The second panel witnessed the participation of four industry experts who discussed innovation and new technologies in the oil and gas sector. The session was moderated by Sameh Sabry, Senior Vice President and Managing Director Egypt at Wintershall Dea.
EUG Success Stories
Speaking of digital transformation and new technologies, Egypt Upstream Gateway (EUG) is the first thing that springs to mind. Sabry initiated the discussion by asking EUG Project Manager Mohamed Radwan about the success story of the EUG. Firstly, Radwan said, “the EUG is one of the key outcomes of the modernization project and the upstream investment attraction team.”
He added that the EUG team succeeded in populating the exploration and production (E&P) data acquired over the last century. Moreover, the importance of this platform lies in the fact that it is not only a data bank but also a portal that promotes upstream investments by driving technical value from the existing data. Realizing this, more than 31 international companies signed membership agreements. Radwan concluded his speech saying that Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC), in partnership with Schlumberger, delivered the EUG in a record time.
Sherif Bayoumy, Managing Director Egypt and East – Mediterranean at Schlumberger, described the EUG as an investment done in the right place and at the right time. “Our aim from the EUG is not only having a national data library or consolidating of the legacy data over the last 80 years in Egypt. However, it is how we can utilize this data for the benefit of new investors,” Bayoumy said. In order to achieve this aim, the platform will ensure that Egypt’s subsurface data is kept evergreen.
Technology as a Key Enabler for Climate Action
When asked about the new technologies and innovation, Wang Hao, CTO of Energy, North Africa Region at Huawei, tackled the topic from a rather interesting approach. He viewed data as an untapped asset, and Huawei’s mission is to extract value from it. “Nowadays, getting the data is not a problem. The problem is getting value from it and you need to be able to attract value. That’s what we call digital revenue,” Wang remarked.
For years, Huawei has been exploring new technologies that will leverage the wealth of data. As a result, it developed its cloud services and artificial intelligence (AI) platforms. Wang noted that they provided cloud stack to oil industry giants, such as China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) and PetroChina Company.
During the panel, the active role of digitalization in combating climate change was also discussed. Tameer Nasser, Director and General Manager of Egypt and Sudan at Baker Hughes, agreed saying “Digital transformation is an integral part of climate change.” Furthermore, he stated that Baker Hughes invests in technologies like Flare IQ. By employing it, the average combustion efficiency can be increased from 70% to 90%. Hence, digital solutions are a key enabler for climate action.
