matters
Verified emissions data is becoming a market and compliance requirement.
Measurement-based reporting affects regulatory standing, market access, and reputation, so building auditable emissions data into operations is now a core capability. With the fossil fuel sector responsible for nearly a third of human-caused methane emissions ("Global Methane Tracker 2025," IEA, 2025) and the EU requiring importers to demonstrate equivalent measurement, reporting, and verification from 2027 ("Methane Emissions," European Commission, 2024), the move from estimates to verified data is no longer optional.
The Solution
Standardize reporting data sources.
Identify the authoritative systems and data owners for emissions, operations, safety, regulatory, and performance reporting. Standardized sources reduce manual reconciliation and improve confidence in reported information.
Strengthen controls and auditability.
Apply data quality checks, access controls, lineage, workflow approvals, and documentation to high-value reporting processes. Stronger controls reduce reporting risk and improve defensibility.
Automate repeatable reporting workflows.
Use integration, analytics, and workflow automation to reduce manual effort in recurring reporting processes. Automation improves timeliness, consistency, and the ability to respond to changing reporting requirements.
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