Earlier this month, The Oilholic had the pleasure of visiting industrial software firm AVEVA's London office for a long overdue meeting with its Chief Executive Officer Caspar Herzberg.
Theme(s) of the riveting discussion, which extended way beyond the time allocated, touched on the proliferation of AI, IIoT, digital twin tech, big data and predictive analytics in the energy industry.
All have been exponentially deployed in recent years by major energy operators conscious of their carbon footprint. Many have done so in partnership with AVEVA and the pace of adoption is only going to accelerate.
The top 20 oil and gas companies by market capitalisation have all pledged to achieve net zero by 2050, as well as eliminate routine gas flaring by 2030, and are incrementally turning to tech solutions that AVEVA and its competitors are happy to provide.
Herzberg told The Oilholic: "The energy majors have rapidly come around to the viewpoint that optimisation enabled by software serves the purpose(s) of improving their throughput and operating margins, reducing downtime as well as lowering their carbon footprint.
"I also think most energy majors are now subject to significant societal pressure to lower their carbon footprint. This pressure is only going to increase. And every summer it will be ever more pressing, especially in liberal democracies where citizens are free to express their opinion and see climate change as a key concern."
It is here that the true potential of "connected solutions" may indeed be realized by the energy sector (and beyond) driven by continually improving corporate efficiencies and returns in tandem. "I would say that connected software makes things that are already possible, quicker, and frees people up to deal with more pressing issues in the value chain, rather than routine, but time-consuming tasks."
"Ultimately, AI, IIoT, digital twins, big data and analytics are all purposeful tools but at their inner core is data centricity – essentially, talking hold of data and getting value out of it."
The possibilities are infinite for the energy firms both large and small, Herzberg said. AI driven carbon capture, physics-based simulation, predictive asset optimization, streamlining processes for a green hydrogen future, making the power grid more resilient and reducing refinery or plant downtime are just some of the use cases, the AVEVA boss noted, while personally and very kindly showing yours truly a simulation on an absolutely ginormous screen.
Away from exclusive snippets for this blog, do read The Oilholic's interview with Herzberg for Forbes here. It offers a much wider perspective on AVEVA and Herzberg's strategy for the business in the energy sector and beyond, and the company's very vocal stance on improving process efficiencies in the wider industrial world's march to a low-to-zero carbon future. Well, that's all for the moment folks, more musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'!
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© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo: Gaurav Sharma with Caspar Herzberg, Chief Executive Officer of AVEVA. © AVEVA, March 2024.
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