Unlocking the Energy Value Chain in Midstream Operations

This article was originally published in World Pipelines May 2025 issue on pages 14-15.

Carlos Garcia-Alvarado, CTO at CruxOCM, and Vicki Knott, P.Eng, Co-Founder and CEO at CruxOCM, discuss how to optimize midstream operations to enhance efficiency and unlock value across the supply chain.

The energy industry, particularly the integrated midstream sector, stands at a pivotal moment. While pipeline control room operations have traditionally been viewed as a necessary expense, a new perspective is emerging: these operations represent a significant opportunity to drive efficiency, enhance profitability, and unlock substantial value across the supply chain. After all, pipelines are the vital arteries connecting production to processing and distribution, playing a crucial role in delivering both liquid and gaseous energy resources to the world.

A New Era of Operational Excellence

Forward-thinking organisations are recognising the power of strategic investment in agility and operational excellence. This approach moves beyond short-term cost reduction to embrace the potential for significant value creation. By viewing control room operations as a strategic hub for data-driven decision-making and optimisation, companies can gain a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving energy landscape.

It’s important to acknowledge the industry’s existing strengths. The pipeline sector has a long history of innovation and operational excellence. We’re not suggesting a radical overhaul, but rather a strategic enhancement, leveraging modern software development practices to build upon these strengths and unlock new levels of efficiency and performance.

Empowering Pipeline Operations

CruxOCM is at the forefront of this transformation, providing innovative solutions that empower pipeline control rooms to become strategic assets. Our approach is deeply rooted in modern software product development principles.

• Pipeline abstraction and standardization enable unified and efficient management. We streamline pipeline complexities, enabling standardized, automated software solutions that enhance agility, maintainability, and safety. This standardization, built upon microservices and API-first architectures, facilitates real-time responses to asset fluctuations and optimizes throughput, ensuring consistent and reliable delivery of both liquid and gaseous resources. This allows for a more unified and efficient approach to managing diverse pipeline networks.
• Real-time active monitoring is the foundation for informed decisions with advanced data analytics, enhancing existing expertise. We believe that real-time monitoring is essential for value generation and operational excellence. CruxOCM delivers the right information to each stakeholder quickly, enabling fast business and operational decision-making. Utilising modern data analytics and machine learning, we provide predictive insights, not just reactive alerts, empowering operators and managers to make proactive adjustments and optimise performance in real time. We build upon the existing expertise of control room operators, providing them with enhanced tools to make informed decisions.
• Enhanced software interoperability is a result of breaking down data silos with open APIs, fostering seamless integration. CruxOCM prioritises seamless communication between software systems, enabling real-time data exchange and command execution. We provide the foundation for software automation, going beyond traditional SCADA communications to create a more integrated and responsive operational environment. This is achieved through open APIs and standardised data formats, allowing for easy integration with existing systems.
• Open and portable data means empowering innovation with cloud-native architecture, enabling data-driven decisions. We champion an open data model, eliminating vendor lock-in and providing secure access to operational data. This empowers executives to make informed decisions and optimise production schedules, fostering a culture of data-driven innovation and collaboration. Built on cloud-native architecture, our solutions offer scalability and flexibility.
• Continuous software deployment allows us to stay ahead of the curve with DevOps practices, ensuring continuous improvement. Our solutions are designed for continuous deployment, ensuring your organisation always benefits from the latest features and updates, maximising the value of your software investment and adapting to the evolving demands of the industry. Leveraging DevOps practices, we ensure rapid iteration and deployment of new features, enabling continuous improvement.
• Robust zero-trust cybersecurity can protect critical infrastructure with advanced security protocols, building trust and resilience. We implement a zero-trust cybersecurity architecture, ensuring continuous authentication and monitoring, and adhering to industry best practices. This proactive approach safeguards operational data and enhances system resilience, protecting critical infrastructure from evolving cyber threats. Our security protocols are designed to meet the highest industry standards.
• Value-driven partnerships are crucial for aligning mutual success with agile development, fostering collaborative innovation. CruxOCM’s success is aligned with our clients’ success. We focus on building strong partnerships and delivering solutions that generate tangible, measurable benefits, driving continuous improvement and maximising return on investment. Through agile development methodologies, we ensure that our solutions are tailored to meet the specific needs of our clients.

Realizing the Potential: Enhancing Existing Strengths with Modern Software Solutions

The potential for transformation in the energy sector is significant and immediate. Human-centred industrial autonomy initiatives, powered by modern software solutions, are driving substantial improvements in operational efficiency and profitability for integrated midstream companies.

While the industry has made significant strides in optimising production and processing, pipelines remain a vital link with untapped potential. These dynamic systems, currently managed with manual processes and offline optimisation, represent a significant opportunity for improvement.

By embracing agility, standardisation, and automation, companies can transform their pipeline control rooms into strategic assets, creating a genuine competitive advantage and contributing to a more sustainable and efficient energy future.

Innovation and Collaboration Driven by Modern Software

The time for action is now. Companies that prioritise value-driven partnerships and invest in transformative technologies like CruxOCM will be better positioned to:

• Drive sustainable operational efficiency and profitability.
• Navigate the evolving energy landscape with greater agility and resilience.
• Solidify their market position in a dynamic and competitive environment.
• Contribute to a more sustainable and efficient energy future.

As industry leaders, we must recognise this fundamental shift in how we approach pipeline operations. Those who act decisively will reap significant rewards, leading the way in a dynamic and evolving energy sector. By embracing innovation and collaboration, particularly in the realm of modern software development, we can unlock the full potential of our pipeline infrastructure and build a more resilient and sustainable energy future together.