Kicking off to a successful start, the ‘Digitalization in Oil and Gas’ webinar gathered the oil and gas sector’s leading minds to discuss one of the most important aspects of the industry’s future, the digital transformation.
Being held under the patronage of H.E. Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Tarek El Molla, the discussion started with opening remarks by the minister and Sameh Sabry, the EOG Committee Chairman and Senior Vice President and Managing Director Egypt at Wintershall Dea. The webinar was moderated by Egypt Oil & Gas‘ CEO Mohamed Fouad.
El Molla noted that the digital transformation is no longer optional, especially when the world has had to face a devastating pandemic.
“The pandemic also had an immense effect on the global energy market while demand is increasing,” El Molla said. “A key enabler to combat the COVID-19 crisis in the energy sector was digitalization, which helped improve the safety, productivity and sustainability of our energy systems,” he added.
Further highlighting the importance of digitalization, Sabry also stated: “I think we can all come to recognize that digitalization is not just a trend but an essential part of how the E&P sector must operate.”
“The oil and gas industry in general is embracing technology [and] digital solutions to reshape its operating landscape, improve productivity, efficiency, as well as to reduce costs. The bottom-line is there will be no sustainable E&P sector without digitalization in the heart of it for the future,” Sabry added.
The 2 hours long webinar then led an informative panel between industry leaders from international oil companies (IOCs), technology providers, and digital transformation program representatives. They discussed the value of digitalization and the steps taken towards digital transformation.
This webinar was also made possible by the generous support of its sponsors Baker Hughes, CONNECT Professional Services, Cisco, Dell Technologies, Intel Corporation, Huawei, SAP, and Wintershall Dea.
Other participants of this landmark webinar included: Ashraf Farag, First Undersecretary for Agreements and Exploration at the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources; Ashraf Bahaa, Chairman and CEO of the Engineering for the Petroleum & Process Industries (ENPPI); Osama Salem, Business Development General Manager at ENPPI; Dawlat Hashem, Assistant Chairman for Communication and Information Technology at Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS); David Chi, Vice-President and General Manager of Apache Corporation; Hans-Christian Freitag, Vice President, Intelligent Software Solutions at Baker Hughes; Sameh Sabry, EOG Committee Chairman, Senior Vice President and Managing Director Egypt at Wintershall Dea; Kathrin Dufour, Senior Vice President Digitalization & Technology at Wintershall Dea; Ayman Elgohary, General Manager & Regional Director at Cisco – Egypt, North Africa & Levant (NAL); David Holmes, General Manager – Energy at Dell Technologies; Robin Lu, Vice President of Huawei Global Energy Group; and Hoda Mansour, EMEA South Head of Business Process Intelligence (BPI) at SAP.
