The electrification of upstream oil and gas processes offers the opportunity to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases while improving efficiency. Automating operations to manage the flow of liquids and gases enables enhanced control, decreased power use, high dependability and ease of field servicing.

In upstream production, control valves have historically been operated by pneumatic diaphragm actuators that use the well-stream gas as their motive power, releasing methane every time the valve is stroked. To reduce these emissions some operators have now replaced well-stream gas with air compressors, but these require a large amount of energy.

Electric actuators do not vent, and many provide one-piece actuation solutions, which reduce the risk of failure compared to the typical pneumatic solution involving multiple pieces of equipment. Each of these parts can suffer from air quality fluctuations, temperature variations and other environmental factors.