托福雙語閱讀素材：石油工業(yè)邁向數(shù)字時代

想要提高托福閱讀能力，我們一定要在日常生活中有意識地增加英語閱讀量，提升語感和熟練度，這其中比較常用也比較方便地一個方式就是利用各類英文報刊雜志文章進行精讀與泛讀練習。下面我們來看一篇經(jīng)濟學人文章：石油工業(yè)邁向數(shù)字時代。

Oil and technology

Data drilling

The oil industry struggles to enter the digital age

石油與科技

數(shù)字鉆探

石油工業(yè)艱難邁向數(shù)字時代

IT SOUNDS like a spectacular feat of engineering. Employees of Royal Dutch Shell located in Calgary, Canada, recently drilled a well 6,200 miles (10,000km) away in Vaca Muerta, Argentina. In fact, the engineers of the Anglo-Dutch oil major were using computers to perform what they call “virtual drilling”, based on their knowledge of Fox Creek, a shale bed in Alberta, which has similar geological features to Argentina’s biggest shale deposit. They used real-time data sent from a rig in Vaca Muerta to design the well and control the speed and pressure of the drilling. On their second try, they completed the well for $5.4m, down from $15m a few years ago. “It’s the cheapest well we’ve drilled in Argentina,” says Ben van Beurden, Shell’s chief executive.

這聽上去是一個令人嘆為觀止的工程壯舉(第N次…別老achievement)——身在加拿大卡爾加里(Calgary)的荷蘭皇家殼牌公司員工最近在10,000公里之外的阿根廷瓦卡姆爾塔(Vaca Muerta)油田遠程鉆探了一口油井。實際上，這家英荷合資石油巨頭的工程師是使用計算機完成了這次“虛擬鉆井”。他們的操作是基于對加拿大阿爾伯塔省頁巖礦區(qū)福克斯溪(Fox Creek)的了解，該礦區(qū)與瓦卡姆爾塔這個阿根廷最大的頁巖沉積區(qū)具有相似的地質特征。他們運用瓦卡姆爾塔的一個鉆井平臺傳送的實時數(shù)據(jù)來設計油井并控制鉆探的速度和壓力。在第二次嘗試時，他們以540萬美元的成本完成了鉆井，低于幾年前的1500萬美元。“這是我們在阿根廷成本最低的鉆井。”殼牌首席執(zhí)行官本·范伯登(Ben van Beurden)表示。

Shell is not alone in deploying computer wizards alongside geologists in an attempt to lower costs in an era of moderate oil prices. The industry as a whole is waking up to the fact that digitisation and automation have transformed other industries, such as commerce and manufacturing, and that they have been left behind. Technology firms and consultancies are knocking on their doors peddlingalluring concepts like the “digital oil rig” and the “oilfield of the future”. Some argue that the embrace of digital technologies could be the next big thing after the shale revolution that started to transform oil and gas production in America a decade ago. But this is an industry that embraces new technologies only in fits and starts.

在油價不高的時代，部署計算機能手來配合地質學專家工作以降低成本的不只殼牌一家。整個石油業(yè)如夢初醒，意識到(寫作句型)數(shù)字化和自動化已徹底改變了商業(yè)和制造業(yè)等其他行業(yè)，而自己卻已然落后?？萍脊竞妥稍児菊谇檬蜆I(yè)的大門，推銷“數(shù)字化石油鉆井平臺”和“未來油田”等誘人的概念。有人認為，繼十年前開始改變美國油氣生產(chǎn)的頁巖革命后，積極運用數(shù)字科技可能成為又一件大事。但石油業(yè)在接受新技術上總是斷斷續(xù)續(xù)。

Once, Big Oil was at the forefront of digitisation, pioneering the use of 3-D seismic data and supercomputers to help find resources. But priorities changed, especially during the past decade when oil prices rose above $100 a barrel and the primary goal was to find more of it, whatever the cost. Whizzy new technology took second place. Ulrich Spiesshofer, chief executive of ABB, a Swedish-Swiss automation-technology company, says the oil industry puts to use in exploration activities barely 5% of the seismic data it has collected. During production of oil, less than 1% of data from an oil rig reaches the people making decisions, reckons McKinsey, a consultancy.

石油巨頭集團曾一度處于數(shù)字化前沿，開創(chuàng)使用三維地震數(shù)據(jù)和超級計算機來輔助資源勘探。但后來首要任務發(fā)生了改變，尤其是在過去十年。當時油價升至每桶超過100美元，不惜一切代價尋找更多石油成為了主要目標，高新技術則退居次席。瑞典瑞士合資自動化技術公司ABB的首席執(zhí)行官烏利齊·史畢福(Ulrich Spiesshofer)表示，石油業(yè)收集的地震數(shù)據(jù)中只有不到5%被用于勘探活動中。咨詢公司麥肯錫認為，在石油開采過程中，石油鉆井平臺收集的數(shù)據(jù)只有不足1%為決策層所知悉。

It is the process of extracting oil and gas that is considered most ripe成熟 for digitisation and automation. Drilling often takes place miles below the surface in rock formations where drill bits and pipes can be broken or snagged, which halts activity for long periods. Baker Hughes, an oil-services firm, has recently developed what it calls the first automated drill bit, capable of self-adjusting depending on the nature of the rock. McKinsey says undersea robots are also being deployed to fix problems.

如今，油氣開采的過程被認為最適合應用數(shù)字化和自動化。鉆探通常在巖層表面下方幾英里處進行，鉆頭和鉆桿可能會破損或卡住，這會導致鉆探作業(yè)長期停頓。油田服務公司貝克休斯(Baker Hughes)最近開發(fā)出了號稱全球首創(chuàng)的自動化鉆頭，能根據(jù)巖石的性質(別老character)自我調(diào)節(jié)。麥肯錫表示，海底機器人也正用于解決問題。

Above the surface, efforts are under way to reduce the amount of people and plant on oil rigs, helping improve safety in a dangerous industry. James Aday, a veteran oil driller now at Wood Mackenzie, a consultancy, says that on the drilling platform itself, automation is not new. Others say that more rigs are being controlled semi-remotely; in the Gulf of Mexico, engineers in Houston use real-time data from oil rigs to make decisions, reducing the cost of shuttling them by helicopter to rigs. “The aim is to bring the data to the expert, not the expert to the data,” says Peter Zornio of Emerson, an automation firm. “There’s a huge incentive to get the people and the choppers off the platform.”

在地面上，人們正努力減少石油鉆井平臺上的工作人員和機械數(shù)量，以助提高這一高危行業(yè)的安全性。資深鉆探人員詹姆斯·阿代(James Aday)現(xiàn)任職咨詢公司伍德麥肯茲(Wood Mackenzie)，他表示，就鉆井平臺而言，自動化并非新鮮事。其他人也表示，更多鉆井平臺已轉為半遠程操控。在墨西哥灣，身在休斯敦的工程師們使用石油鉆機的實時數(shù)據(jù)做決策，從而減少了用直升機運送他們往返鉆井平臺的成本。“這么做的目的是把數(shù)據(jù)傳送給專家，而不是把專家送到數(shù)據(jù)發(fā)生地，”自動化公司艾默生電氣的彼特·左尼歐(Peter Zornio)說道，“石油企業(yè)有著巨大的動力去減少派往鉆井平臺的人員和直升機。”

Wider use of data, sensors and automation will produce new challenges for the industry. It will have to learn about cyber-security—oil rigs are critical infrastructure—and invest in ways to prevent theft of data. But digitisation may also attract millennials to replace an ageing workforce, where mass retirement is a looming threat.

數(shù)據(jù)、傳感器和自動化更廣泛的應用將為該行業(yè)帶來新挑戰(zhàn)。業(yè)界將不得不去了解網(wǎng)絡安全(石油鉆井平臺是至關重要的基礎設施)并在數(shù)據(jù)防盜技術上投資。而數(shù)字化也可能吸引到千禧一代的加入，取代老化的勞動隊伍。后者大規(guī)模退休的威脅正逐漸逼近。

As to whether the workforce could shrink across the industry in the digital age, ultimately geologists and engineers believe technology will not put them out of a job, because producing oil is art as well as science. Nor will tech startups be likely to overcome the barriers to entry—such as high capital requirements—that protect incumbents. But they add to a sense, born out of the shale revolution, that innovation will make oil and gas more accessible and that the days when oil was considered a scarce resource are long gone.

至于在數(shù)字化時代整個石油業(yè)的勞動力隊伍會否縮小的問題，地質學家和工程師們還是相信科技并不會讓他們失業(yè)，因為石油開采既是科學也是藝術?？萍紕?chuàng)業(yè)公司也不大可能跨越保護既有企業(yè)的進入門檻，例如高資本要求。但這些改變深化了源于頁巖革命的一種認知——創(chuàng)新技術將使石油和天然氣開采變得更容易，石油被視作稀缺資源的時代早已過去。