Group Collaboration And Group Decision Making Information Technologies In Petroleum Industry

Abstract

The technical management of important natural resources such as oil and gas resources is a challenging responsibility that faces oil companies. The increasing global demand for oil and gas coupled with declining oil and gas reserves has forced the oil industry to make significant changes in its business processes. Major oil companies have exploration and production operations that span several continents. Massive amount of data that is generated at all levels in an oil company has to be stored, analyzed and disseminated. In this paper, the changes in the management practices and business processes in the oil industry are traced over the past several decades. The use and application of information technology as change agents is also explored and evaluated. In particular, this paper focuses on the role of visualization centers in the oil and gas industry in revolutionizing effective group decision making that has enabled teams to be more productive, innovative, and outcome-focused.