Digital transformation has been sweeping across society for over a decade now, and has finally arrived in oil and gas. Digital has been a thing in our society now for over a decade. Digital businesses and models have so thoroughly permeated our daily personal lives that we are startled when we encounter the odd business that is still operating as if smart phones and websites don’t exist.

For oil and gas companies, the industrial logic of digital adoption is now both economic and existential. Digital pays for itself in cost, productivity and emissions gains, and without it, industry has little chance to attract the talent and capital it needs to evolve and adopt new business models.

 If oil and gas doesn’t actuate its culture to embrace digital with urgency, it becomes increasingly difficult to attract capital, and impossible to attract talent. Fortunately, capital markets have not declared any energy company yet in a break out from the pack, so there is time. There is no Tesla yet among energy majors. New business models await.

Our sluggish response so far needs a boost of urgency.