Knowledge Management for the Oil and Gas Industry: Opportunities and Challenges

In the current era of knowledge-driven society, knowledge becomes the most critical success factor in the current business environment. It needs to be handled and utilized effectively and efficiently to compete in the global market by creating a sustainable competitive advantage for the organisation. A technology-driven organisation needs to leverage knowledge management process to be effective and competitive, where professional can play an important role while managing the knowledge to handle the challenges comfortably. But the ability of handling cannot be inculcated within a day like technology, it is culture to be cultivated since a long time through experts and their experience they gained a practices. The Oil and Gas industry has seen massive changes in the recent years influencing all its sectors, including searching, production, drilling, and refining, which in turn has great effects on their market and marketing strategies, production strategies, and Research and Development strategies. Keeping up with these changes can only be achieved through effective knowledge management, covering both knowledge production or generation and knowledge sharing or transformation and distribution. That's not the issue today, where making the most of an oil field is a knowledge-intensive affair involving expertise in engineering, earth science and facilities maintenance. This study introduces a brief idea about knowledge management and explores the opportunities and Major Challenges of oil and Gas industry involved in knowledge management implementation. Also it provides strategic considerations in the aspects of oil and gas industry, should follow during knowledge management implementation as one of the key success factor.