Digital Oil and Gas: Recent Episodes

Geoffrey Cann

A weekly podcast on the impacts of digital on the oil and gas industry.

When a buyer comes a-calling with an unsolicited offer for your digital venture, you'll be facing a set of questions for which you are probably unprepared. Respond thoughtfully, though, and you may be able to add a zero to the price. Respond brashly, and you might cut a zero. Either way, don't be a zero and check out how to improve your odds of success when you decide to sell your digital startup.

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Industrial AI is into a new phase. Agentic AI is software that can plan, reason, learn, and act with far greater independence than traditional automation. While the technology is advancing quickly, the oil and gas industry faces unique technical, regulatory, and operational challenges that make full autonomy far less straightforward.

In this episode, I share what agentic AI actually is, why it differs from conventional automation, and why the industry's aging assets, fragmented data, safety requirements, cybersecurity concerns, and accountability standards create real barriers to adoption.

I also share where I believe agentic AI can deliver the greatest value today: reducing the cognitive burden on engineers by assisting with planning, monitoring, coordination, and decision preparation while keeping humans squarely in the loop. The future is a function of humans plus AI, instead of the gloomy either/or we hear.

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

It's sad to say but wars create opportunities to apply new technologies in novel ways as the combatants seek to gain advantage over each other. The US-Israeli War on Iran is a case in point. If you've been monitoring the public airwaves about the war, you'll have picked up hints about the role that digital innovations are playing in the crisis. These signals in and of themselves are almost always overshadowed by the big kinetic actions, such as bombings and destruction.

Collect them together, project them forward, and they reveal how the world will likely be different when the hostilities abate.

In this podcast I share several insights that I believe have significant bearing on the future of oil and gas infrastructure, not just in the Gulf area but globally wherever there is the potential for conflict.

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Oil and gas companies are sitting on vast amounts of surplus inventory, often without realizing its true scale or value. Equipment purchased for major projects frequently ends up idle, and stored across warehouses and laydown yards, while tying up capital and incurring ongoing costs. While some of this surplus results from project changes or cancellations, much of it reflects a deeper systemic issue around how industrial assets are tracked and managed.

The challenge is greater than just the existence of surplus, and is much more about the inability to act on it. Data quality deteriorates as assets move through their lifecycle, internal systems fail to communicate across business units, and there are few effective tools to support reuse or divestment. At the same time, procurement incentives often favour new purchases over internal utilization. The result is a fragmented environment where companies unknowingly duplicate spend while valuable inventory sits unused.

In this episode, I am speaking with Taylor Assaly, founder of IronHub, about how AI-driven data enrichment is transforming surplus management. He explains how structuring and scaling industrial data allows companies to identify, trust, and reuse existing assets—unlocking significant cost savings and improving capital efficiency. We also explore the broader opportunity to create internal and peer-to-peer marketplaces that increase asset utilization and turn surplus into measurable financial returns.

👤 About The Guest Taylor Assaly is the Founder and President of IronHub, a company focused on transforming how industrial organizations manage and monetize surplus inventory. With a background that spans entrepreneurship and frontline oilfield experience, Taylor has built IronHub into a platform that leverages AI to structure and enrich industrial data at scale. His work centers on improving asset visibility, enabling reuse, and driving capital efficiency across the energy sector.

💼 LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/taylor-assaly/

🌐 Company Website https://www.ironhub.com/

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

EHS and AI are starting to transform safety and reliability in oil and gas. But most organizations are still managing safety as a compliance exercise, not an operational advantage.

That approach is under pressure. Operations are more complex, regulations keep shifting, and critical EHS data is scattered across systems, spreadsheets, and sites. When something goes wrong, the impact isn't just regulatory — it shows up as downtime, lost production, and real harm to people and communities.

There is a better way to run this. When EHS systems are connected and AI is applied to real operational data, safety becomes part of how the business performs day to day. Instead of reacting after the fact, companies can see risk building in real time, understand how conditions interact, and intervene earlier. The outcome is stronger reliability, fewer disruptions, and better decisions in the field.

In this episode, I'm speaking with Amanda Smith, EVP Strategy at Cority. We discuss how EHS is shifting from compliance to performance, why most systems remain fragmented, and how AI is enabling real-time insight into operational risk. Amanda also shares the personal story behind her focus on safety, and a practical framework for how organizations can start using AI without taking on unnecessary risk.

👤 About The Guest Amanda Smith has spent more than 20 years working at the intersection of technology, people, and purpose. With a background in Industrial & Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan, she has built her career around helping organizations use technology to create healthier, safer, and more sustainable operations.Over two decades, Amanda has held leadership roles across product, strategy, and customer-focused initiatives, contributing to the evolution of modern EHS and sustainability software. Her work has centered on understanding how people actually use technology, how organizations create value through better decisions, and how connected data and thoughtful design can improve outcomes for workers and communities. Today, as Executive Vice President of Strategy at Cority, she draws on this experience to champion a strategy that stays grounded in what customers need most: solutions that are practical, scalable, and built to create lasting value.

🌐 Cority: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cority/

💼 Amanda: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-smith-432037a/

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Digital twin technology is evolving rapidly, and when combined with artificial intelligence, it is starting to reshape how oil and gas operations are run in real time.

For years, companies have relied on simulation tools to design and test assets, but these tools are slow and limited to planning use. In this episode, we explore how new approaches are closing the gap between simulation and real-world operations, enabling faster and more accurate decisions.

I speak with Greg Fallon, CEO of Geminus AI, about how combining physics-based models with machine learning creates a new decision layer for industrial systems. This allows operators to simulate thousands of scenarios in seconds and improve production without new capital investment.

We also discuss real-world applications in refineries, oilfields, and LNG facilities, where companies are seeing measurable gains in efficiency, output, and reliability. The conversation explores the shift toward autonomous operations, where AI supports or even makes decisions in complex industrial environments.

Looking ahead, this technology opens the door to system-wide optimization, connecting assets across the value chain and helping companies operate closer to their true potential.

#oilandgas #digitaltwin #artificialintelligence

👤 About The Guest

Greg Fallon is the CEO of Geminus AI, a company focused on advancing digital twin technology through the integration of physics-based simulation and artificial intelligence.

Greg is a mechanical engineer by training and spent much of his early career at Ansys, where he worked on advanced simulation technologies for industrial applications. He later led the global manufacturing product portfolio at Autodesk, expanding his experience across multiple industries.

At Geminus, Greg is focused on enabling real-time operational decision-making by embedding AI into simulation models, helping industrial companies improve performance, efficiency, and reliability across complex systems.

💼 Greg on LInkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/greg-fallon/

🌐 Geminus: https://www.geminus.ai

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Global energy markets are under acute pressure as geopolitical disruption tightens supply and drives volatility. Events like the conflict in the Middle East are no longer regional—they ripple through fuel supply chains everywhere. Companies are not short of data. They are overwhelmed by it. Yet despite this abundance, assembling a clear operational picture still takes hours, leaving decision-makers reacting to a fast-moving market with a slow, fragmented view.

The real constraint is not the decision itself—it is the time to assemble data and the even longer delay to execute. Information remains scattered across systems, emails, and legacy processes, often with high latency and inconsistent formats. At the same time, the industry operates as a network of hundreds of micro-markets—each terminal, tank, and junction representing a settlement point with its own dynamics. This fragmentation creates friction across the entire value chain, from inventory visibility to logistics coordination, limiting the ability to act on fleeting opportunities and, in some cases, preventing decisions from being made at all.

In this episode, I speak with Ken Evans of DTN about how companies can compress decision cycles without increasing risk. We explore why data integration and workflow design matter more than raw analytics, how improving connectivity across the value chain can unlock margin, and where AI can play a practical role without taking control of decisions. Ken shares real-world examples of missed opportunities, execution bottlenecks, and emerging solutions that are helping companies move from fragmented, manual processes to faster, more resilient operations.

👤 About The Guest Ken Evans is a senior leader at DTN, a company specializing in data, analytics, and operational platforms for energy and commodity markets. He works closely with fuel suppliers, distributors, and terminal operators across North America to improve decision-making, supply chain visibility, and operational efficiency. Ken brings deep experience in connecting fragmented systems and data sources across the fuel value chain, helping organizations respond more effectively to market volatility and operational complexity.

💼. Ken on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendevans/

🌐 DTN: https://www.dtn.com

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Turnarounds are one of the most critical and expensive activities in oil and gas, yet many are still managed using spreadsheets, manual coordination, and tribal knowledge. Despite years of investment in digital systems, there remains a persistent gap between turnaround planning and execution in the field.

This gap creates real consequences. Turnarounds often run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and delays of even a single day can result in millions in lost production. At the same time, safety compliance is frequently based on self-declared reporting rather than verified outcomes, and frontline workers are expected to operate with tools that were never designed for how turnaround work actually happens.

The question is how to connect turnaround planning directly to execution without adding complexity. Advances in artificial intelligence, mobile technology, and workflow design are enabling organizations to automate large portions of turnaround planning, connect back-office systems with field execution, and validate work using real data captured on site.

In this episode, I speak with Pankaj Pawan, CEO and founder of Maximl, about how his company is reinventing turnarounds with AI. We discuss how to reduce delays, improve safety, and bridge the gap between planning and execution by building systems that actually work for frontline teams.

👤 About the Guest Pankaj Pawan is the CEO and founder of Maximl, a company focused on improving industrial operations through artificial intelligence and workflow optimization. He began his career at Goldman Sachs working in quantitative analysis and computer science before moving into industrial technology. After visiting a refinery early in his career, he identified a major gap between modern digital tools and frontline industrial work, which led him to build solutions that connect turnaround planning with execution in the field.

#turnarounds #oilandgas #AI

⚒ Additional Tools & Resources 📚 My books: https://geoffreycann.com/book/ 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🔗 Connect with Me 📘 Industry Insight series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Audio Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/podcast/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/ 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The global oil market still runs on a horribly fragmented system where physical barrels, paper contracts, and financial settlement operate in parallel but disconnected layers. Transactions are dependent on manual processes, emails, PDFs, and handshake relationships built over decades. For a trillion dollar industry, the core trading infrastructure remains slow, opaque, and largely inaccessible for all but the largest players.

This creates real operational and financial constraints. Settlement delays can stretch to 90 days, tying up working capital and exposing companies to liquidity risk. Market access is hobbled by lengthy know-your-customer processes and high barriers to entry.

Here in the spring of 2026, with the Strait of Hormuz blocked, these inefficiencies add up to systemic challenges that will make eventual recovery much harder than it needs to be.

It's time for a new approach, one that digitizes the physical barrel itself. By tokenizing crude oil into smaller, tradable units, markets can accelerate settlement, improve transparency, and broaden participation. Imagine a token that represents a real, physical quantity of oil, enabling traceability across the supply chain and creating a new layer of market visibility. This also opens the door to fractional ownership and new forms of capital access that were previously unavailable.

In this episode, I am speaking with Baron Lamarre, co-founder of INDEX, the International Digital Exchange, about how tokenization could fundamentally reshape oil trading. We explore the inefficiencies of today's system, the mechanics of turning barrels into digital assets, and why this shift could materially improve cash flow, transparency, and market access across the energy sector.

👤 About The Guest Baron Lamarre is a petroleum economist and energy trading professional with more than 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. He began his career at Petronas, where he worked across operations, logistics, and trading, managing products such as fuel oil, LPG, gasoline, crude oil, and naphtha.

Over a 15-year tenure, he handled large-scale international trading portfolios, selling millions of barrels per month to major global buyers.

Baron is now co-founder of INDEX, the International Digital Exchange, where he is focused on applying tokenization and blockchain technologies to modernize oil trading infrastructure.

🌐 website: https://indexlitro.com

☎️ Contact: emily@energentmedia.net

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio:

https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:

https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs:

https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Large-scale capital projects sit at the heart of the oil and gas industry, and across all infrastructure sectors (power, petrochemicals, rail, water, telecoms). These projects require tight coordination of people, equipment, and timelines, often under pressure to deliver quickly and safely. Despite heavy investment in planning tools and scheduling systems, the day-to-day reality remains fragmented, with teams working across disconnected systems and making decisions in isolation.

The issue is not a shortage of data, but a lack of connected context. Teams make decisions that work locally, but cannot see the ripple effects across the broader project. When disruptions occur, such as missing materials or shifting priorities, organizations fall back on manual replanning, pulling experts together to work through scenarios. The result is familiar: delays, rework, misalignment, and a persistent focus on reacting to problems rather than anticipating them.

A new approach is emerging that focuses on execution intelligence, not just planning. These systems sit across existing tools, capture real-time context, and use AI to recommend next steps while keeping humans in control. Instead of replacing systems like P6, they enhance them, helping teams understand what matters most today and how decisions impact the wider system. This allows experienced staff to apply judgment more effectively, while also enabling less experienced team members to make better decisions faster.

In this episode, I am speaking with Cali Collins, Chief Product Officer at Optimality, about how fragmented decision-making slows down capital projects and why execution—not planning—is where projects succeed or fail. We explore how AI can surface hidden dependencies, improve decision quality, and help teams navigate complex trade-offs in real time.

👤 About The Guest

Cali Collins is the Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Optimality, an AI-native decision infrastructure platform redefining how organizations structure, optimize, and scale decision-making in an era of overwhelming data and competing priorities. She is an experienced product leader with a background spanning AI infrastructure, knowledge systems, estimating, enterprise transformation, and large-scale capital project execution. Cali specializes in translating complex operational challenges into scalable product strategies, bridging business, technical architecture, and real-world execution across both startups and Fortune 50 environments.

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources

🌐 Website: https://optimalitypro.com 💼 LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/optimalitypro/

📧 Email Cali: cali@optimalitypro.com

🎬 Go Backstage

https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓 Take My one day course

https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact Me

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs:

https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

One thing I've learned from producing lots of videos is that you can't really trust with your own eyes what you see presented to you anymore. Green screens, video editing, and AI are so good now, and so inexpensive, that anyone can create compellingvideo content of scenes that didn't happen in real life.

As a result, I'm now very skeptical of claims that companies make that they don't offer to back up. Consider the 'organic' chicken at the butcher shop. How do you really know that the chicken has led an exemplary life free from chemicals, pesticides, and growth hormones?

Carbon emissions fall into this category. Carbon dioxide, the invisible by-product of engine output and cement making, has become the poster child for energy transition. Today, producers and (some) consumers are expected to not only reduce carbon emissions but account for them with surgical precision. Yet we need to face an uncomfortable fact: carbon data lacks credibility.

It's assembled from fragmented systems, manually reported and manipulated, or derived from engineering models. It's no wonder that financial markets are skeptically treating carbon credits with such low valuations. Carbon accounting is a hot mess.

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio:

https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:

https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 📘Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and related topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Industrial operations have spent decades optimizing for safety, reliability, and uptime. Control systems, sensors, and field equipment were designed to be stable and predictable, often isolated from the outside world. Cybersecurity, by contrast, evolved largely in IT environments, on a separate track, with different tools, assumptions, and incentives.

That separation is no longer holding. Operational technology is becoming more connected, more digital, and more automated. Sensors stream data to the cloud, vendors require remote access, and AI-driven tools increasingly influence operational decisions. At the same time, cyber threats are moving faster, targeting physical systems with the potential for real-world safety and production impacts.

One response is data meshing: combining traditional cyber telemetry with operational data such as vibration, maintenance history, and asset performance to create a richer, more reliable picture of what is really happening inside industrial environments. When these signals are viewed together, anomalies surface faster, false positives drop, and attacks become harder to hide.

In this episode, I'm speaking with Ian Bramson, VP of Global Industrial Cybersecurity at Black & Veatch, and Keon McEwen, Head of Solutions Development for Industrial Cybersecurity. We discuss why the old idea of the air gap is fading, how safety and cybersecurity are converging, what data meshing really means in practice, and why points of operational change are the right moment to rethink cyber risk.

👥 About the Guests Ian Bramson is Vice President of Global Industrial Cybersecurity at Black & Veatch. He has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of digital transformation, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure, with prior roles spanning consulting, energy, and operational technology environments. Ian focuses on helping industrial organizations manage cyber risk as systems become more connected and automated.

Keon McEwen is Head of Solutions Development for Industrial Cybersecurity at Black & Veatch. With a background in programming PLCs and operational systems, Keon bridges OT and cyber disciplines, designing practical security solutions that account for how industrial assets actually operate in the field.

🌐 Black and Veatch

🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎬Go backstage and check out my studio

https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓 Take my one-day digital strategy course for oil and gas

https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 📘 Blog: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on digital innovation, cybersecurity, and energy systems.

Book a brief call about your upcoming event here:

👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Oil and gas companies generate enormous volumes of operational, geological, and production data. Despite this abundance, much of that data remains fragmented, inconsistent, and difficult to trust. Teams often spend a significant portion of their time preparing datasets rather than analyzing them. The result is delayed decision-making, inflated costs, and reduced operational agility.

The core complication lies in data quality, data governance, and data readiness. Duplicate records, null values, drift, and structural inconsistencies make it difficult to move quickly from raw data to actionable insight. Asset teams frequently work semi-independently, each rebuilding transformation processes from scratch. Without reliable data foundations, scaling analytics, automation, or advanced modelling becomes difficult and costly.

In this episode, I'm in conversation with Shravan Gunda, CEO of Kaarvi, to discuss how a structured approach to data ingestion, anomaly detection, ETL transformation, and data lineage can reduce time-to-insight from weeks to hours. He outlines how upstream teams can standardize workflows, support governance requirements such as SOC 2, and deploy platforms either on-premises or via SaaS. Clean, trusted data is a prerequisite for accelerating analytics and enabling more advanced digital capabilities.

👤 About the Guest Shravan Gunda is the CEO of Kaarvi, an enterprise data platform focused on data quality, governance, transformation, and observability. He previously worked in senior technology roles supporting national oil companies and has extensive experience managing large-scale industrial datasets across upstream environments.

🌐 Website: Kaarvi.ai

💼 Shravan Gunda on LinkedIn

📊 Download the white paper: Operationalizing Agentic AI Across The Entire Data Life Cycle

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio:

https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:

https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 📘Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and related topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Diesel generators have long been the default answer for powering upstream and midstream oil and gas sites. They are familiar, mobile, and deeply embedded in operating practice. Even in regions with abundant natural gas, operators often rely on fleets of diesel gens to run pumps, wireline units, and auxiliary equipment, treating gas as either waste or something to move to market while importing fuel to keep operations running.

That status quo is becoming harder to defend. Diesel is expensive, noisy, logistically complex, and increasingly misaligned with emissions rules, carbon pricing, and community expectations. Operators face growing pressure to cut operating costs, reduce flaring, and lower emissions, while still maintaining reliability in the field. Yet infrastructure change moves slowly, driven more by habit and organizational friction than by technical limits.

In this episode I'm speaking with Michael Lawson, Vice President of Business Development at Enterprise Group, about using stranded or low-value natural gas to electrify well pads and industrial sites. We discuss replacing dozens of diesel generators with a single gas-turbine microgrid, the economics of site electrification, what kinds of gas streams can be used, and why mindset, not technology, is often the real barrier. It's a practical conversation about cost, reliability, emissions, and why electricity is quietly becoming the enabler of digital innovation in the field.

👤 About the Guest Michael Lawson is Vice President of Business Development at Enterprise Group. Based in Calgary, he has more than two decades of experience across upstream and midstream oil and gas. His current work focuses on site electrification, deploying natural-gas turbines and microgrids to displace diesel power at industrial and energy work sites.

📧 Contact Michael: michael.lawson@enterprisegrp.ca

🌐 https://enterprisegrp.ca

#michaelcjlawson

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio:

https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:

https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 📘Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and related topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Data centers have shifted from supporting enterprise IT to running large parts of the digital economy. They now host AI model training, AI inference, and many critical digital services. As this shift accelerates, data centers are placing greater demands on power systems and operations teams. Managing energy use, uptime, and physical infrastructure has become central to how these facilities operate.

The challenge is that data center growth is moving faster than the tools used to manage it. Many operators still depend on legacy monitoring systems and spreadsheets to understand complex environments. These approaches struggle with rising power density, sustainability targets, and security requirements. At the same time, data sovereignty and grid access are influencing where new infrastructure can be built.

In this episode, I speak with Jad Jebara, CEO and co-founder of Hyperview, about how data center operations are changing. We discuss why cloud-native platforms are replacing legacy tools for managing power, facilities, IT, and OT systems. Jad explains how improved operational visibility supports security, efficiency, and scalability. We also explore what these shifts mean for energy companies and oil and gas producers supplying power to this growing infrastructure.

👤 About the Guest Jad Jebara is the CEO and co-founder of Hyperview, a cloud-native platform designed to manage and optimize critical digital infrastructure. He is a CPA and CMA with a master's degree in professional accounting from the University of Texas at Austin. Jad previously helped scale a global hosting company from $35 million to over $600 million in revenue, overseeing large-scale infrastructure operations across multiple regions.

🌐 https://www.hyperviewhq.com

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jadjebara/

⚒ Additional Tools & Resources 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio:

https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:

https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 🖥 Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and related topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs:

https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Oil and gas operators have always known that surplus equipment is part of doing business. Projects get cancelled. Long-lead items are over-ordered. Assets are parked in yards, warehouses, and sea cans "just in case." Over time, those decisions quietly turn into idle capital sitting on balance sheets, often forgotten until space runs out or write-downs loom.

What's changed is the cost of ignoring it. Tight capital markets, tariffs, long lead times, and supply chain friction make surplus harder to justify. At the same time, operators face pressure to improve capital efficiency, demonstrate sustainability, and recover value from assets that still have useful life. Leaving equipment to rust is no longer neutral. It is a choice with a price tag.

There is, however, a better way. With the right data, photos, documentation, and market reach, surplus assets can be exposed to real demand, often well beyond the local buyer network. Digital marketplaces create price discovery, expand the buyer pool across industries and geographies, and turn forgotten inventory into cash, faster than expected.

In this episode, I'm joined by Xochi Schumann, an account executive in the Energy Division at Liquidity Services. We talk about why surplus builds up, why data really is money, how digital marketplaces like AllSurplus change recovery outcomes, and why many operators are discovering real value hiding in plain sight.

#Surplus #InvestmentRecovery #AssetRecovery #CircularEconomy #OilAndGas #FleetManagement #AssetDisposition

🗣️ About the Guest

Xochi Schumann is an account executive with Liquidity Services, working in the Energy Division. She brings more than 30 years of oil and gas experience, including a decade in operations at a turnkey drilling company, where inventory management was a core responsibility. That background gives her a practical, operator-level view of how surplus builds up and how it can be monetized. Today, she helps energy companies convert surplus equipment into liquidity through AllSurplus' global digital marketplace.

🔗 Connect with Xochi Schumann

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xochis

email: Xochi.Schumann@liquidityservices.com

website: https://liquidityservices.com/energy-surplus-asset-sales

Liquidity Services: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liquidity-services-inc

AllSurplus: https://www.linkedin.com/company/allsurplus

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Upstream oil and gas companies continue to be very reliant on spreadsheets, legacy systems, and manual workflows to manage thousands of wells, compliance filings, and capital decisions. It's labor-intensive, error-prone, and slow. In light of global energy transition moves, operators are now facing ongoing margin pressure, a supply glut, tighter emissions regulations, and a shrinking pool of skilled labor.

Digital solutions to soften the impacts of these pressures too often end up in "pilot hell", with limited results, stalled momentum, and no path to scale. Core systems like SCADA and ERP can't be easily adapted, and the early stage AI tools are often dismissed as too risky, inaccurate, or incompatible with real-world operations. Capital markets frown on any moves that sacrifice short term ROI for the possibility of better results later.

New agentic AI tools look perfectly placed to address these constraints, but getting started is daunting.

In this episode, I speak with AI strategy advisor Jeff McKee who outlines how a handful of upstream operators are now using agentic AI (modular software agents), that augment field teams and automate critical tasks across production, compliance, and finance. Already live across 1,500 wells, these tools have delivered a 3–10% uplift in production, 5–15% profit lift, and >90% reduction in compliance workload. Jeff explains how companies can start small, define just a few key KPIs, and stand up agents in under two months, all without touching core systems. From Sarbanes-Oxley readiness to workover economics, it's a roadmap for scaling AI one agent at a time.

👤 About the Guest Jeff McKee is the founder of Jeff McKee Consulting and an AI strategy advisor to $100M–$1B+ companies. A former Microsoft leader, he created the PIVOT AI™ framework to help executive teams identify high-impact AI use cases and deliver results fast. In oil and gas, he partners with Mango Bites (Pixie AI) to enable production optimization, profitability, and compliance across upstream field operations.

🌐 Website: jeffmckeeconsulting.com

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeff-mckee

📧 Email: jeff@jeffmckeeconsulting.com

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The energy industry is rapidly adopting artificial intelligence. Its promises of improved productivity, safety, and operational insight are too good to ignore. But these tools are only as good as the data that feeds them. And therein lies the problem: data across the sector is often incomplete, inconsistent, and scattered.

This historic lack of discipline around data now has consequences. Poor data quality when used in AI undermines any project leveraging AI, exposing companies to greater audit risk, slowing down decision-making, and derailing expensive digital programs. Worse, AI tools amplify these flaws, making unreliable data more visible than ever. In one instance, a company's emissions breach turned out to be a data error that triggered fines, audits, and reputational damage.

Companies struggle to respond, given the scale of the challenge. Getting control of enterprise data often feels like boiling the ocean, compounded by organizational practices that empower every business unit to do things their own way.

In this week's podcast, I speak with Waseem Sinjakli, who knows this challenge well. As the founder and Managing Director of EPM, a Calgary-based consultancy, he's led enterprise-wide transformation programs that put data governance at the center of AI readiness. In this episode, Waseem shares what good governance really looks like, the cultural barriers companies must overcome, and how to turn data from a liability into a high-value asset.

👤 About the Guest Waseem Sinjakli is the Founder and Managing Director of EPM, a Calgary-based professional services firm focused on complex digital transformations in the energy sector. Building on his lengthy career with leading organizations in professional services, Waseem brings deep expertise in project delivery, change management, and digital enablement. EPM specializes in transformation programs tied to regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, cost optimization, and AI-driven insights.

🔗 LinkedIn: Waseem Sinjakli

🌐 Website: EPM

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Have you ever given thought to the possibility that the suppliers of your core business technology, brands like Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP, might simply turn you off with no warning?

It sounds fanciful, absurd, a black swan event so far beyond any reasonable risk matrix as to be unworthy of consideration.

Yet it happened this year, 2025, to a major oil company in the world's most populous country.

What was once unimaginable is now here, and with it, lessons for every oil and gas organization, indeed every company, about the new risks in the digital landscape.

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Most large enterprises rely on a handful of expansive technology platform solutions to run their business, and the most prominent and widely deployed in oil and gas is SAP. As I've outlined in my books, enterprise solutions such as SAP are also migrating to digital technologies, which triggers a major question: what is the optimal upgrade path for an SAP customer, or any enterprise technology, to adopt?

Broadly speaking, there are two strategies to this vexxing question: a brownfield migration or "lift and shift" and a greenfield re-implementation or "start afresh". The problem is that brownfield upgrades rarely deliver any ROI while greenfield is seen as too risky, costly, or complex to execut, especially at the global scale one encounters among the oil and gas majors.

Is there a third path, where organizations can preserve their historical data, stay compliant, and still deliver tangible business outcomes?

In this episode I speak with Don Mahoney, Global Head of Products and Innovation at SNP Group about a new approach, coined 'bluefield'. Bluefield lets companies dial in just the right amount of transformation, one that preserves key data, avoids excessive risk, and achieves a positive ROI. I'm very interested in how Bluefield works, how it supports AI training strategies, when to use it, and why it's becoming an attractive model for SAP S/4HANA transitions, and indeed all major platform solution transformations.

👤 About the Guest

Don Mahoney is the Global Head of Products and Innovation at SNP Group, where he leads strategy for the company's transformative deployment technologies, including its flagship Bluefield methodology. Don brings over 30 years of experience across process industries, enterprise software, and solution management. He previously held senior roles at SAP, overseeing strategic accounts like ExxonMobil and leading SAP's global chemical industry business unit.

🔗 LinkedIn: Don Mahoney

🌐 Website: SNP Group

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Motors are the quiet workhorses of industry. They drive pumps, fans, compressors, and heaters, and they consume more than sixty percent of the power in most industrial operations. When operators need to control motor speed, they historically relied on mechanical adjustments or trial-and-error testing to keep processes stable and safe.

As motors get larger and drive trains more complex, traditional testing approaches no longer work. Bringing every component together for a full string test adds months of delay and millions of dollars in logistics. The industry is conservative and reference driven, which makes it hard for operators to trust new configurations without seeing them proven first.

This is where simulations shine.

In this episode, I speak with Anand Jha, Vice President of Global Sales for ABB System Drive – Process Industries, about simulation twins that let operators model the entire system before it's built. These "virtual plants" replicate the grid, the drives, the motors, and the compressor.

With software-in-loop and hardware-in-loop tools, operators can validate performance, tune configurations, and eliminate expensive string tests. The result is faster execution, lower cost, deeper system insight, better training, and continuous improvement across the plant lifecycle.

👤 About the Guest Anand Jha is the Vice President of Global Sales for ABB System Drive – Process Industries. With over 20 years of experience in the Oil & Gas and other Process industries, Anand has held various roles from commissioning engineer to sales leader. He is also an accomplished author, having written two books. Anand holds an MBA from the University of Alberta in Canada and a B.Tech in Electronics and Instrumentation.

🌐 ABB Drives | ABB 🔗 Anand Jha on LinkedIn 📧 anand.jha@us.abb.com 🧰 Additional Tools and Resources * Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ * Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me * Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ * Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/ * X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs: https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Canada's energy sector has long struggled with low productivity on the front line, as indeed the entire Canadian economy. Despite heroic efforts by tradespeople, their effectiveness is hamstrung by badly dated processes, old disconnected systems, and paper-based workflows.

The problem isn't the workers. It's that they're too often sent out with the wrong drawings, the wrong tools, the wrong permits, or even to the wrong location. Multiply that by a hundreds of thousands of jobs, and you've got a national productivity drag.

One company, MSCP Heat Management Solutions, set out to build a completely paperless, digitally connected operation, starting at the job site. By linking trades, materials, safety workflows, and quality processes into a seamless digital flow, MSCP has achieved something few believe is possible: cutting required manpower by 40% to 45% on major jobs.

In this episode, I speak with Chris Maki, MSCP's founder and CEO, on lessons he took from Fort McMurray's distant job sites and turned them into a blueprint for frontline innovation, cross-trade productivity, and system-level change. We talk technology, training, and trust, and why it's not about buying a platform, but building a mindset.

👤 About the Guest

Chris Maki is the President and CEO of MSCP Heat Management Solutions, based in Sherwood Park, Alberta. A former frontline tradesman with deep experience in Fort McMurray turnarounds and major projects, Chris launched MSCP in 2011 with a simple belief: there has to be a better way. Today, MSCP operates as a fully digital contractor, combining electrical, insulation, rope access, material handling, and fabrication into a unified and highly productive system of work. Chris is a vocal advocate for trades-focused innovation, continuous improvement, and the future of work in energy.

🔗 Website: http://www.mscpltd.ca/

🛠 Additional Tools & Resources

🎥 Go backstage and check out my studio:

https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

📚 Take my one-day digital strategy training course:

https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🌐 Connect with Me

📝 Blog series: Digital Oil and Gas

🎙 Podcast

🔗 LinkedIn

🐦 X (Twitter)

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Book a call for your upcoming event:

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Oil and gas companies are finally confronting the huge communications and stakeholder challenge they face with their asset owners and stakeholders. Production assets such as oil and gas wells almost always have many part owners (land owners, JV partners, interest-holders, trusts, first nations tribes). Managing these hundreds or thousands of parties across tens of thousands of wells is really demanding. These relationships are complex, sensitive and often layered with legacy ownership structures, royalty flows, regulatory demands and reputational risk.

This is much more than an operational hassle. It's a brand and trust issue. When owners ask: "Where's my check?" or "What's this charge on my statement?", slow responses can damage goodwill, complicate legal compliance and create unnecessary risk. Companies try to manage but have often saddled themselves with dueling systems in the land department, operations, legal, and corporate communications.

I was delighted to learn about Firm App, a clever digital solution to this chaos, that was co-founded by two brothers, Deren Boyd and Dagen Boyd, and partner Josh Wright. Firm App was initially aimed at the legal profession, who also have many parties to manage, but the stakeholder problem in oil and gas turned out to be far more pressing. Their purpose‑built platform delivers better and more responsive owner communications, stakeholder transparency and operational risk reduction. It uses AI to answer many routine enquiries freeing up scarce staff to focus on more important tickets. Owners see their relationship through a portal, and companies even save on paper and postage.

👤 About the Guests Deren Boyd is co‑founder of Firm App, an AI-based owner relations software headquartered in Norman, OK. Before Firm App, Deren served as Senior Vice President of New Markets at KPA, leading growth strategy and expansion into new industries following KPA's acquisition of iScout, an EHS management software he co-founded in 2020.

Earlier in his career, Deren was Vice President of Safety and Compliance for Crescent Companies, an oilfield services firm based in Oklahoma City.

A proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Deren holds a Bachelor's in Health & Sports Science and a Master's in Adult and Higher Education. Before entering the safety and software industries, he spent seven years in intercollegiate athletics at OU as Assistant Athletics Director of Development and Director of Basketball Operations.

Deren lives in Norman OK with his wife, Monica, and their four children.

Dagen Boyd is a co‑founder of Firm App, an AI-based owner relations software headquartered in Norman, OK. Prior to Firm App, he served as Director of Corporate Development for Crescent Services, LLC, an oilfield services company based in Oklahoma City. Applying his knowledge of oilfield operations, Dagen co-founded iScout, an EHS management software that offers safety reporting, training, asset management, and more. iScout was acquired by KPA Services in 2020. Dagen is a proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma and lives in Edmond, OK with his wife and their three children..

🔗 Deren Boyd on LinkedIn
🔗 Dagen Boyd on LinkedIn
🔗 Josh Wright on LinkedIn
🌐 Firm App on the web

🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources * 🎙 Go backstage and check out my studio * 📚 Take my digital strategy training course

🔗 Connect with Me * 🧠 Resources * 📖 Blog series * 🎧 Podcast library * 💼 LinkedIn * 📢 X (formerly Twitter)

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics—if you're looking for a speaker at your next event, contact me here to book a call for your needs.

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Latin America is entering a period of rapid economic growth, urbanization, and industrial expansion. Unlike North America and Europe, where primary energy demand has been flat for more than a decade, the region's energy consumption is rising sharply. A young, increasingly urban population is pushing electricity and fuel demand higher, placing new pressure on infrastructure and supply.

This demand surge is colliding with a second global shift: the explosive rise of AI and hyperscaler data centers. These digital megaprojects require enormous volumes of power, often sourced from natural gas, renewables, or hybrid portfolios. Latin America, with its prolific basins, high solar irradiation, hydropower potential, and significant natural gas reserves, is strategically positioned to supply this emerging demand. Yet the region remains capital constrained, and traditional financing channels have not kept up.

New financial tools, such as tokenized assets, sustainable linked bonds, and AI-enabled verification, offer a path forward. These instruments can reduce sovereign risk premiums, improve transparency, and unlock large-scale investment in energy infrastructure, LNG, renewables, and data center development.

My guest in this episode is Eduardo Rodriguez, founder and CEO of PoseidonX, who last joined the podcast in 2020 to discuss tokenization and information asymmetry in private markets. In this conversation, we explore how the landscape has shifted, why Latin America is becoming a focal point for global capital, and how digital finance can accelerate development across energy, infrastructure, and digital economies.

👤 About the Guest

Eduardo Rodriguez is the Founder and CEO of PoseidonX, an AI-powered platform for tokenizing real-world assets and structuring digital financial instruments for global investors. A former investment advisor with TD and RBC, Eduardo has deep experience in capital markets, natural resources, and emerging market finance. He has advised governments, national oil companies, and private firms on energy reform, capital formation, and sustainable finance.

🌐 Website
📊 Presentation on Tokenized Sustainable Linked Bonds
🔗 Eduardo on LinkedIn
🎤 Previous appearance on this podcast (2020)

🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources * 🎓 Digital Strategy Course for Oil & Gas (Udemy) * 📝 Blog on Substack * 🎧 Podcast Archive

🔗 Connect with Me * 🌐 Website * 💼 LinkedIn * ✖️ X (Twitter)

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and related topics.

📞 Book a discovery call

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Electricity powers nearly everything in oil and gas, from pumps and motors, to compressors and digital systems. But while production engineers obsess over volumes and temperatures, the quality of the electricity driving their systems is often overlooked. Most teams only discover power issues after equipment fails, leading to unplanned downtime and costly repairs.

Unfortunately, traditional power quality meters and relay monitors don't catch the early warning signs. They lack resolution, require manual data pulls, and don't provide actionable insights. Worse still, the frontline technicians tasked with using these tools rarely have time to analyze the data. As the industry electrifies, and hyperscalers start co-locating AI data centers with natural gas fields, the demand for clean, reliable power is rising fast, and the risks of ignoring it are getting more expensive by the day.

In this episode, I speak with Denis Kouroussis why "ghost electrical problems" aren't ghosts at all, but just data you haven't seen yet, and how his background in chip design and solid-state power is shaping the future of uptime. His company, Volta Insite, offers a different path forward. This plug-and-play system captures continuous waveform-level data and sends it to the cloud, where intelligent analytics flag problems before assets fail. It's already saving operators time, money, and headaches by pinpointing power sags, identifying failing contactors, and reducing arc flash risks.

👤 About the Guest With a background in electrical engineering Denis Kouroussis founded Volta Energy in 2009. His passion for technology and cars has led him down a path of working in semiconductors, power electronics and software development with his spare time devoted to rebuilding cars. Denis is focused on leveraging his technical know-how to solve problems and build businesses around those solutions with a firm belief that businesses exist to serve customers and that people within organizations need to be empowered to execute without obstacles in order for an organization to reach its full potential.

#InsiteAI #PredictiveMaintenance #PowerQuality

🔗 LinkedIn – Denis Kouroussis

📧 hbarber@voltainsite.com

🌐 Volta Insite

🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources * 🎓 Digital Strategy Course for Oil & Gas (Udemy) * 📝 Blog on Substack * 🎧 Podcast Archive

🔗 Connect with Me * 🌐 Website * 💼 LinkedIn * ✖️ X (Twitter)

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and related topics.

📞 Book a discovery call

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

In all my years of experience in energy, I rarely worked in pure regulatory areas, but regulations loomed large over everything I touched. The energy sector is very highly regulated, and for very good reasons. From environmental standards to carbon pricing, energy companies are held to a high standard and must demonstrate that compliance to operate locally, regionally, and globally.

The regulatory landscape is highly dynamic and under constant change. New regulatory frameworks emerging from Europe and the United States will reshape how energy companies, particularly in North America, do business domestically, and abroad.

Three new frameworks—the European Union's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), as well as the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—will impact North American energy companies that export to Europe.

If you're an energy executive working in exportable energy, such as LNG, oil, methanol, hydrogen, or refined petroleum, you might find this post of interest. These regulations will affect operations, compliance strategy, and ultimately, financial results.

Fortunately, there are digital solutions at the ready that meet both today's regulatory demands while future-proofing your business for tomorrow's more stringent requirements.

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

🗣️ Download the Transcript!

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? You can download the transcript for this podcast here: 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/navigating-the-maze-of-global-energy

In the UK oil and gas sector, the record on major accidents looks encouraging. Serious incidents are very rare, and the industry appears to be operating safely.

Beneath the surface, the data tell a different story. One-third of safety inspections fall below the legal standard, and more than half of process-safety professionals are expected to retire within the next decade. At the same time, ageing assets, shrinking budgets, and weaker regulatory oversight are straining existing safety systems.

Operators must sustain high safety performance when experience is walking out the door, equipment is ageing, and new technologies are flooding the scene faster than they can be tested.

In this episode I speak with David Jamieson of Salus Technical, on making process safety straightforward. We explore why process safety remains an invisible threat, how AI can capture the wisdom of the best engineers, and what it takes to keep legacy assets safe as they wind down.

👤 About the Guest

David Jamieson is the Founder and Managing Director of Salus Technical, an Aberdeen-based company combining engineering expertise and software innovation to improve process-safety performance in high-hazard industries.

After beginning his career in aerodynamics with the Red Bull Racing Formula One team, David moved into fire and explosion modelling, then spent a decade in the UK offshore sector before launching Salus Technical in 2019.

🔗 Website: https://salus-technical.com

🔗 LinkedIn: David Jamieson

🔗 LinkedIn: Salus Technical

🧰 Additional Tools & Resources

🎥 Go backstage and check out my studio:

https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓 Take my one-day Digital Strategy for Oil and Gas course:

https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🌐 Connect with Me

📚 Blog Series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 X (Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I speak regularly on these and other topics.

Book a brief call about your upcoming event needs:

👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Unconventional oil and gas is massive. Every year, over $100 billion is poured into steel, sand, and water just in Canada and the US. Yet, most of the planning behind these extraordinary investments still runs on Excel spreadsheets. Spreadsheets were fine in the 90s, but today they struggle to handle the complex interdependencies and real-world constraints of modern tight plays.

The hidden cost to the industry is huge. Expensive inefficiencies, wasted capital, and missed opportunities to improve well design and execution. Other industries abandoned spreadsheets long ago when margins got thin, but oil and gas clings to them, and keeps burning the billions.

My guest in this episode is Sean Hervo, a former Shell upstream engineer, who saw firsthand how spreadsheets literally strangle unconventional well planning. He co-founded PrePad, an innovative digital solution, that replaces bulkly and clunky spreadsheets with digital simulation and optimization tools, giving operators the ability to make faster, smarter, more profitable decisions. Sean explains how the industry can finally ditch the spreadsheets and run well delivery like the modern manufacturing system it has become.

👤 About the Guest

Sean Hervo is the CEO and co-founder of PrePad, a Calgary-based technology company that helps oil and gas operators optimize well planning and completions. Before starting PrePad, Sean spent more than a decade at Shell in drilling, completions, capital planning, and supply chain leadership, giving him deep insight into the challenges of unconventional resource development.

Connect with Sean on LinkedIn: Sean Hervo

Learn more about PrePad: https://www.prepad.io

🔗 Additional Tools & Resources

Go backstage and check out my studio
Take my one-day digital strategy training course

🤝 Connect with Me

Resources
Blog
Podcast
LinkedIn
X

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Oil and gas operations rely on heavy machinery and equipment that perform critical tasks, yet most of this equipment remains disconnected from the digital landscape of cloud computing, analytics, and autonomy. This lack of connectivity leaves operators with higher costs, inefficient maintenance, and limited visibility into how their assets are really performing.

The traditional approach to equipment design is no longer enough. Operators face pressure to improve efficiency, reduce emissions, and cut costs, but without better data and smarter tools, these goals remain out of reach. The industry cannot afford to keep treating its infrastructure as "dumb metal."

You might think that only big equipment suppliers can make smart metal, but IJACK, a Canadian equipment manufacturer, is proving otherwise. By embedding remote monitoring, cloud connectivity, and AI-driven analytics into its products, the company enables operators to troubleshoot issues without rolling a truck, optimize performance across entire fleets, and gain valuable insight from real-time data.

In this episode, I speak with Dan McCarthy, President of IJACK, about how his team transformed compressors and pumps into intelligent assets, why the industry needs to embrace innovation, and how a small-town company from Saskatchewan is now serving customers around the world.

👤 About the Guest

Dan McCarthy is the President of IJACK Technologies, an oil field equipment company based in Saskatchewan, Canada. With a background in mechanical engineering and a passion for designing practical solutions, Dan has led IJACK in creating scalable, digitally enabled equipment that helps oil and gas operators improve production and reduce costs. IJACK's innovations, including its RCOM remote monitoring platform, are now deployed globally in markets such as Argentina, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, and the United States.

Learn more about IJACK:

🌐 IJACKWebsite

🔗 Dan McCarthy on LinkedIn

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources

🎧 Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

📘 Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: Udemy Course

🔗 Connect with Me

📚 Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎙 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs: https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Scheduling in oil and gas has long been a weak link. Wells, rigs, frack crews, contractors, and regulators must all line up in precise sequence, but too often the “system” is stitched together with Excel spreadsheets, siloed tools, and a lot of human memory. The result is inefficiencies, costly delays, and endless arguments in daily meetings.

That model is no longer good enough. The complexity of modern operations, coupled with volatile markets and new constraints (from labor shortages to tariffs to water management) is making traditional scheduling tools obsolete. Operators that rely on outdated approaches risk losing millions in wasted time and missed opportunities.

Spying this problem years ago, Actenum, an AI-enabled scheduling platform that treats scheduling not as a collection of dates, but as a living model of operations, set out to correct this problem. The tool captures constraints, integrates with systems of record, forecasts production, and enables scenario planning, in real time. Companies report faster well delivery, reduced conflicts, smarter forecasting, and millions in direct savings.

In this episode, I speak with Owen Plowman, Vice President of Business Development at Actenum, about how smarter scheduling is reshaping oil and gas. We cover real-world client stories, cultural shifts inside organizations, and how AI is opening new optimization opportuntities in planning, turnarounds, and offshore logistics.

👤 About the Guest

Owen Plowman is Vice President of Business Development at Actenum, a software company specializing in AI-enabled scheduling solutions for the energy sector. With a background in computer science, Owen began his career in the defense sector, later joining Oracle during its rapid global expansion. Since 2006, he has focused on applying advanced scheduling technology to oil and gas, helping clients worldwide optimize drilling programs, turnarounds, and offshore operations.

👉 Connect with Owen and Actenum

Request a Demo
Watch Actenum DSO in Action
Download a Brochure

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources

🎙 Go backstage and check out my studio: geoffreycann.com/mystudio
📘 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: Udemy Course

🔗 Connect with Me

Resources: geoffreycann.com/resources
Blog series: digitaloilgas.substack.com
Podcast: geoffreycann.com/broadcast
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy
X: x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here:

geoffreycann.com/contact

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The oil and gas industry generates extraordinary amounts of data from millions of sensors, yet only a tiny fraction, at most 8%, is actually used to inform decisions on complex and valuable assets. Decades of building analytics and machine learning solutions have helped, but they’ve also left companies with a patchwork of siloed systems and “industrial gridlock.”

The arrival of foundation models in late 2022 introduced the possibility of moving beyond one-off solutions. But generic internet-trained models are not suitable for high-risk industrial environments, where accuracy, context, and explainability are essential. The sector needs something different.

Applied Computing is tackling this challenge head-on by creating a foundation model designed specifically for energy. Built to handle time-series data, diagrams, operator logs, and unstructured engineering information, their model emphasizes contextual understanding, explainability, and zero hallucinations.

My guest this week, Dan Jeavons, is President of Applied Computing and former VP of Computational Science and Digital Innovation at Shell. Dan shares his career journey, why foundation models represent a turning point for the industry, and how energy can finally begin to unlock the 92% of data it currently leaves on the table.

👤 About the Guest

Dan Jeavons is President of Applied Computing, a technology company developing foundation models tailored for the energy sector. At Shell, he led global AI initiatives and oversaw advanced research into digital technologies. With over 20 years of experience in consulting and energy, Dan has been at the forefront of applying data and AI to improve business processes, optimize operations, and explore new business models.

LinkedIn: Dan Jeavons

Applied Computing

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources

🎙️ Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/
🛠️ Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: Udemy Course

🔗 Connect with Me

Resources
Digital Oil and Gas Blog
Podcast
LinkedIn
X / Twitter

📢 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Water is the unsung workhorse of the oil and gas industry. It's instrumental for generating steam, driving b, lubricating drill bits, flooding reservoirs, and separating oil from oil sands. Historically it’s been cheap, plentiful, and overlooked. As climate pressures mount and scarcity becomes real, water is now emerging as one of the industry’s most critical resources.

Water isn’t just another utility, like power. It's a highly interconnected system. A quick fix in one unit can cause downstream failures, regulatory breaches, or environmental harm. Unlike power, water can be reused. Companies are now wise to the fact that traditional, siloed approaches to water management no longer work.

One solution lies in building holistic, site-wide digital twins of water systems. These models bring together flows, chemistry, capacity, compliance, and infrastructure data into one view, enabling operators to troubleshoot more effectively, run “what if” scenarios, and align operations with ESG commitments.

In this episode, I speak with Gil Maron, a project engineer with FTD Solutions, about his journey from refinery process engineer to water management specialist, why water is local and unique to every site, and how digital twins are helping oil and gas companies cut costs, meet sustainability goals, and avoid costly mistakes.

👤 About the Guest Gil Maron is a Project Engineer at FTD Solutions, where he focuses on industrial water management, treatment, and analytics. With a background in refinery operations and pharmaceuticals, Gil brings deep expertise in troubleshooting complex process systems. At FTD, he works with oil and gas, semiconductors, and other industries to help clients adopt holistic, data-driven approaches to water use and sustainability.

🔗 Connect with Gil on LinkedIn

🔗 Learn more at FTD Solutions

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources * 🎙 Go backstage and check out my podcast studio * 📘 Take my one day digital strategy training course * 📰 Read my weekly Digital Oil and Gas blog

🔗 Connect with Me 🌐 Website

🎧 Podcast

💼 LinkedIn

🐦 X (Twitter)

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on topics like digital innovation, sustainability, and the energy transition. Book a call to discuss your upcoming event.

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The industrial sector faces a growing challenge: how to train a rapidly evolving, inexperienced workforce to safely and effectively operate aging and complex infrastructure. Traditional training tools like PowerPoint presentations and passive classroom learning no longer cut it, especially in high-risk environments like oil refineries and offshore rigs.

Enter immersive training platforms—tools that provide guided, interactive learning experiences in virtual environments. These platforms bridge the comprehension gap by enabling engineers to interact with equipment and scenarios in a simulated setting before ever stepping on site. The benefits are substantial: improved cognition, faster onboarding, safer operations, and better cross-functional awareness.

In this episode, I speak with Matt Trubow, Commercial Director of Hidden Creative, where we discuss how their browser-based immersive platform “Simmerse” is transforming how engineering-heavy industries onboard and train personnel. From AI-driven hazard detection to gamified safety walkthroughs, Matt illustrates why immersive tech is not just a nice-to-have but a must-have for the future of industrial training.

👤 About the Guest Matt Trubow is the Commercial Director and co-owner of Hidden Creative, a UK-based company specializing in immersive training technologies for the engineering sector. With a background in military systems, computer engineering, and complex simulations, Matt brings a practical and deeply technical perspective to digital transformation in industry. Learn more at www.hiddenltd.com or connect with Matt on LinkedIn.

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources * 🎙 Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ * 📘 Take my one-day digital strategy training course: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🤝 Connect with Me * 📚 Blog Series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ * 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ * 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/ * 🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and related topics. Click here to book a briefing call.

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

In energy and manufacturing, vast volumes of unstructured data (think OEM manuals, maintenance logs, shift notes, correspondence, procedures), sit largely untapped. For decades, experienced technicians have compensated by carrying critical knowledge in their heads. But with retirements accelerating and fewer seasoned workers on the front line, this model is breaking down.

New large language learning models that underpin technologies such as Grok and ChatGPT are being trained on this unstructured content to create context-relevant, queryable databases for industry. This technology, referred to as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), could help unlock hidden knowledge across sprawling document sets.

Early attempts at RAG have certainly improved search, a task that consumes hours of scarce engineering time. However, companies quickly learned that speed and accuracy fall apart at scale, context matters, and lack of trust in the output leaves users frustrated and skeptical.

The real opportunity lies in pairing RAG with agent-based AI systems designed for complex, asset-intensive environments. By reducing mean time to repair (MTTR), cutting rework, and extending the interval between failures, these solutions directly recover lost production capacity, which is an eight or nine-figure problem in many enterprises. For younger, less experienced workforces, AI tools are a critical equalizer, levelling the field against looming labor shortages.

In this episode, I speak with Mark Fosdike, CEO and co-founder of Datch, about how his company is pioneering AI-driven diagnostic agents for manufacturing and industrial clients. We explore the realities of implementing RAG in high-stakes industries, the economic drivers behind adoption, and why obsessing about customers’ problems is the key to success.

👤 About the Guest Mark Fosdike is the CEO and co-founder of Datch, an AI company building agent-based diagnostic solutions for asset-intensive industries. With a background in aerospace engineering, shipbuilding, and manufacturing systems, Mark has spent his career navigating the complexities of the industrial value chain. His vision for Datch was born from frustration with traditional maintenance practices and a desire to put AI to work solving real-world challenges on the plant floor.

LinkedIn Profile
Company Website

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources * 🎙️ Go backstage and check out my studio: geoffreycann.com/mystudio * 📘 Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: Digital Strategy Training

🔗 Connect with Me * 📚 Blog series: digitaloilgas.substack.com * 🎧 Podcast: geoffreycann.com/broadcast * 💼 LinkedIn: Geoffrey Cann * 🐦 X: @geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Get in touch here.

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Why is a pug named Phoebe likely more qualified than your frontline crew?

In the oil and gas industry, online training and certification have become the norm. Let's agree it's convenient, cost-effective, and scalable. But what if the people taking that training are subverting the training using AI, or aren’t people at all?

Digital tools, especially generative AI, are now being misused to automate training completion, which undermines the entire compliance system. The same platforms designed to protect workers, assure reliability, comply with regulations, and safeguard the environment may be certifying untrained staff, putting lives at risk and exposing companies to severe legal and financial consequences.

In this episode, Rob Day joins me on the podcast to discuss this hidden crisis. Rob is Managing Director at Cognisense, and a dedicated expert in risk mitigation. From court cases involving industrial explosions to training a pug to complete OSHA 10, Rob shares shocking and true stories from the frontlines of digital risk. He also outlines what companies can do right now to reclaim control over their training systems, ensure legal compliance, and reduce exposure. All managers and supervisors on the front line of industrial work need to be aware of the risks they face.

#RiskWashing #OHS #SafetyTraining #TrainingthatMatters #AI #WorkplaceSafety #RiskManagement #OilAndGas

👤 About the Guest Rob Day is Managing Director of Cognisense, a firm focused on risk mitigation and training validation for industrial operations. His background spans military firefighting, hazardous materials response, legal consulting, and refinery operations. Rob has advised on major incident investigations and regulatory risk across the energy sector. He’s now leading efforts to counter AI-enabled “risk washing” and bring integrity back to digital training systems.

🔗 Connect with Rob on LinkedIn

🌐 Connect with Cognisense

🧰 Additional Tools & Resources * 📄 All about risk-washing by Rob Day * 🎥 Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ * 📘 Take my one-day digital strategy course for oil and gas: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me * ✍ Blog: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ * 🎙 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ * 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/ * 🐦 X (Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The oil and gas industry has invested heavily in new digital technologies, but too many efforts fall short in value delivery. However compelling digital initiatives may seem, they will assuredly flounder if workers are unable or unwilling to adopt them. The challenge lies in the way asset centric organizations tend to approach change. Leaders often seek rapid results that will contribute to current earnings, while frontline teams struggle with clunky processes and data silos ill-suited for AI, analytics, robotics, connected workers, and many other innovations. Rolling out new tools at scale without winning hearts and minds often leads to resistance, “pilot project hell,” and failed implementations. So how can energy companies unlock real value from digital transformation? What are the overlooked success factors that determine whether AI and digital deployments thrive or falter? In this episode, I’m joined by David Moore, a digital advisor and AI delivery lead, who reflects on the five critical lessons he wishes he had known earlier in his career. From the power of storytelling, to focusing on people before technology, to the need to start small and scale, to leveraging vendors as partners, and finally the hard truth that data is the real currency, David shares practical insights drawn from frontline experience. ⸻ 👤 About the Guest David Moore is a well engineer by background with a PhD in mechanical engineering and now a digital advisor and AI leader. Over the past nine years, he has worked on digital transformation across upstream oil and gas, leading projects from Microsoft Teams deployments to AI-driven planning and real-time operations. David brings a unique perspective from seeing the industry’s challenges from both the operator and service company side, with deep experience in building adoption, scaling pilots and designing data foundations all on a global scale. 🌐 Website: www.davidjmoore.com 🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎙️ Go backstage and check out my studio:

https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

📘 Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:

https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 📚 Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs:

👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The energy industry is having a moment. As assets become digitized, operations increasingly automated, molecules displaced for electrons, and capital more discerning, the biggest challenge is now people, instead of engineering. Specifically, where will the next generation of digitally fluent energy professionals come from? At the same time, academic institutions, whose mission is to deliver qualified talent, are under grave financial pressure. International student revenue is collapsing, and many programs are out of step with the real-world digital needs of industry. Meanwhile, the workforce is retiring, and young professionals are turning away from careers in oil and gas. In this episode, Doug Cronk, an investment committee advisor, and former Academic Chair of Financial Services and Fintech at SAIT, sets out how the energy sector can seize this moment. By repackaging existing academic offerings, combining them with data analytics, AI, and energy domain knowledge, and co-creating programs that reflect the needs of a digital energy economy, the energy sector can secure its future talent needs. Doug argues that industry must lead, by articulating exactly what skills are needed, and why energy companies should present themselves as data-driven innovation platforms, not just extractive enterprises. This episode offers a clear-eyed assessment of the education-industry disconnect, the talent crisis looming over the sector, and the strategic opportunity to build the next generation of digital energy leaders. 👤 About the Guest Doug Cronk is an experienced board member, investment committee advisor, and former Academic Chair of Financial Services and Fintech at SAIT. His career spans banking, pension fund management, and education, with a specialty in helping institutions adapt to technological and demographic disruption. Today, he sits on multiple boards where he evaluates long-term investment strategies and talent risk in capital-intensive sectors, including energy. 🔗 Doug Cronk on LinkedIn 🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎙️ Go backstage and check out my studio:

https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

📘 Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:

https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me 📚 Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs:

👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Heavy industry runs on complex systems and distributed assets, but frontline workers are often still armed with paper manuals and radios. It works, but yields an unacceptably high level of inconsistencies, safety incidents, and productivity bottlenecks. And as experienced workers retire, critical knowledge about systems, assets, and good practice disappears.

The shift to digital work execution is now both viable and urgent. Smartphones are everywhere. AI is mainstream. And yet many organizations still struggle to digitize even basic workflows.

In this episode, Liam Scanlan, co-founder and managing director of HINDSITE, reveals how his technology is addressing this challenge head-on. HINDSITE equips frontline workers with just-in-time digital instructions, visual training, and live process documentation. Companies that leverage this technology report fewer errors, faster onboarding, improved safety, and lower costs. Whether it’s inline inspections, sensor maintenance, or tire bay procedures, HINDSITE brings consistency and governance to the last mile of industrial work.

👤 About the Guest:

Liam Scanlan is the co-founder and managing director of HINDSITE, a field operations platform built to support complex, safety-critical tasks in heavy industry.

Liam has worked in digital transformation projects around the world with BHP. He has worked across the Energy sector in work management solutions for over a decade and set out to solve the particular challenges of Industry around Work Management and Service Delivery.

He has degrees in Mining Engineering, Law, Finance and Economics.

✉️ liam@hindsiteind.com

🌐 www.hindsiteind.com

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎥 Go backstage at my studio
📘 Digital Strategy Training

🔗 Connect with Me:

Resources
Blog
Podcast
LinkedIn
X (Twitter)

☎️ Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

Book a Call

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The traditional model of hydrocarbon exploration has transitioned in much of North America, replaced by exploitation of known shale and tight resources. For shale players, exploration is seen as more risky, expensive, and slow than pursuing resource play.

Classic geochemical methods, reliant on sample collection and lab analysis, can’t keep up with the need for real-time decision-making. Helium—a light, inert, and upwardly mobile gas—offers potential as an indicator of subsurface resources, but its volatile nature makes it difficult to measure accurately and reliably using conventional approaches.

Helium, when measured digitally and interpreted with AI, can provide a new high quality and reliable signal for the presence of valuable subsurface resources, reducing costs, time, and risk.

In this episode, Denis Krysanov, founder of Heologic, explains how helium-based digital exploration can help identify oil, gas, lithium, geothermal energy, and even natural hydrogen deposits. By capturing helium anomalies in real-time, and layering them with AI and geoscience data, Heologic creates a digital twin of subsurface conditions. With field-proven success from Argentina to Malaysia, this technique has already delivered remarkable predictive power, improving hit rates and opening new plays.

👤 About the Guest Denis Krysanov is the founder and CEO of Heologic, a geoscience innovation company pioneering helium-based exploration. With over two decades of experience at the intersection of automation, robotics, and energy systems, Denis combines technical depth with entrepreneurial leadership. His career began in offshore oil and gas technology in Finland, and has since expanded globally with breakthrough applications in digital geochemistry, particularly in helium sensing and AI integration. Heologic now operates across multiple continents and energy sectors, working with companies such as Petronas and YPF.

🧰 Additional Tools & Resources * 🛠 Visit My Studio * 🎓 One-Day Digital Strategy Course for Oil and Gas

🔗 Connect with Me * 📚 Resources * 📰 Substack Newsletter * 🎧 Podcast Archive * 💼 LinkedIn * 🐦 X / Twitter

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and related topics. Contact me to book a call about your next event.

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

In the world of oil and gas operations, edge devices are mission-critical. These compact, intelligent sensors operate in the most extreme of environments, such as remote drill sites, deep wells, and hostile landscapes, where they continuously collect operational data. Best in class operators don't just throw digital at the field. They prioritize efficiency, reliability, and integrity at the edge, where human oversight is limited, infrequent, and mostly absent.

But the drive to digitize oilfield infrastructure raises major challenges: reliable power, cyber threats, temperature extremes, and real-time decision-making without cloud access. David Smith, VP of Innovation at Black Pearl Technology, shares how his team builds micro-powered, field-tough sensors that handle pre-processing on-site, sip power in microamps, and run mission-critical code on the edge to avoid failures.

MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) is enabling a new era of industrial sensing, complete with cyber-safe hardware that controls every component. Innovation must always serve a real-world problem—not just be a shiny gadget. From strain gauges to AI-at-the-edge, David offers an inside look into the future of smarter, safer, and smaller industrial tech.

👤 About the Guest: David Smith is Vice President of Innovation and co-founder at Black Pearl Technology, where he leads the development of ruggedized, ultra-efficient sensing devices for industrial and energy sectors. With a background spanning biomedical, aerospace, and energy tech, David brings decades of experience in building purpose-driven edge innovations that survive the toughest conditions on earth.

💼 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/techpirate/

🔗 Black Pearl Technology Website

🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources: * 🎛️ Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio * 🧠 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas

🤝 Connect with Me: * 🧾 Resources: https://geoffreycann.com/resources * 📚 Blog: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com * 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast * 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy * 🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a call for your upcoming event:

👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact

⚠️ Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The global upstream oil and gas sector is confronting a mounting crisis—access to capital. For over a decade, international producers, especially small- and mid-cap firms, have faced shrinking pools of funding as banks exit the space and public equity markets falter. Traditional sources of capital have dwindled, leaving many promising ventures stranded without the financial fuel they need to grow.

As capital constraints tighten, the sector’s self-depleting business model—where every produced barrel reduces tomorrow’s inventory—becomes unsustainable. The result? A looming risk of supply shortfalls, price shocks, and widening energy inequity, especially in underdeveloped economies. With traditional financing off the table, how can energy producers bridge this capital chasm?

In this episode, I sit down with Richard Naden, a seasoned executive and co-founder of Atlas Energy, to explore a breakthrough model inspired by royalty and streaming structures from mining and North American energy. Richard shares how Atlas provides not only innovative capital but also operational and technical expertise to its partners, creating an aligned and scalable funding approach. With a lean asset-light model, heavy on analytics and trust in data, Atlas aims to build a multi-billion dollar portfolio that could reshape how energy projects are financed around the world.

👤 About the Guest Richard Naden is a senior executive with Atlas Energy Corp., bringing nearly four decades of experience in engineering, operations, acquisitions, and executive leadership roles in the global energy industry. Raised on the gas fields of Alberta and trained as a mechanical engineer, Richard’s international career has spanned the Americas, Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. His latest venture, Atlas Energy, combines his depth of industry knowledge with a passion for innovation and sustainable energy finance.

atlas-corp.ca

rwnaden@gmail.com

🧰 Additional Tools & Resources * 🔗 Visit My Studio * 📘 Digital Strategy Course for Oil and Gas

🔗 Connect with Me * Resources * Digital Oil and Gas Blog * Podcast Archive * LinkedIn * X / Twitter

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these topics. Book a call to discuss your event.

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

In the upstream oil and gas sector, frontline operations have long depended on manual methods for information management, such as clipboards, spreadsheets, and disconnected tools. These outdated processes persist despite mounting pressure to improve efficiency and cut costs.

But with today’s margin compression, regulatory scrutiny, and demographic changes, that operational model is no longer sustainable. Field operators are expected to do more with less, but lack integrated, user-friendly tools that align with their daily work activities.

In this episode, I chat with Philip Richard, CEO of Porosity, about how his company is tackling these very challenges. Leveraging his personal background in production engineering and startup leadership, Philip explains how Porosity is building software designed for the field, not just the back office.

Key moves such as streamlining leak detection, maintenance, and safety workflows through a single, mobile-first platform really help the field directly address its challenges. This episode is all about how oilfield digitization actually happens.

👤About the Guest:

Philip Richard is the CEO of Porosity, a software company focused on improving field operations in oil and gas. With a background in petroleum engineering and leadership roles in methane detection and SaaS startups, Philip brings a rare blend of field experience and entrepreneurial drive. Connect with Philip on LinkedIn.

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎙 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/
📚 Blog Series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/
🎓 Digital Strategy Course: Udemy – Digital Oil and Gas
📷 Backstage Tour: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

Connect with Me:

🔗 LinkedIn
✖ X (Twitter)
💬 Contact

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

“I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.”

👉 Click here to schedule

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Mid-sized oil and gas companies are now at a digital crossroads. While supermajors have pushed forward with large-scale transformation programs, many mid-market firms are only beginning to explore how digital innovation can improve performance. Their operational processes—budgeting, forecasting, asset planning—tend to mirror those of larger firms but constrained by fewer resources and less internal capability. Unfortunately, mid-sized companies cannot simply copy the big-company playbook. They lack dedicated data teams, struggle with legacy systems, and must handle all the integration hassles with bespoke coding. At the same time, they are under the same pressure to lower costs, improve transparency, and make faster, better decisions. Is a pragmatic and impactful digital transformation even possible in this context? Absolutely. In this episode, I speak with Lewis Gillhespy, Executive Advisor at Rockflow, on practical solutions that work with mid-sized firms. By focusing on core business processes—particularly budgeting and production forecasting—smaller firms can drive efficiency through better data quality, increased transparency, and dashboard-driven decision-making. A bonus outcome is that improved data transparency leads to a self-reinforcing data stewardship culture, and why starting with business needs (not technology hype) is the key to lasting change. 👤 About the Guest

Lewis Gillhespy is an Executive Advisor at Rockflow, a UK-based consultancy focused on oil and gas strategy, technical excellence, and expert witness services. A former transformation leader at Suncor, Lewis now advises global mid-sized energy companies across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He brings deep operational experience and a keen understanding of how to turn digital ambition into practical execution.

Connect with Lewis Gillhespy

🔗 Rockflow

🔗 LinkedIn - Lewis Gillhespy

Additional Tools & Resources 🎙 Go backstage: My Podcast Studio

🎓 Take the course: Digital Strategy for Oil and Gas

Connect with Me 🌐 Resources

📝 Substack

🔗 LinkedIn

✖️ X (Twitter)

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Book a brief call about your event.

Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The oil and gas industry is sitting on a ticking environmental and financial liability. Around the world, millions of wells have been drilled to date, many more will be drilled, and all will eventually need to be plugged and abandoned. Today, the US alone has thousands of orphaned and marginal wells, many leaking methane, a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide. With underfunded asset retirement obligations and inconsistent plugging practices of the past, the sector faces mounting pressure to act—but struggles to finance solutions at scale.

There is a potential solution: the voluntary carbon credit market. In this episode, I interview David Stewart, President of Engineering and Environment at Sendero Services, who explains how new carbon methodologies are turning methane leaks into monetizable credits.

By quantifying emissions avoided through proper plugging, validating permanence with reserves analysis, and using blockchain for traceability, these credits offer a science-based, verifiable way to fund environmental remediation.

Methane credits tied to oil and gas wells are not only more reliable than many nature-based offsets, but also ripe for scale. Dave and I discuss the economics, digital technologies, and policy barriers shaping a new frontier in decarbonization finance.

👤 About the Guest David Stewart is President of Engineering and Environment at Sendero Services. He holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Policy and Management and brings over 30 years of experience in the oil and gas industry. His career spans emissions measurement in California to executive roles at Encana, Bonanza Creek, and Crestone, where he led environmental compliance, strategic partnerships, and M&A. At Sendero, David leads efforts to transform the challenge of orphaned wells into an opportunity through the application of voluntary carbon credits.

Connect with Dave Stewart:

🔗 Sendero Services Website

🔗 LinkedIn - Dave Stewart

🛠 Additional Tools & Resources * 🎧 Go backstage and check out my studio: My Studio * 📘 Take my one-day digital strategy training for oil and gas: Digital Strategy Course

🔗 Connect with Me * 🌐 Resources * 📘 Substack Blog * 🎙 Podcast Archive * 💼 LinkedIn * 🐦 X (formerly Twitter)

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and related topics. Contact me here to book a discovery call for your next event.

⚠ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The oil market is once again bracing for change, with OPEC signaling their interest in unlocking supply that has been withheld. For producers, this looming oversupply translates into a fresh imperative: cut costs.

The oil and gas sector, long accustomed to volatility, must now sharpen its cost control strategies in the face of intensifying pressure on margins.

Matthew Hatami, a professional engineer, entrepreneur, and author, joins me on this episode to discuss the tools and tactics operators can use to improve free cash flow. With experience spanning Halliburton, Hess, Chesapeake, and private equity ventures, Matthew shares how data and digital technologies can identify, prevent, and mitigate costly inefficiencies—without big budgets or sweeping tech overhauls.

Drawing from his new book, Shale Oil and Gas Operations: Maximize Cashflow with Cost Reduction, Matthew shares three practical, high-impact digital strategies: build operational algorithms to flag issues before they arise, embed probability-based decision-making into drilling management, and implement daily visual reporting using nothing more than a smartphone. Each tactic is aimed at boosting productivity, engaging teams, and staying competitive in an increasingly lean industry.

👤 About the Guest

Matthew Hatami is an accomplished oil and gas professional with over two decades of experience across engineering, operations, and executive roles. A former Halliburton and Hess engineer, he’s also the author of Oilfield Survival Guide and Shale Oil and Gas Operations: Maximize Cashflow with Cost Reduction. He advocates for data-driven, digital-first thinking to solve industry problems at scale.

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎙 Go backstage and check out my studio

🎓 Take my digital strategy training for oil and gas

🔗 Connect with Me:

📚 Digital Oil and Gas Blog

🎧 Podcast Archive

🔗 LinkedIn

🐦 X (formerly Twitter)

🗣️ Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on digital transformation and innovation in oil and gas. Contact me to book a session for your team or event.

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

For decades, hydraulic fracturing—or fracking—has relied heavily on water and sand to crack underground rock and release oil and gas. Fracking is safe, proven, and reliable, and in collaboration with horizontal drilling, has resulted in the huge growth in hydro carbon production in the US and Canada. But fresh water is a scarce resource particularly in arid settings, and in many places under stress because of climate change. Disposal of used water is a technical challenge and costly. The sand resource, or proppant, is both costly to mine and heavy to ship. The mechanical process of forcing water and sand under pressure down the wells and into the rock generates a substantial carbon footprint. Enter RocketFrac, a Calgary-based innovator using solid rocket fuel to crack the status quo. Unlike conventional fracking, RocketFrac’s technology eliminates the need for water and sand, which dramatically lowers carbon emissions and site disturbance. This self-propping, solid-fuel-based technique also opens up economically stranded assets, including abandoned or underperforming wells, with potential applications in water-stressed regions like California and the Middle East. It’s an innovation that could redefine the economics and environmental impact of oil extraction. In this episode I speak with Pavan Elapavuluri, Chief Technology Officer at RocketFrac, to hear firsthand about the origin of RocketFrac’s solution, the physics behind the technology, its regulatory journey, and the digital tools they’re using to model outcomes and rank well candidates. From carbon offsets to offshore potential, this episode is an explosive look at what could be the next big leap in oilfield operations. And yes, those puns are all intended! ⸻ 👤 About the Guest Pavan Elapavuluri is the Chief Technology Officer at RocketFrac Services Ltd. With a Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Calgary and prior experience at Schlumberger in both Houston and the UK, Pavan brings deep domain expertise to the development of cutting-edge oilfield technology. He leads RocketFrac’s mission to reduce fracking’s environmental footprint using propellant-based fracturing. Originally from India, Pavan is passionate about digital transformation in energy and commercializing sustainable innovations. Connect with Pavan:

🔗 RocketFrac's website

🔗 LinkedIn - Pavan Elapavuluri

Additional Tools & Resources 🎙 Go backstage: My Podcast Studio

🎓 Take the course: Digital Strategy for Oil and Gas

Connect with Me 🌐 Resources

📝 Substack

🔗 LinkedIn

✖️ X (Twitter)

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Book a brief call about your event.

Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Despite covering over 70% of our planet, the oceans and seas remain largely unmapped and poorly understood. Collecting useable data about the oceans is hard and expensive--reliant on specialized costly vessels, old-school technologies, and plenty of labour.

The comparison to land mapping technologies (like Google Earth) is stark--we have near-total visibility of land-based infrastructure, continuously updated, and collected by satellite. Subsea infrastructure, like pipelines and cables, are managed with minimal, outdated, and isolated datasets.

This gap in oceanic intelligence is an increasing problem. We're constantly adding new subsea infrastructure—cables, pipelines, risers, platforms—to support oil and gas, power, telecoms, mining, and military operations. At the same time, owners and operators are sailing blind, relying on static years-old surveys.

And sea floors are pretty dynamic, subject to tides, currents, and human activity. You can really appreciate the mounting financial and operational risks—from infrastructure damage to safety concerns to project delays.

Enter Terradepth, a data-as-a-service company that is bringing Silicon Valley smarts to subsea intelligence. In this episode, I speak with COO Kris Rydberg on how they’re using autonomous vehicles and cloud infrastructure to drastically cut the cost of ocean data acquisition. The best part is how ocean data is now subscription-based, with high reusability across industries. This model reduces capital risk, improves predictive decision-making, and promotes multi-sector collaboration.

👤 About the Guest: Kris Rydberg -- Chief Operating Officer, Terradepth

Kris Rydberg is a seasoned executive with three decades of leadership in tech-driven operational strategy. He’s helped scale startups, transform Fortune 500 divisions, and consult on industrial IoT, edge computing, and platform technologies. Kris brings a rare blend of deep tech fluency and cross-sector business acumen. He holds two U.S. patents and an MBA from Syracuse University.

🔗 Connect with Kris on LinkedIn

🔗 Connect with Terradepth on LinkedIn 📸 Instagram 🐦 X ▶️ YouTube

🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources: * 🎙️ Go backstage and check out my studio * 🎓 Take my digital strategy training course for oil and gas

🤝 Connect with Me: * 📚 Blog series * 🔗 LinkedIn * 📣 X (formerly Twitter)

📢 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Click here to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

⚠️ Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Natural gas producers have long struggled to differentiate their product in a market that treats gas as a commodity. When it comes to carbon intensity (CI), the industry is reliant on emission factors and self-reported data, and lacks a credible, data-driven approach to proving their gas carries a lower CI.

With new regulations like the Inflation Reduction Act’s Waste Emission Charge and Europe’s carbon border tax, the opportunity to produce verifiable low-emission gas has grown dramatically. Enter “empirical gas”—natural gas measured in real time with actual data instead of estimates.

In this episode, I catch up with my buddy Mark Smith, CEO of Clean Connect, about how his company integrates AI, camera-based monitoring, and process simulation software to create real-time, third-party verifiable emissions data. This transformation not only reduces tax burdens but unlocks access to premium markets willing to pay for low-carbon gas. The implications are massive for producers, traders, and tech firms alike.

👤 About the Guest Mark Smith is the CEO of Clean Connect, a technology company based in Colorado. Clean Connect offers AI-powered camera systems, control room software, and blockchain-based trading platforms that enable real-time emissions monitoring, measurement, reporting, and verification. Their technology underpins the emerging market of empirical gas, empowering producers to offer provably low-emission natural gas certified by international standards like ISO 14067 and ISCC+.

Connect with Mark Smith:

🔗 Clean Connect Website

🔗 LinkedIn - Mark Smith

Additional Tools & Resources 🎙 Go backstage: My Podcast Studio

🎓 Take the course: Digital Strategy for Oil and Gas

Connect with Me 🌐 Resources

📝 Substack

🔗 LinkedIn

✖️ X (Twitter)

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Book a brief call about your event.

Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The oil and gas industry has traditionally relied on financial instruments like futures and private equity—frameworks that have largely benefitted institutional investors while leaving little room for broader participation.

But as digital assets continue to reshape capital markets, tokenization presents a new way forward. With blockchain technology and regulatory frameworks maturing, real-world asset-backed tokens are gaining traction - even in sectors once considered too complex for digital finance.

In this episode, I speak with Dave Rademacher, Co-Founder of OilXCoin a security token backed by oil and gas reserves which also provides investors exposure to their “upstream” value chains. Dave explains how OilXCoin is bridging traditional oil and gas with digital asset markets by creating a compliant, growth-focused investment vehicle that opens the sector to new types of investors.

We discuss what sets OilXCoin apart from pure commodity-backed tokens, how it integrates production-based revenues, and why upstream oil and gas is ripe for tokenization.

👤 About the Guest Dave Rademacher is the Co-Founder of OilXCoin, where he leads strategic growth and market expansion efforts. With a global leadership background at BMW Group across EMEA and APAC, Dave brings a strong track record in scaling businesses and navigating complex markets. At OilXCoin, he’s focused on bridging the gap between traditional oil and gas and digital finance by offering compliant, asset-backed investment opportunities through tokenization. His aim is to make the oil and gas industry accessible to both seasoned crypto investors and traditional market participants.

🔗 Connect with Dave 🌐 Website: OilXCoin

🔗 LinkedIn: Dave Rademacher

🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources 📄 Explore Geoffrey’s Substack articles

🎧 Listen to more episodes of Digital Innovations in Oil and Gas

📢 Visit GeoffreyCann.com for insights on digital transformation in oil and gas

🤝 Connect with Me 🔗 LinkedIn: Geoffrey Cann

🐦 X (Twitter): @geoffreycann

📩 Contact me for keynotes and lectures: GeoffreyCann.com/contact

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are those of the guest and host and do not constitute financial or professional advice.

Twenty years ago, Big Oil companies like Shell and Exxon were the stars of the capital markets. Huge revenues, stellar profits, high share prices, robust price/earning ratios and reliable dividends placed these companies among the world’s best, magnets for top engineering talent and voices of influence in the halls of governments globally.

But no more. They lost the market leadership crown to the digital giants, including Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. Oil and gas concerns are still market leaders as measured by revenue, but not by other measures of value. The gap now is so vast it’s hard to imagine how they might ever regain their market positioning.

And now the digital companies are stretching into energy for their data centers, but not yet clean liquid energy, which creates the opportunity.

In this podcast I set out several steps the industry can take to recapture its former glory.

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources

💡 Go backstage and check out my studio:

🔗 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

📚 Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:

🔗 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🤝 Connect with Me

✍️ Blog: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Book a brief call to discuss your upcoming event needs.

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Industrial operations have long depended on the OODA loop—Observe, Orient, Decide, Act—a military-inspired decision framework that works, but at great cost. It requires physical presence, human expertise, and often misses key variables hidden from view. This age-old method is embedded across energy infrastructure—from wells to refineries.

The digital age, however, is transforming our ability to observe. With billions of video-capable devices generating colossal amounts of data, and artificial intelligence now capable of interpreting this data in real time, there’s a game-changing opportunity at hand.

This episode explores the staggering scale and value of video data, and how AI’s emerging ability to interpret video feeds on the fly can augment, and in some cases replace, the human eye in the OODA loop. I outline some of the implications for quality inspections, site assembly checks, and future-proofing industrial operations.

Additional Tools & Resources

💡 Go backstage and check out my studio:

🔗 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

📚 Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:

🔗 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me

✍️ Blog: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎙️ Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

🎤 I speak regularly on these and other topics. Book a brief call to discuss your upcoming event needs.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Read the Article

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? Download it here

Offshore oil and gas operations are among the most complex and remote in the world. From harsh weather to limited physical access, these environments demand reliable, high-speed communications to enable modern digital workflows and keep operations running safely and efficiently.

As offshore operations become more autonomous and data-driven, the traditional telecom models fall short. Legacy systems struggle to meet rising demands for bandwidth, low latency, and mobility—especially when platforms are unmanned or vessels are constantly on the move.

Tampnet is addressing this head-on by delivering a mixed-mode communication strategy that combines subsea fiber, private 5G, and satellite (LEO) into one seamless network. Their infrastructure enables everything from robotic inspections and mobile edge compute to AI-driven automation—critical for modernizing offshore energy.

In this episode, I speak with Frode Støldal, Chief Digital Officer and President of the Americas at Tampnet. We explore how a hybrid telecom model is revolutionizing offshore connectivity, driving operational efficiencies, and accelerating digital transformation. From supporting 450+ global platforms to enabling real-time decision-making at the edge, Frode shares a glimpse of the offshore future—one powered by high-speed, intelligent infrastructure.

👤 About the Guest Frode Støldal is President Americas and Chief Digital Officer at Tampnet, the world’s largest offshore communications network provider. He brings 18+ years of telecom leadership from Telenor and now leads Tampnet’s digital strategy and operations across the Americas. Frode holds an MSc from the Norwegian School of Economics and a Master in Technology Management from MIT/NTNU.

🔗 Tampnet Website

📧 th@capientco.com

🔧 Additional Tools & Resources * ✍ Blog Series * 📘 Digital Strategy Course * 🎥 Behind the Studio

🤝 Connect with Me * 🌐 GeoffreyCann.com * 💼 LinkedIn * 🐦 X / Twitter

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on digital transformation, AI, and innovation in energy. Let’s talk about your next event.

⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Pipes are the silent workhorses of the process industries—hidden in plain sight yet essential for daily operations. But what happens when these unassuming assets begin to fail? A recent catastrophic water main rupture in Calgary serves as a stark reminder that even the most robust infrastructure is vulnerable, especially when degradation hides under insulation.

The challenge of inspecting and maintaining piping is immense. Facilities house millions of miles of pipe, much of it exposed to harsh climates, inaccessible locations, and made from materials with complex corrosion profiles. Layer on insulation, coatings, and the logistics of maintaining uptime, and it’s clear that conventional inspection methods are no longer sufficient.

This episode explores the wide range of failure modes—flaws, fractures, erosion, rust, and more—that threaten pipe integrity. The implications are serious: lost product, compromised safety, and even plant collapse. Fortunately, new technologies—robotics, advanced sensing, and improved diagnostics—are emerging to meet the challenge head-on.

Tune in to hear why the process industry must rethink its approach to managing the hidden menace of corrosion under insulation, and how digital innovation offers a path forward.

Additional Tools & Resources

💡 Go backstage and check out my studio:

🔗 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

📚 Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:

🔗 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me

✍️ Blog: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎙️ Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

🎤 I speak regularly on these and other topics. Book a brief call to discuss your upcoming event needs.

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Read the Article

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? Download it here

AI is transforming oil and gas, but not all AI is created equal. Many companies have wasted millions on failed AI projects, chasing optimization without real breakthroughs. But what if AI could think like a scientist—applying physics and chemistry to accelerate decision-making and innovation?

In this episode, TC Zoboroski, Head of Sales for Energy at NobleAI, explains how their science-based AI is reshaping everything from production forecasting to molecular design. Unlike traditional generative AI, which relies on pattern recognition, NobleAI operates on scientific principles, enabling faster, more accurate results for R&D, product development, and enhanced oil recovery.

TC shares fascinating use cases where AI has cut R&D timelines from decades to months, optimized drilling decisions, and even created new chemical formulations in real-time. We also discuss why AI skepticism is still strong in oil and gas, how to overcome it, and why AI should be seen as a force multiplier, not a job threat.

About the Guest

TC Zoboroski is the Head of Sales for Energy at NobleAI, a company specializing in science-based artificial intelligence for industries like oil & gas, materials science, and biotech. With a background in technology and experience at Halliburton, Dell, AWS, and Exxon, TC brings deep insight into how AI can bridge the gap between traditional energy challenges and cutting-edge digital solutions.

Connect with TC and NobleAI:

🔹 Company Website: NobleAI

🔹 LinkedIn: TC Zoboroski

Additional Tools & Resources:

🚀 Go backstage and check out my studio: My Studio

📖 Read my blog on AI in oil and gas: Digital Oil and Gas

🎙 More podcast episodes: Digital Innovations in Oil and Gas

Connect with Me:

🌎 Website: GeoffreyCann.com

📧 Newsletter: Subscribe Here

💼 LinkedIn: Geoffrey Cann

🐦 Twitter/X: @GeoffreyCann

Contact for Lectures & Keynotes:

I speak regularly on digital innovation, AI, and energy transformation. If you’d like me to speak at your next event, book a call here.

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are for informational and discussion purposes only. They do not constitute professional advice.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different outcome. In oil and gas, we do the same thing over and over, knowing the outcome will vary—but believing we’re optimizing it. With billions at stake, the industry needs better ways to react in real time.

As capital market pressures rise and companies consolidate, optimization is no longer optional—it’s survival. The days of a “sand disposal” mentality in hydraulic fracturing are fading. Operators need data-driven decision-making to improve well performance, cut waste, and reduce risks. Enter ShearFRAC, a company pioneering real-time pressure diagnostics to transform completions.

Andrew McMurray, CEO and co-founder of ShearFRAC, is at the forefront of this change. With a background in mechanical engineering and years in the service sector, he has built a company that challenges industry inertia. ShearFRAC solutions provide immediate insights to operators, allowing them to adapt on the fly—tightening performance curves, cutting costs, and increasing efficiency.

Additional Tools & Resources

🌐 ShearFRAC

📧 Contact Andrew 👉 a.mcmurray@shearfrac.com

💡 Go backstage and check out my studio:

🔗 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

📚 Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:

🔗 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me

✍️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎙 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 X (Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

🎤 I speak regularly on digital innovation topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

🔗 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Energy markets are undergoing a profound transformation. With demand shifting, new energy sources emerging, and digital infrastructure consuming more power than ever, the need for accurate, data-driven decision-making has never been greater. Companies must now navigate uncertainty with smarter forecasting tools, leveraging AI and real-time analytics to stay ahead.

However, traditional forecasting models often fail to capture the full picture. New energy sources like solar and battery storage are disrupting the grid, while AI-driven data centers are reshaping electricity demand. At the same time, tech companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are moving beyond buying power to direct energy investments, influencing market dynamics in unexpected ways. So how do we make sense of this fast-changing landscape?

Joining me today is Jarand Rystad, CEO of Rystad Energy, one of the world’s leading energy research firms. With a background in physics, statistics, and AI-powered analytics, Jarand has spent two decades refining energy forecasting models that are used by executives and policymakers worldwide. In this episode, we explore how AI is transforming energy analysis, the long-term outlook for global power demand, and what the rise of tech-driven energy investments means for traditional players.

About the Guest

Jarand Rystad is the founder and CEO of Rystad Energy, one of the world’s leading energy research firms. A physicist by training, Jarand spent years at McKinsey & Co. before launching Rystad Energy, building it into a global powerhouse of energy analytics.

Additional Tools & Resources

💡 Explore Rystad Energy: rystadenergy.com

📊 Check out their latest reports: Rystad Energy Insights

Connect with Me

🔗 LinkedIn: Geoffrey Cann

📩 Blog: Digital Oil and Gas

🎙 Podcast Archive: Listen to Past Episodes

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I regularly speak on digital transformation, AI, and energy trends. Book a call to discuss your event needs: Contact Me

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Oil and gas workers operate in extreme conditions, such as the Gulf and the Permian Basin, where the intense heat and high humidity create very hazardous conditions. You lose a lot of body moisture just surviving in those settings. Most of us know to take a drink of water when we’re thirsty, but in those places, by the time you’re thirsty, you’re already at risk. Is there a better way to measure dehydration risk before it becomes a safety hazard? In this episode, I sit down with Jim Ryan, Chief Revenue Officer of Epicore Biosystems, to discuss a nifty wearable device that tracks sweat loss, sodium levels, and hydration needs in real time—helping prevent heat-related injuries before they happen. Elite athletes like Lionel Messi and Serena Williams rely on a sweat patch from Epicore to help them complete. This technology caught the attention of Chevron, who saw the potential to protect its industrial athletes (front line workers). It’s been deployed across oil fields, refineries, mining and aviation sectors, changing the way companies monitor worker health and safety. Stuff that I didn’t know: ✔️ Why sweat is as valuable as blood for real-time health tracking ✔️ The hidden dangers of dehydration—and why most workers don’t recognize the symptoms ✔️ How Chevron partnered with Epicore to develop a rugged, industrial-grade wearable ✔️ The privacy-first approach to tracking hydration without monitoring individuals ✔️ What’s next for wearables in industrial safety, from muscle fatigue monitoring to ketone tracking If you’re in HSE, operations, or workforce safety, this episode is a must-listen. About the Guest Jim Ryan is the Chief Revenue Officer at Epicore Biosystems, the company behind this clever health monitoring technology. Jim has an extensive background in telecom, cybersecurity, and digital health, which is very useful indeed in bringing this kind of technology to the industry. Additional Tools & Resources 🔗 Chevron’s research on heat stress monitoring (to be presented at CERAWeek—link coming soon!) 🔗 Epicore Biosystems website – Epicore Biosystems 🔗 Gatorade GX Sweat Patch (Epicore’s original sports-focused innovation) – GX Sweat Patch Connect with Me 📖 Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎙 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/ ✖️ X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I regularly speak on digital innovation in energy. Interested in having me at your event? Let’s talk! 📩 Contact me here → https://geoffreycann.com/contact/ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The oil and gas industry has long relied on surface data and the expertise of seasoned operators to manage the complexities of downhole operations. However, as wells become deeper, laterals longer, and conditions more extreme, the human expert can struggle to address the expanded downhole complexity. Consistency, efficiency, and precision have become increasingly difficult to achieve.

This growing complexity presents significant challenges. Operators must interpret inconsistent surface data while contending with extreme pressures, weights, and temperatures. Without real-time visibility into what’s happening at the drill bit, risks like unplanned downtime, tool failures, and inefficiencies sap productivity and inflate costs.

To overcome these issues, the industry is turning to advanced technology, automation, and machine learning to build a more repeatable and predictable model of operation.

In this episode, I speak with Brad Watson, the technology development manager with STEP Energy Services, on how his team is driving innovation with STEP-conneCT, a downhole sensor system integrated with e-coil technology. By providing real-time data on weight, torque, and motor health, STEP-conneCT is helping operators transform coiled tubing operations into a manufacturing-style process.

Brad discusses how this technology is addressing challenges, reducing downtime, and paving the way for automation in oil and gas.

About the Guest:

Brad Watson is the technology development manager with STEP Energy Services, a leading company in the coiled tubing and pressure pumping sector. With a focus on advancing milling technology, Brad has played a key role in deploying STEP-conneCT, a leading-edge tool for real-time data acquisition in extreme downhole conditions. His work illustrates the integration of technology and engineering to address the challenges of modern oil and gas exploration.

You can connect with Brad and learn more about STEP Energy Services via:

🌐 Website: STEP Energy Services

🔗 LinkedIn: Brad Watson

Additional Tools & Resources From Geoffrey 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-... Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: Advocate for Digital Innovation 🤬 X: geoffreycann Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Direct air carbon capture will be required to remove excess CO2 from the atmosphere while we wind down fossil fuel combustion, and a new technology based on graphene and amine coated ceramic pearls or spheres may be the missing link.

The direct air capture methods deployed to date struggle with their enormous scale, their energy intensity, and operating costs. They can require hundreds of dollars per ton of CO2 removed, large land footprints, and available geology to sequester the carbon underground. Economically, they can't pay their own way without permanent subsidies.

Many entrepreneurs are working to solve the problem by working backwards from commercial principles that the technology must be economically sustainable without market support.

In this interview, I speak with Samir Adams, an entrepreneur who has for several years been perfecting a commercially viable approach to direct air carbon capture. By leveraging graphene-coated ceramic pearls, he has developed a low-energy, modular solution capable of capturing and recycling carbon dioxide with market leading efficiency.

Samir walks through how he and his partner conceptualized a graphene-based solution to overcoming challenges in binding CO2. He explains how his technology enables localized CO2 capture, making it practical for industries like enhanced oil recovery, agriculture, and other CO2 buyers. We also discuss the potential of AI integration, the scalability of this technology, and its ability to create new revenue streams from CO2 capture.

About the Guest: Sam is a highly experienced technology executive who has led several start ups from start to finish. 🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/1samadams/

Learn More about CC&C

🌐 Visit Carbon Capture and Commercialization: CCandC.AI

Additional Tools & Resources From Geoffrey 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-... Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: Advocate for Digital Innovation 🤬 X: geoffreycann Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Pipelines are often thought of as simple logistics channels, but in reality, they operate more like sprawling processing plants. This complexity has long been underserved by outdated control systems that lack the sophistication of modern software.

The challenge is clear: legacy systems are hindering efficiency, sustainability, and even talent retention as younger generations expect better tools in the workplace. How do we overcome this inertia?

In this latest episode I catch up with Vicki Knott, Co-Founder and CEO of Crux OCM, whose exciting work is transforming pipeline control rooms with analytics and automation tools designed for the modern era. Vicki shares how her team is delivering measurable gains in throughput, emissions reductions, and energy efficiency—without a single piece of new steel.

We cover some of the biggest questions shaping the future of pipeline control systems:

1️⃣ Why have pipeline control systems been left behind by digital innovation?

2️⃣ How does Crux OCM’s technology deliver real results for operators?

3️⃣ What role does trust in cloud-based systems play in accelerating adoption?

4️⃣ How does Microsoft’s involvement amplify Crux OCM’s vision?

5️⃣ What lessons has Vicki learned about driving transformation in a traditional industry?

Crux OCM recently closed a $17M Series A funding led by Microsoft, who recognizes the importance of the shift to zero-trust, cloud-based control room solutions that are reshaping the energy industry.

About the Guest:

Vicki Knott is the Co-Founder and CEO of Crux OCM, a company dedicated to modernizing pipeline control systems. With a background in chemical engineering and a sharp focus on industry needs, Vicki is driving digital transformation for pipeline operators around the globe. She has led Crux OCM through key milestones, including a $17M Series A investment backed by Microsoft’s M12 Fund.

Contacting the Guest

🌐 Visit Crux OCM: cruxocm.com

Additional Tools & Resources From Geoffrey 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-... Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: Advocate for Digital Innovation 🤬 X: geoffreycann Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

The petrochemical industry has traditionally been slow to adopt new technologies, often hindered by legacy systems, risk-averse cultures, and scattered data. However, as global competition and sustainability pressures mount, companies like Nova Chemicals are turning to digital transformation to drive operational efficiency and sustainability.

Nova Chemicals recognized the untapped potential in its decades of operational data and began its digital journey with a bold vision. By leveraging advanced tools, such as AI-driven predictive maintenance, the company has revolutionized its approach to reliability, maintenance, and operational performance.

NovaChem’s strategy involved carefully piloting digital solutions on redundant equipment to mitigate risks and build confidence, leading to transformative value—four times the initially estimated impact.

In this episode, I speak with Ahmed Musa, Digital Transformation Leader at Nova Chemicals, who shares insights into how the company has structured its digital initiatives through its Digital Factory and corporate priorities. From overcoming challenges with legacy data systems to fostering a culture of innovation through “Nova Nature,” Ahmed reveals the actionable strategies and lessons learned on NovaChem’s digital journey. What impressed me the most was how digital tools not only reduce costs and emissions but also empower employees, enriching their roles with data-driven insights.

About Ahmed Musa

Ahmed Musa is an experienced Digital Transformation Leader with a deep background in chemical engineering. He holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering and has extensive practical experience in reliability, maintenance, and turnaround management. Since joining Nova Chemicals in 2014, Ahmed has been highly involved in the company’s digital transformation initiatives, focusing on leveraging AI, data contextualization, and advanced analytics to enhance plant reliability and operational efficiency.

Contacting the Guest

📎 Ahmed Musa’s LinkedIn: Ahmed Musa’s LinkedIn Profile

🌐 Nova Chemicals Website: https://www.novachem.com

Additional Resources You Might Value

🎥 Explore My Digital Studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

🎓 One-Day Digital Strategy Training: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

📝 Blog Series on Digital Oil and Gas: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com

🎙 Podcast Episodes Archive: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

Connect with Me!

🔗 Connect with Geoffrey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🐦 Follow on X (formerly Twitter): @geoffreycann

🌐 Visit the Website: https://geoffreycann.com/resources/

Book Me!

📣 I speak regularly on topics related to digital transformation in the energy sector. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

📩 Contact Geoffrey

Disclaimer

⚠️ The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The fuel products supply chain is long and complicated, handling the movement of massive volumes of fungible, dangerous, and valuable products in millions of small lots. Despite its criticality, this part of the industry is often overlooked, but can benefit from the modern tools that are finding their way into many industries. I was curious just how deeply our modern digital tools have penetrated the supply chain. There's no one better to discuss this topic than Ken Evans, VP and General Manager of Energy and Refined Fuels at DTN. DTN touches some 85% of the liquid fuel molecules in the US, which affords them a unique perspective on the supply lines.

Ken outlines the current state of digital adoption across North America and globally, touching on gaps in data usage and the challenges of creating unified digital standards. We get into the ongoing reliance on legacy tools like Excel, the growing importance of real-time data sharing, and the opportunities promised by AI. Ken speaks strongly to the importance of robust data governance to enhance supply chain reliability while maintaining compliance with antitrust safeguards.

I was very pleasantly surprised to hear just how important data now is to the fortunes of the supply lines. Data might well be the new oil.

#DTN #OneDTN #oilandgas

About the Guest:

Ken Evans is the Vice President and General Manager of Energy and Refined Fuels at DTN, where he leads efforts to enhance the efficiency of the oil and gas supply chain through innovative digital solutions. With a background in chemical engineering, Ken has held pivotal roles in operations management, corporate strategy, and technology development, including leadership positions at SAP. His extensive experience in automation and data systems has made him a key advocate for the transformative power of digital adoption in energy logistics.

Contact Ken! 🌐 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendevans/

🌐 website: https://www.dtn.com/

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎤 Go backstage and check out my studio

📚 Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas

📰 Blog Series on Digital Oil and Gas

🎧 Podcast Archive

Connect with Me:

💻 Resources

🔗 LinkedIn

🎙 Podcast

🐦 X (formerly Twitter)

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

📞 I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here.

Disclaimer:

⚠️ The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The energy industry faces a dual challenge: addressing the growing skills gap as experienced workers retire, and attracting a tech-savvy younger workforce. Meanwhile, digital transformation is reshaping the landscape, introducing complex tools like AI and automation into traditional workflows.

In this episode, I interview Ron Crabtree, CEO of MetaOps and MetaExperts, about bridging the workforce gap. The interview considers how companies can identify critical skills for the future, implement effective mentorship programs, and create the kinds of roles that attract and retain young talent. We flag the “wisdom gap” caused by retiring baby boomers and consider steps to build a digitally capable workforce.

Ron has worked across a broad range of industries, and brings this experience from a career in lean Six Sigma, digital transformation, and talent solutions. I like this episode because energy leaders are already grappling with workforce sustainability in a competitive and evolving market.

About the Guest

Ron Crabtree is the CEO of MetaOps and MetaExperts, a leader in lean Six Sigma and talent solutions. With over two decades of consulting experience across industries like manufacturing, healthcare, and energy, Ron specializes in digital transformation, workforce optimization, and process improvement. A Master Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, he has authored five books and designed training programs used by leading corporations worldwide. Ron also hosts the MetaPod podcast, tackling business challenges in tangible goods sectors.

✨ Connect with Ron:

🌐 MetaExperts Website: MetaExperts

💼 LinkedIn: Ron Crabtree LinkedIn

Additional Tools & Resources

📖 Blog Series: Geoffrey Cann’s Digital Oil and Gas Insights

📚 Online Training: Digital Strategy Course for Oil and Gas

🎙 Podcast Archive: Digital Innovations in Oil and Gas

Connect with Me

🌐 Website: GeoffreyCann.com

💼 LinkedIn: Geoffrey Cann LinkedIn

🐦 Twitter: @GeoffreyCann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

🎤 I regularly speak on digital transformation, energy workforce challenges, and emerging technology trends. Let’s discuss your next event. Contact Me Here

Disclaimer

❗ The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Safe operations in industries like oil and gas, water utilities, and construction are a non-negotiable priority. However, achieving these high safety standards often creates inefficiencies, as organizations adopt low-error tolerance systems and time-intensive compliance processes. Field teams face growing pressure to balance safety, productivity, and quality, while adapting to emerging challenges like digitization and net-zero goals. As these demands intensify, field operations continue to struggle with outdated approaches. Excessive paperwork, lack of real-time visibility, and disjointed communication between field teams and managers result in unnecessary downtime, missed opportunities, and increased operational costs.

How can industries modernize field operations to meet these high safety and performance standards while driving efficiency?

In this episode, I’m joined by Karl Simons, Chief Futurist at FYLD, to explore how AI-driven solutions are revolutionizing field operations. FYLD’s platform uses visual analytics, natural language processing, and predictive reasoning to digitize fieldwork, automate reporting, and deliver actionable insights.

Some of the questions we discuss include:

• How can industries overcome safety and productivity challenges in field operations?

• What role do AI-powered tools like visual analytics and predictive reasoning play in modernizing operations?

• How does digitization support organizations in achieving net-zero goals?

• What are the key barriers to adopting AI solutions in field operations, and how can they be addressed?

Reference Links For FYLD 🖥️ website: FYLD 📇 Linkedin: Karl Simons 🖥️ LinkedIn: FYLD Additional Tools & Resources From Geoffrey 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-... Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: Advocate for Digital Innovation 🤬 X: geoffreycann Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

The energy sector is undergoing a seismic shift, driven by advancements in geospatial technology and the unrelenting evolution of digital innovation. Traditional geotech methods are giving way to LiDAR, GPS, drone and satellite imagery, and the industry now collects more data than ever before. But how do you make sense of this crazy data-rich landscape while holding to the oil and gas ideals of accuracy, efficiency, and safety?

Adding to this data overload challenge are the siloed information holdings and the need for skilled professionals who can interpret and leverage geospatial insights.

From pipeline monitoring to asset management, the applications of these tools are becoming table stakes, not nice-to-haves. To be competitive, today's energy companies need to rethink how they manage geospatial data, build up predictive analytics, and break through organizational barriers to data sharing.

In this episode, I speak with Lonnie Upton, an account manager at NV5 and a seasoned expert in geospatial data for oil and gas. Lonnie shares his journey from field surveying to becoming a leader in the use of cutting-edge remote sensing technologies. Together, we discuss how geospatial tools are driving efficiency, improving safety, and reshaping operations.

Some of the questions we explore include:

• What problems do technologies like LiDAR and AI-powered tools solve in the energy sector?

• How can organizations overcome challenges of data overload and departmental silos?

• What steps should companies take to ensure data quality and real-time decision-making?

• Why is geospatial data a key driver for the future of energy operations?

If you're unfamiliar with how geotech can make a difference, you'll really appreciate this episode on the potential of geospatial technology and its impact on the future of energy.

#NV5 #geospatial #GIS #digitaloilfield #O&G #oil&gas

Reference Links For NV5 🖥️ website: NV5 📇 Linkedin: Lonnie Upton 🖥️ LinkedIn: NV5 Additional Tools & Resources From Geoffrey 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-... Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: Advocate for Digital Innovation 🤬 X: geoffreycann Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

ETRM #CTRM

One of the last remaining domains of energy yet to fully embrace the cloud is Energy Trading and Risk Management (ETRM). Despite the key role it plays, the broader oil and gas sector (producers, supply houses, traders, agents) cling to old legacy ETRM systems—clunky, costly, and a pain to integrate into complex application portfolios. Trading is a high stakes game with few users, and the risk of modernizing these systems is very worrisome.

However, the energy sector is now overdue to tackle ETRM, driven by rapid changes in commodity markets and global geopolitics. The emergence of new commodities such as renewables and the realignment of supply chains because of sanctions and conflicts, really requires systems that can adapt quickly and efficiently.

Legacy ETRM systems, rigid and isolated, struggle to cope with these new realities. Cloud-based solutions, however, offer the agility to address rapid growth in renewables and the complexity of modern energy trading.

In this episode I speak with Sameer Soleja, the Founder and CEO of Molecule, who set out to disrupt this stagnant landscape. Sameer launched a new ETRM solution that improves the user experience through an emphasis on ease of use, automation, and reliability.

Reference Links For Molecule 🖥️ website: Molecule.IO 📇 Linkedin: Sameer Soleja 🖥️ LinkedIn: Molecule.IO 📧 email: kari@molecule.io Additional Tools & Resources From Geoffrey 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-... Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: / brand-ambassador-digital-for-energy 🤬 X: / geoffreycann Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology) has a critical mission: producing the frontline workers that keep the energy industry running.

But as the sector evolves—shaped by decarbonization, digital technologies, shifting demographics, and immigration rules—so too must the workforce.

According to Dale Hansen, dean of SAIT’s MacPhail School of Energy, the institution’s role is to stay several steps ahead of these trends, making sure graduates are ready to meet the future.

Dale faces an unenviable but exciting challenge: anticipating where the energy market is headed years before it happens.

SAIT works to identify the skills the industry will need, refresh its curriculum, and recruit educators—all while navigating rapid changes.

This isn’t just about tweaking course content; it’s about rethinking what it means to be an energy professional in a world increasingly shaped by new solutions and technologies.

The future energy worker won’t just turn wrenches or operate rigs—they’ll need to innovate, adapt, and problem-solve in ways that the industry has yet to experience.

Dale highlights how SAIT is taking a proactive approach to build this next-gen workforce, seeing that the energy sector has the talent it needs to thrive in a decarbonized, digital-first future.

About Dale

Dale Hansen is the Dean in the MacPhail School of Energy at SAIT, providing strategic leadership for its academic programs that span across the energy industry.

Prior to joining SAIT, Dale spent 25 years in the oil and gas and mineral resource sectors. Through the course of his career in oil and gas, Dale filled a wide variety of leadership roles across many functions, including time spent in field locations such as the Oil Sands near Fort McMurray.

This has provided him with a well-rounded perspective on the industry and an absolute passion for energy in all of its forms.

Dale is an experienced facilitator and speaker who holds a Chartered Professional Accounting (CMA) designation and a Master of Arts degree in Leadership from Royal Roads University.

Reference Links For SAIT 🖥️ website: https://www.sait.ca/sait-schools/macphail-school-of-energy 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dale-l-hansen/ ⌨️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/school/saitca 📧 Dale’s email: dale.hansen@sait.ca 🖥️ Facebook: Facebook.com/SAIT ❌ Twitter: x.com/sait Additional Tools & Resources From Geoffrey 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-... Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy 🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Oil and gas managers often view every decision as high-stakes and irreversible, but in the digital world, not all choices carry that weight.

Jeff Bezos’s concept of “Type One” (irreversible) and “Type Two” (reversible) decisions offers a powerful framework for rethinking decision-making in the energy sector. While some digital investments—like SCADA integrations or major cybersecurity upgrades—are genuine Type One decisions requiring caution, many can be structured to minimize risk.

In this episode, I explore practical approaches like pilots, modular designs, and SaaS solutions that help reframe digital investments as low-risk, high-reward opportunities. By distinguishing between true Type One decisions and those that only seem that way, oil and gas companies can accelerate adoption cycles, manage risk effectively, and unlock value faster.

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/ 🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I regularly speak on these and related topics. Book a brief call to discuss your upcoming event: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Download the Transcript! Want the script for this podcast? Download it here: 👉 https://open.substack.com/pub/digitaloilgas/p/unlocking-digital-doors?r=18ohzb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

With your company being acquired, what happens to the digital innovation you helped pioneer? Sadly, its days may be numbered.

The unfortunate fate of digital innovations in the oil and gas industry following acquisitions is really depressing. Even groundbreaking technologies—despite their proven value—are often tossed to the curb by acquiring companies and their old-guard leaders.

The structural and cultural barriers that stifle innovation in oil and gas can kill off winning ideas without remorse.

That's the story in this episode--the rise and fall of a remarkable digital transformation program that unlocked huge value for a company on the brink, but was left behind after an acquisition by a more traditional player in the industry.

Fortunately, I share the steps digital innovators must take to safeguard their work and survive in an acquisition. Sometimes the upside can be huge.

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/ 🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I regularly speak on these and related topics. Book a brief call to discuss your upcoming event: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Download the Transcript! Want the script for this podcast? Download it here: 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/why-your-digital-oil-and-gas-innovation

Stitching a new energy trading and risk management (ETRM) system into a modern systems environment is a substantial and risky undertaking. ETRM as a business function is notably complicated and the challenges an integrator faces are legion.

Energy trading is perhaps the most complicated of all of the various functional areas one encounters in the oil and gas industry. It is a high risk, high stakes, high cost, highly dynamic, complex function with strong ties into operations and finance, relatively few actual transactions, and carried out by a small number of people who have deep industrial insight. What could go wrong?

The successful integrator will promote an open and collaborative environment for the multiple technology and business teams to address the many integration challenges. While the stakes are high, the benefits of a well-designed and executed integration are well worth the investment.

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Download the Transcript!

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? You can download the transcript for this podcast here: 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/navigating-green-compliance

Are you curious how the European Union’s Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) might impact the global oil and gas industry? It will indirectly, thankfully, but in a specific instance and for a specific fuel type, very directly.

The fuels industry is on a mad rush to decarbonize its fuel products, under pressure from regulators and customers both of whom are seeking fuels that produce far fewer damaging emissions. One way to decarbonize fuels is through the development and adoption of sustainable fuels that are produced by converting biomass (such as corn, sugar cane, soy, rapeseed, straw, wood chips) into ethanol, bio diesel, and sustainable aviation fuel.

Bio fuels, the product of converting biomass to a fuel, is the fuels industry’s answer to the circular economy. Biomass is basically a vector to recycle atmospheric CO2, by first converting C02 into plants (Nature’s contribution), then turning the plants into bio fuel (a humankind speciality), and burning the biofuel as energy, releasing the CO2 back into the atmosphere where it then is converted back into a plant.

Bio fuels, depending on their origins, fall into the category of derivative products for the purposes of the EUDR.

A clever way to track and trace the provenance of a specific fuel product, including one that is blended, traded, and stored, is to accompany the product with a digital passport or record of the life of the bio fuel.

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Download the Transcript!

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? You can download the transcript for this podcast here: 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/navigating-green-compliance

private5G #smartfactory #energy #petrochemicals

Market-leading companies with complex plant operations, such as oil refineries and petrochemical plants, are turning to private 5G network technology to gain an industrial edge.

In the oil refining and petrochemical sectors, inadequate connectivity is a growing challenge that hampers further drives to improve operational efficiency, safety, and communication. Traditional solutions like Wi-Fi just won’t cut it in the uncarpeted world of industry, and wired networks can’t easily meet the needs of a dynamic, mobile workforce. The result is safety risks, frustrated workers, stranded data, and higher cost operations.

In this podcast, Mehmet Yavuz, the founder and CTO of Celona discusses how Private 5G offers a powerful solution, providing robust, reliable wireless coverage tailored to the industrial enterprise, to support the unique demands of large-scale facilities, offering seamless connectivity across refinery and petrochemical plant sites.

Reference Links For Celona 🖥️ website: https://www.celona.io/ 🖥️ TCO Calculator, live product tour, Proof of concept: https://www.celona.io/journey 🖥️ Virtual Refinery Tour, Case Studies: https://www.celona.io/refineries 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehyavuz/ Additional Tools & Resources From Geoffrey 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-... Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: / brand-ambassador-digital-for-energy 🤬 X: / geoffreycann Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Suicide is a significant and overlooked issue in various industries. Among the sectors most affected are construction and trades, installation, maintenance and repairs, and agriculture, particularly for men. These fields face high stress, long hours, and job insecurity, which can contribute to mental health struggles. Within oil and gas, the reliance on construction and skilled trades to build infrastructure links this sector closely with some of the highest suicide rates. Many oil and gas workers hail from farming backgrounds.

In recent years, there has been a noticeable shift in workplace attitudes toward mental health, with younger leaders increasingly recognizing its connection to overall performance and safety. This change has led to a stronger demand for mental health initiatives, particularly in high-risk industries. By building basic suicide prevention skills across these sectors, workplaces can become more prepared and supportive. Offering employees and managers the tools to recognize warning signs and engage in compassionate conversations is a crucial step in addressing mental health challenges and preventing potential crises before they escalate.

My guest, Tara Adams, is a specialist in workplace health and wellness with a focus on the highest-risk industries for suicide. Taking a pragmatic, hands-on approach, Tara provides training and coaching to help businesses create safer workplace environments where suicide prevention is a priority. By making these skills accessible through remote and mobile training, she aims to equip employees with the confidence to support their peers and foster a culture of care and awareness.

Connect with the Guest: 👉 Tara Adams : Tara@abridgeconsulting.ca

👉 Abridge Consulting: Abridgeconsulting.com

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:

👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brand-ambassador-digital-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Successful change management in oil and gas is dependent on having the right mindset about the change.

Many years ago, I was involved in implementing a new computer system for a remote field office. The managers assured us that all they needed to do to guarantee a successful implementation was to order the employees by memo to use the system. Change management? Tick.

We dutifully couriered to the field office a laptop with the system installed, which was returned to us a couple of days later, crushed flat and with freshly laid-down tire marks visible on the cover. So much for management’s efforts to win over hearts and minds.

Change management rarely considers the mindset of those driving change and those expected to embrace change, which inevitably brings conflict to the adoption process. How people show up matters.

In this podcast I interview Jeff Perry, a leadership and career expert who helps individuals, teams, and organizations unlock their potential in all facets of life. Given his background in engineering, business, and leadership, he specializes in working with engineering and technical professionals, but the principles he shares are universal.

He is the author of the bestselling book, "The Intentional Engineer: A Guide to a Purpose-Driven Life and Career for Engineers and Technical Professionals."

Connect with Jeff: 🖥️ Website: https://www.jeff-perry.com 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffcperry/ 📧 Email: jeff@jeff-perry.com

Jeff’s Tools and Resources: 📑 The Intentional Engineer Workbook 📋The Connection Code 📘 The Intentional Engineer 📙The Intentional Career Guide

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185 📙 Bits, Bytes, and Barrels: The Digital Transformation of Oil and Gas: https://geoffreycann.com/book/ 📘 Carbon, Capital, and the Cloud: A Playbook for Digital Oil and Gas: https://geoffreycann.com/book/

Connect with Me: 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

It's never been easy for energy products to demonstrate they are sustainable because such products are not easily traceable through the supply chain. Commodity products such as energy, plastics, carbon, and fuels are fungible, voluminous, and blended with each other. The supply chains are not segregated, leading to possible cross contamination when a sustainable fuel passes through infrastructure that is shared with traditional fossil fuels.

However, regulatory efforts are putting pressure on organizations to address this using new digital solutions, leveraging machine generated data, blockchain trusted ledgers, cloud computing, and analytics.

Concepts like digital passports that accompany physical cargos allow supply chain participants to track the movements of cargos and trace their chain of custody from feedstock to the consumer, and back through the waste stream as they reenter the manufacturing loop.

These ideas do not apply solely to fuels. Minerals such as lithium, which have very high value and are recyclable, are also benefiting from passports that provide assurance that the minerals are responsibly sourced and properly handled.

One of the key technologies that the energy industry uses for this purpose is called Marco, a kind of middleware technology for digital ledgers that provides for easy solution building.

In this interview, I speak with Noslen Suárez, account executive with Finboot, on how Finboot's solutions allow petroleum, petrochemical, and energy companies deliver sustainable products. Noslen has a background in Physics, and holds a PhD in quantum mechanics.

Connect with Noslen:

📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noslensuarezrojas/

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Managers in oil and gas rely on various rules of thumb to accelerate decision making, but at times these biases get in the way of making better decisions. Biases that were at one time helpful are now a kind of risk.

Examples include the emphasis on production above all else, the preference for proven over novel solutions, and the preference for those innovations that originate in the industry.

These lingering biases explain why the fortunes of oil and gas companies now dramatically lag the index leaders whose market values are now in the trillions.

Correcting for these biases is not hard, but it does take concerted effort, particularly using some change management tactics.

When times are stable, biases are perhaps a convenient way to facilitate decisions and gain unanimity at the management table. However, the industry is facing far greater complexity than in the past, and such biases are now a risk to be managed.

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Download the Transcript!

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? You can download the transcript for this podcast here: 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/from-crude-to-computation

Imagine that the year is 2034. How will the world of oil be digitally different from the way things are in 2024?

Some things won't have changed much. Demand will still be strong. We will still be consuming a lot of oil. This is baked in. There is plenty of supply. Costs will have crept up but productivity will more than make up for that. Digital will have utterly transformed how we run the industry thanks to:

the circular economy and full life cycle monitoring of our assets
digital twin solutions for optimizing production and operations
remote control, robots and automation that take out human workers cloud solutions that make everything online all the time
mobile connectivity to all mobile people and gear
voice interfaces whereever possible.

The future is coming quicker than we think. Preparing for it costs no more than running a few trials of a small number of innovations.

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Download the Transcript!

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? You can download the transcript for this podcast here: 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/from-crude-to-computation

Digital entrepreneurs face many worrisome perils, and oil and gas poses its own unique set.

In my view, the single greatest challenge facing technology companies when dealing with oil and gas is the lack of a clear pathway from the outset of the relationship to scaling up or gaining an enterprise commitment to adoption.

The level of fragmentation of decision making inside oil and gas means that a lot of managers get to weigh in on technology that might impact their unit.

But for the technology company, that fragmentation also translates into heroically long decision cycles, long waits between meetings, and time spent unproductively helping decision makers get to a decision.

Slow cash payment cycles hurt the economics. Change management isn't seen as valuable. The industry shies away from any publicity, even the positive kind that helps digital innovators.

It's all about the culture.

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Download the Transcript!

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? You can download the transcript for this podcast here: 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/the-six-key-risks-that-absolutely

A brand new digital bludgeon whose nearly sole purpose is to beat up on the oil and gas industry, is about to be launched. As usual, this is both bad and good news. The global oil and gas industry is the single largest source of avoidable methane emissions, emitting 80 million tons per year through venting, flaring, and unintentional losses (fugitive emissions). These Scope 1 emissions represent the fastest pathway for the gas industry to meet pressing climate targets.

MethaneSat will be able to detect emissions at lower concentrations, from smaller sites, more frequently, and with greater accuracy than previous satellites.

And here’s the kicker. The data collected by MethaneSAT will be made publicly available, unlike many other data from satellite sources. Companies have already developed the algorithms to sift through the petabytes of survey data that such satellites produce (and like many algorithms, some will be in the public domain), so that the analysis will be swiftly available.

What could possibly go wrong?

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Download the Transcript!

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? You can download the transcript for this podcast here: 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/the-latest-digital-bludgeon-with

The upcoming changes to mobility fuels are important enough that Boards should be paying close attention, and challenging management with keeping pace.

For the first time in my life, there are now really big changes coming to the fuel industry. These changes will impact every single participant in the mobility fuel supply chain, from producers to consumers.

The level of investment required in new mobility fuels to meet global demands are creating opportunities for wealth creation that have no parallel in history. Never before has mobility experienced such an upheaval. Fortunes will be made.

Simplistic answers to the challenges of mobility fuel change are simply not good enough. This is a complex hard to solve problem in a huge, highly fragmented market with participants at dramatically different levels of readiness.

If you’re serving on the Board of an energy company, your role is to see that management is taking the transition away from fossil fuels seriously. This podcast highlights the questions you might want to ask at the next quarterly.

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Download the Transcript!

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? You can download the transcript for this podcast here: 👉 https://open.substack.com/pub/digitaloilgas/p/eight-board-questions-about-mobility

Process industry professionals have long known about the risks of failure hidden in piping infrastructure, but robotic inspections are poised to solve this safety and risk problem.

The pipes with the highest risk profile are undoubtably those used in the petroleum industry, and detecting and assessing their condition under layers of coatings and insulation is one of the most important challenges for the industry.

Piping can fail for a variety of reasons, and inspections are expected to detect a broad range of conditions and potential failure points. Most of the more insidious piping weaknesses are not visible to the eye, which can mislead managers into thinking that pipe integrity is assured.

Piping failure in a refinery context can be truly catastrophic. Hydrocarbons are toxic and explosive, carry enormous safety implications, and considerable financial risk. A failure of a non-redundant pipe can result in total plant collapse.

Suffice to say, the scale of piping infrastructure, the complexity of the material science at stake, the logistical challenges involved, and the nature of the microscopic problems under scrutiny combine into a major undertaking for plant owners keen to avoid substantial financial and safety risks.

Better solutions are now available, and feature such innovations as robotic operations, better sensing under insulations, and dramatically improved diagnostics.

Dianna Liu is the founder & president of ARIX Technologies, a robotic inspection company using pipe-crawlers and a data analytics software platform to help manufacturing companies better manage corrosion and schedule maintenance. Prior to founding ARIX, Dianna was an engineer for ExxonMobil with roles in logistics/operations and engineering. She has also had R&D experience in the medical device and pharmaceutical industries and prior entrepreneurship experience in founding and managing a 23-year-old online horse game. Dianna holds dual mechanical and biomedical engineering degrees from Duke University and an MBA from Yale University.

Additional Tools & Resources:

Connect with Dianna!

📧 sales@arix-tech.com

🖥️ Website: https://arix-tech.com

📇 LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/arix-technologies/

📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianna-liu/

🎦 https://www.youtube.com/@arixtechnologies

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio:

👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

You might find this related article that I wrote of interest! 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/corrosion-under-insulation-the-process

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/

🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

There is a new career pathway now available, that of the digital engineer. This career pathway is open to any engineer who is curious how digital innovations intersect with the traditional engineer job, creating this new role of the digital engineer.

Identifying and discovering these new roles is not hard, but for most engineers, it will take them out of their comfort zone to confront some uncertainty, some risk. In essence, it's about risk seeking rather than risk mitigation.

In this podcast I interview Philip Black, a professional engineer, and oil and gas expert, because he has successfully transitioned his traditional chemical and processing background to become a digital expert. He pivoted his career without losing his momentum and crafted for himself a new career as a digital engineer. He was sought out by the most senior people in his company to learn more about digital innovations and how they impact the oil and gas industry.

Phil has pivoted his career several times and has codified what he has learned to do in a way that any engineer can easily follow. Learn more at his website and pivot your own career into digital or new roles in your company, or into entirely new fields.

Engineer Career Pivot! 👉 https://engineercareerpivot.com

Connect with Phil! 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pblack/

👩🏻‍💻 webinar: https://www.engineercareerpivot.com/Landing-Masterclass-Acquisition-Conversations-You-Need-To-Hear-pb

📧 email: phil@engineercareerpivot.com

You might find these related articles of interest!

👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/why-your-digital-oil-and-gas-innovation

👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/how-to-keep-your-digital-energy-job

Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/

🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Upskilling of oil and gas professionals in the digital era is a topic everywhere, including the Caribbean island economies.

Upskilling means the acquisition of new knowledge and skills, and in digital, this means topics such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, app development, and sensor technology.

It's tough enough to acquire new capabilities and stay current in big metropolitan centers. Imagine the challenges in smaller oil and gas producing economies, such as those found in the Caribbean.

On-line and distance learning help, but that's not enough. The formal education sector has to play its role, as does industy. But how does this happen?

In this podcast, I'm in conversation with Hamlyn Holder, a sessional lecturer with the University of the West Indies and an employee of the oil and gas industry, based in Trinidad and Tobago, one such oil production nation in the Caribbean. Hamlyn has over 20 years of both upstream and downstream engineering experience with nearly a decade of this time dedicated to serving Methanex Trinidad Ltd.

Methanex Corporation is the world's largest producer and supplier of methanol to major international markets in North and South America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Methanol is a clear liquid chemical used in thousands of everyday products, including plastics, paints, cosmetics, and is a clean-burning, cost-effective alternative fuel.

As the Site Reliability Engineer, he ensures the optimal functionality and performance of critical plant assets and is committed to continuous improvement and innovation in the asset management of their methanol plants and air separation units.

He currently serves as a Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Engineering Faculty and also at the Caribbean Institute for Quality training the Caribbean workforce in ASQ courses such as Six Sigma Black Belt, Quality Management and Reliability Engineering. He holds a Master’s in Engineering and Asset Management from the University of the West Indies, is CAMA Certified and co-founded Cube Root Farms, a company that helps local farmers, schools and communities to adopt modern smart and sustainable agricultural techniques.

He is also well versed in developing, enhancing and launching many enterprise management softwares and is a member of many industry bodies such as API, ASQ, PMI , IEEE, ASME and APETT.

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-...

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-...

🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Connect with Hamlyn!

📇 Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/hamlyn-holder-cre-pmp-cama-3664424a

🤬 X: https://twitter.com/holdertwit

It’s rare to hear directly from a business leader who has a broad range of oil and gas experience, coupled with a personal front-line role in leading digital adoption, but today’s podcast offers just that.

Lewis Gillhespy is a former senior leader with Suncor, including roles as Global Chief Geologist, major asset developer, head of a major acquisition, R&D, and lastly, digital transformation leader for the subsurface areas.

He describes how oil and gas companies are the children of the Industrial Age. They are reflective of the massive scale of operations that grew out of the enormous demands for energy. Their breadth and diversity of operations, international reach, technology diversity, and emphasis on innovation has created very complex organizations with customized ways of working that are in turn dependent on skilled managers with personal relationship skills to navigate. This business model has rendered them hugely profitable, but highly vulnerable to the digital revolution.

Lewis highlights how the adoption of lean methods of working, that simplify complex processes that in turn allow managers to control data and technologies and systems, creates more nimble companies that can quickly embrace change. The reason is that processes tend to be more stable than IT, data or people. Tackling just the data or IT means you miss the process opportunity.

The business pressure is that the case for digital is an exponential one, and is now outracing the industrial model. This exponential business case is predicated on high quality data.

Driving down cost, driving out waste to achieve low cost operatorship;
Producing compelling metrics, delivering analytics from data, applying AI on data, and deriving insights such as benchmarking; and,
Innovating new ways of working that deliver dramatic productivity gains.

This forces a need for leadership to be actively engaged in the transformation, as uncomfortable as that may be, to promote the new ways of work, and model the right behaviours.

These days, Lewis works as a consultant in Geoscience, Digital Transformation, Project Management, and Commercial M&A to the Energy Industry. He holds an MSc in Petroleum Geoscience from Imperial College, a BSc. in Geological Science from Leeds University and attended the Harvard Business School Leadership Program in Boston.

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact Me for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Get In Touch with Lewis!

📧email : lewis.gillhespy@rockflow.com

📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewis-gillhespy/

👨‍💻 https://rockflow.com/

Emissions management in energy is in drastic need of improvement. Carbon management is not carried out in an auditable and transparent way, is not standardized for the energy industry. As a result, carbon measures are subject to misinterpretation, claims reversal, misstatements, and greenwashing. Trust in the industry has eroded.

A number of leading energy companies embarked on a journey to transform the practices of the industry by adopting new modern digital technologies. Forming a consortium called Blockchain for Energy, the companies set out to design and deploy common interoperable solutions that addressed the industry's more intractable problems.

One of its first products is called B4E Carbon, and is a new cutting edge emissions management solution. The solution provides an end to end mechanism for measuring and reporting carbon emissions, for compliance, regulatory, and commercial needs. Data is captured at source, ingested, transformed and stored immutably in an accessible database.

The leader of the Consortium is Rebecca Hofmann, an experienced energy executive with a background in multiple dimensions of the oil and gas sector.

The Blockchain for Energy (B4E) consortium provides its members with forward thinking learnings and solutions. It collaboratively drives digital transformation by providing members with opportunities to accelerate their digitalization journey. Through collective synergies, B4E seeks to resolve, reinvent, and transform the industry’s standard ways of working with external parties. Blockchain for Energy is a safe venue to create transformational change – for the energy industry – by the energy industry. Current B4E members and collaborators include Chesapeake Energy, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Devon Energy, ExxonMobil, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Schlumberger, Enovate AI, Emerson ZEDI, Hedera, GBBC/IWA and Tolam Earth.

B4E Carbon was developed with the assistance of Enovate AI, founded by Camilo Mejia. With a background in Petroleum Engineering, Data Science, and Business Administration, Camilo has held global executive positions in corporate environments.

Enovate AI delivers business and operational process optimization for decarbonization and energy independence through digital engineering and automation. Enovate AI’s proven technology model is enabled by the capacity to deliver digital solutions that accelerate a clean, efficient, and diversified energy supply. Enovate AI supports oil and gas, renewables, and CCS operations with an end-to-end digital package from optimization to monetization. Enovate AI supports a cleaner, more efficient, and diversified energy industry through the deployment of effective AI solutions. At Enovate AI we realize the full potential of process autonomy to create a more profitable, sustainable, and environmentally responsible energy industry across the globe.

Contacting the Guests:

📧 email : martin@w1-comms.com

📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/enovateai/

📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/75552358/

📇 LinkedIn: 👨‍💻 https://www.blockchainforenergy.net/solutions/

👨‍💻 https://enovate.ai/

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/

🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The world of consumer loyalty for fuel brands is undergoing tremendous change because of data. With the huge penetration rate of mobile phones, the rise of app stores, and always-on websites, fuel retailers have a new opportunity to create a tighter link to their customers for fuel and other services.

Even in the Middle East, where fuel prices are historically very low relative to other countries, consumers are becoming much more price sensitive. To attract them to a fuel pump means more than having the lowest price. It means crafting an ecosystem of in-demand services, and offering the consumer deals for those goods and services in exchange for loyalty points that can be redeemed for value.

Consumers are not just individuals but also fleet operators, such as Careem (an Uber-like service), taxis, and delivery services. Effective service programs for fleet operators drive a 90% penetration rate for loyalty programs. Better data allows for deeper segmentation of the consumer behaviour and drives more impactful insights into relevant partners for the eco system (such as hotels, travel, tourism, shopping experiences, and more).

Even in the future, if traditional fuel is not the anchor reason to visit the fuel station, the consumer may still visit for vehicle servicing, getting morning coffee, picking up groceries, and holding meetings. Which services they covet is revealed in the data collected by the ecosystem and co-brand information, which in turn drives the decisions for investing in new partners and other relevant services.

Tourists may even be courted via such loyalty programs by becoming the must-have app on the phone when visiting the UAE, which is a tourism hub for the region.

This is all revealed in this podcast conversation with Suryaveer Singh, the Head of Loyalty, CRM, and Data Analytics for the YES Rewards program.

YES Rewards has digitized the fuel purchase loyalty card allowing for instant earn and burn capabilities, cross promotion across Fuel and Non-fuel brands, subscriptions for coffee, carwash, oil change, Digital receipts, and many other features.

Key to YES’s success is a unified customer experience using a highly capable technology platform.

The UAE, with its relatively small geography, wealthy citizens, high technology usage, and strong telecom networks, create a unique place to actualize a new relationship with the energy consumer. Nimble economies are best positioned to prepare the way for the electrification of transportation, the hydrogen highway, the sustainable fuel revolution, and the next generation energy consumer.

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

You might find this related article of interest!

👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/the-epic-contest-for-tomorrows-energy-customer

Connect with Me! 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contacts for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Description

Turnarounds, shutdowns and outages in heavy industry are key processes for keeping industrial infrastructure running at peak performance. Some plants, such as oil refineries, will plan and execute annual turnarounds, during which time accumulated work orders are tackled, substantial repairs or upgrades are executed, and regular maintenance activities are executed. LNG facilities, which are processing a much simpler and cleaner commodity (natural gas), might only experience a turnaround every few years.

Outages can be both planned and unplanned. A planned outage is carefully scheduled so that teams can carry out routine maintenance or equipment inspections. Unplanned outages, which can be caused by fires, equipment failure, or even intense storms, require a more urgent, unplanned and more costly response.

The execution of these key processes (shutdowns, turnarounds, and outages or STO) is very different from normal operations. The workforce for STO is often contingent. Work planning is more demanding. Scheduling and coordination takes on a greater priority. The costs for STO can be exceptionally high, particularly considering the cost of lost production.

Needless to say, STO attracts specialized firms that focus on bringing best in class processes and practices to assist industrial companies improve their STO execution. In this interview, I speak with Ross Coulman, the Managing Director at IAMTech, a company at the forefront of innovative asset management and technology solutions.

For over twenty years, Ross has been leading the industry in simplifying complex industrial processes through cutting-edge technology and software solutions. His hands-on approach and deep understanding of the operational challenges faced by these sectors originated years ago when he first joined an industrial company on a temporary assignment, only to discover the extraordinary level of waste and inefficiency that can plague the industrial asset owner.

Ross is a regular speaker at industry conferences and events, where he shares insights on the future of asset management, digital transformation, and the importance of sustainable industrial practices.

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

You might find this related article of interest!

👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/transforming-oil-and-gas-turnarounds-using-digital/

Connect with Me! 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 📧 email: geoff@geoffreycann.com

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contacts for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Contacting the Guest: Ross Coulman

📹 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamtech_ltd/

❤️ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063591369555

📧 email: ross@iamtech.com

📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/35547656

📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosscoulman/

🖥️ website: www.iamtech.com

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Serge Guzenko, Founder and CEO of Wezom, about custom code.

With over 24 years of experience in the industry, Serge has led WEZOM to become an international IT company known for its innovative solutions and client-centric approach in developing custom code.

Wezom is a global custom code business. I'm really interested in this niche and critical role of custom software development, particularly within the oil and gas industry. I start by asking Serge to explain the unique advantages of custom software. It's not obvious to oil and gas professionals, who view their businesses as generally undifferentiated, why they might value the flexibility and features that address the unique needs of the oil and gas sector.

Custom solutions can be tailored to enhance operational efficiency, integrate with existing systems, and handle complex data management tasks that generic software often cannot. The discussion highlights several key factors to consider when opting for custom software, such as the specific operational needs of the company, unique requirements, and cost effectiveness.

Serge points out areas within this sector that particularly benefit from custom solutions. We talk through cost of delivery, the need for ongoing maintenance, and the availability of skilled developers familiar with the industry’s nuances.

Looking forward, Serges shares his view of the future of custom software development, featuring increased integration of AI tools that can further enhance the capabilities and efficiency of custom solutions. AI’s role in supporting coding work is only just starting.

This episode not only highlights the persistent relevance of custom software development in a world dominated by generic ERP solutions but also illustrates its strategic importance in industries where customization can lead to significant competitive advantages and operational improvements.

Serge is deeply passionate about his work and is dedicated to delivering exceptional results for his clients. Throughout his career, Serge has demonstrated strong leadership skills, overseeing a team of over 250 employees and delivering more than 1000 IT solutions for companies, enterprises, startups, and government entities. Wezom worked with projects of such companies as Metinvest, Aptiv, CooperHunter, and JohnDeer.

Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/

🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Connect with Serge:

📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sergey-guzenko-wezom/

📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wezom/

😡X: https://twitter.com/wezomcompany

👨‍💻Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wezom.company

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wezom001/

📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wezom.company/

Clutch - https://clutch.co/profile/wezom#summary

Pinterest https://ru.pinterest.com/wezom_company/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@WEZOM_COMPANY

👩🏻‍💻https://wezom.com/

Where Energy meets Facts: Empowering People to Reduce Energy Costs The average western consumer has no idea how much energy they use. It’s not really their fault — the energy system was never designed to give the consumer visibility into their energy consumption. We even measure energy in many different and confusing ways. Gasoline is in gallons. Power is in kilowatt hours. Propane is in pounds.

Structurally, energy companies are not incentivized to provide their consumers with data about their energy use. Collecting the data is a huge exercise in building integrations from various data sources to build up a picture of energy use. Households have many different energy suppliers (power and gas utilities, gasoline retailers), and there are many individual buyers. It’s not clear consumers will pay for that insight.

Jotson is setting out to challenge that problem and fix it. To quote Mark Little, the CEO and co-founder, it’s baffling that mankind can put people into orbit around the planet, and land astronauts on the moon, but the average household can’t figure out how much they’re spending on energy. By giving consumers real data about their energy use, Jotson hopes to empower people to take charge of their energy consumption and to make better personal choices to reduce their demands on the energy system.

In this interview, I speak with Mark about his start up, Jotson, and his mission to empower Canadians to manage household energy cost and consumption.

Mark has more than 35 years of leadership experience in the Canadian energy industry, including 23 years at Imperial/Exxon, and most recently as President & CEO at Suncor Energy. During his career, Mark has led large complex organizations working on multi-billion-dollar energy projects, from the conceptual design, development, and project implementation through to operations and maintenance.

Mark has led the startup and operation of large wind, solar, and biogas projects, and is one of the founding CEOs of Pathways Alliance, an initiative that sets the six largest oil sands companies in Canada on a path to reach net-zero CO2 emissions.

He is a board member of General Fusion, and an advisor to both the Coalition for a Better Future and Cycle Capital.

Mark holds two degrees – one in computer science from the University of Calgary, and one in applied petroleum engineering technology from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. He is also a graduate of the advanced management program at Harvard Business School.

From 2003 to 2007 he served as Honorary Colonel for the 409 and 441 Tactical Fighter Squadrons at 4 Wing Airforce Base in Cold Lake, AB; a role that reflected his commitment to the relationship between the Air Force, the community and industry.

Mark was also the Recipient of the Canadian Council of Aboriginal Business’ Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Relations 2024.

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

You might find this related article of interest!

👉https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/the-epic-contest-for-tomorrows-energy-customer

Connect with Me! 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contacts for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Contacting the Guest: Mark Little

📧email : info@jotson.com

📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-little-93b87530/

👨‍💻http://www.jotson.com/

Marketplace Launched! The upstream oil and gas supply chain is about to get a much needed boost in procurement efficiency with the launch of a new e-commerce marketplace. Such marketplaces are very common in the consumer industry (Amazon being an example), but rare to non-existent in oil and gas.

Despite years of investment in big enterprise systems, buyers of goods for the upstream industry still have to wrestle with supplier-specific ordering portals and search, complex and out of date company product catalogues, which hampers price discovery, procurement efficiency, and price discovery. Time-pressured oil and gas project managers just bypass the agreed procedures, and order directly using procurement cards, which erodes the value of strategic sourcing agreements.

Imagine the possibilities of a marketplace specific to Canadian upstream oil and gas. Oilfield Marketplace Canada (or OFMP.ca) is a descendent of the very successful Oilfield Marketplace solution in the US but specific for the Canadian marketplace, with items that are certified for use in Canada and with Canadian prices and availability.

Check out this conversation with Steve Copeland, the general manager of the new Canadian Oil Field Marketplace. Steve spent 12 years with Cameron, and later with SLB after their acquisition of Cameron in 2015. Steve is from Calgary, and had an early career in field service gradually progressing to the role of National Sales Manager at Cameron.

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me! 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contacts for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Contacting the Guest Steve Copeland

📧email : SCopeland2@theofmp.com

📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-copeland-5031b41b/

📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ofmp-canada/

👨‍💻https://theofmp.ca/

Australia is the lucky country when it comes to energy transition. The country is blessed with ample non-renewable energy resources, including gas, coal, uranium, lithium, and oil. In addition, the country is bathed in sunshine, surrounded by coastlines and tides, and is largely empty, suitable for wind farms.

The LNG sector is now incredibly important to the national economy. Australia is 20-25% of global LNG production, one of the top 3 largest producers, and operates 10 gigantic plants serving mostly Asian markets.

However, the country's energy resources are struggling with energy transition challenges. The historic basins that provided the populous southeast with natural gas are drying up and the country hasn't been able to mobilise a suitable replacement. The demand for Australia's energy products is creating upward price pressure on the domestic market. The country is at risk of not growing its LNG trade past its current size.

In this interview, I speak with Jody Rowe, a commercially-focused specialist who has a strategic view of the broader Australian market. Jody has worked in agriculture, mining, and oil and gas industries in roles that span commercial, contracts and procurement at a number of multinationals including Barrick Gold and Rio Tinto, in both Gold and Uranium commodities. Her work has included executive roles on one of Australia's pioneering coal seam gas to LNG projects.

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

You might find these related articles of interest!

👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/is-canada-a-competitive-lng-supplier-for-europe/

👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/canadas-lng-projects-another-year-another-delay/

👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/digital-is-finally-impacting-the/

Connect with Me! 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/

📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/

🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contacts for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Contacting the Guest Jody Rowe

📧email : jody@roweadvisory.com.au

📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/tough-talk-with-jody-rowe/

👨‍💻http://www.roweadvisory.com.au/

About the Episode

The world of geospatial analytics is transforming how we manage industrial infrastructure. In this interview with Sean Donegan, the CEO of Satelytics, we discuss the use of satellite data to tackle major challenges like methane leaks, water contamination, and infrastructure damage with cutting-edge AI technology.

The traditional methods of inspecting linear infrastructure (pipelines, roads, forestry operations, power lines) by driving around or flying are outdated, costly, and harmful to the environment. Satellite data is a modern solution to quickly and accurately detect problems before they escalate. This not only saves money and prevents environmental damage but also protects companies from regulatory and reputational risks.

Algorithms look at satellite images and the sun's reflectance on various surfaces to identify and quantify issues with incredible accuracy and speed (as in 3 hour turn around). This ultra rapid detection and quantification capability allows for near immediate (same day) action, reducing potential fallout from incidents like oil spills, subsurface leaks, and vegetation encroachment.

We also discuss the importance of early adoption and the transformative potential of satellite data in managing infrastructure and environmental challenges. For energy and infrastructure companies who are struggling to maintain a daily grasp on their operations and their risks, satellite data and the algorithms that interpret that data present a huge cost saving and a step change in responsiveness.

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

You might find these related articles of interest!

👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/the-latest-digital-bludgeon-with/

Connect with Me! 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contacts for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer The views expressed in this show are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Contacting the Guest Sean Donegan

📧 email: sdonegan@satelytics.com

📺 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/satelytics

📇 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/satelytics

😡X: https://twitter.com/satelytics

👨‍💻https://www.satelytics.com/

📺 Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/satelytics

In this interview with David Khani, we discuss pipeline tariff negotiations and how regulatory analytics can help shippers win big.

Policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act are reshaping energy infrastructure, along with global events, such as the Ukrainian conflict. Natural gas market dynamics are changing rapidly, and systemically.

Dave and EQT leaned heavily on Arbo to help with complex negotiations and understanding the growing demand for natural gas.

Dave also covers how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulations influence pipeline operations. Another key factor is decarbonization, which has an impact on pipeline throughput. Companies like EQT Corporation navigate tariff increases and negotiations with shippers, with outside specialized help.

The future of energy includes coal and nuclear power within our evolving energy mix, and to succeed, companies have an indispensable need for data science in regulatory negotiations. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for anyone involved or interested in the energy industry.

Listen to the end to stay informed about the shifts shaping our energy future.

About Dave: Until recently, Dave was the CFO at EQT Corporation, a big US independent gas producer. Prior to joining EQT Corp., Dave served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CONSOL Energy and as CFO and as a board member of its affiliates, including CNX Midstream Partners LLC and a joint venture with Noble Energy. Dave developed a deep understanding of the commodity markets through almost 2 decades as a financial analyst on Wall Street. He holds a B.A. in biological sciences from State University of New York—Binghamton and an M.B.A. in corporate accounting and finance from the University of Rochester and has been a chartered financial analyst (CFA) for 25 years.

Where are oil and gas prices going, and why. That’s the focus of this wide-ranging interview I had with Andrew Botterill, head of Deloitte’s chemicals and oil and gas industry vertical. Deloitte produces a regular price forecast for oil and gas, and we provide the context, covering the turmoil and volatility in global markets, heavily influenced by geopolitical conflicts and policy shifts.

We touch on the adoption of sustainable practices, including hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuels. Policy moves, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, create both challenges and opportunities in the U.S., but with ramifications globally, particularly from major consuming geographies, incuding the EU and Asia.

We also discuss the future of energy demand in growth economies like India and continental Africa, highlighting the complex relationship between advancing technology and addressing energy poverty. Digital technology plays a key role in enhancing cost efficiency, resilience, and safety within the industry, setting the stage for a more sustainable and flexible energy landscape.

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎬 Go behind the scenes of my studio to see how it works: 👉https://geoffreycann.com/resources/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

You might find this related article of interest!

👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/my-digital-oil-and-gas-outlook-for

Connect with Me! 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contacts for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are those of the speakers and do not constitute professional advice.

Contacting the Guest Andrew Botterill

📧email : abotterill@deloitte.ca

AI innovations are helping transform regulatory processes by providing access to data that has been beyond analytical reach. AI tools such as ChatGPT, Bard, and CoPilot are revolutionizing how energy firms and professionals tackle complex regulatory data, especially in sectors like energy infrastructure. These generative AI tools ingest the huge volume of documents and commentary associated with energy infrastructure submissions to regulators (briefs, complaints, dockets, applications), providing fresh insight into what makes for a successful application, and why some fail to gain acceptance. These tools also transform the way experts prepare regulatory documents, analyze dynamic regulatory environments, and address energy transition policies like those outlined in the Inflation Reduction Act.

In this podcast, I help you understand the business value from AI gained from analyzing regulatory content and creating new, efficient pathways for submissions and compliance. If you're an energy industry professional, regulator, or advocate interested in understanding how AI can be used in regulatory areas, this podcast will be very helpful.

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎬 Check out my studio and how it works 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/resources/

🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

You might find my various articles on AI of interest! 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/how-to-successfully-introduce-ai-into-oil-and-gas 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/oil-and-gas-wises-up-to-artificial-intelligence 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/learning-to-live-with-generative

Connect with Me

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Download the Transcript!

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? You can download the transcript for this podcast here: 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/how-ai-tools-help-capture-hidden

In the US lower 48 states, between $200 billion and $400 billion are spent in the supply chain every year and are still run with practices designed decades ago. The energy sector's supply chain is broken and needs a new vision to take it to the next level.

In this interview podcast with Joshua Trott from WorkRise, we’ll look at the outdated practices of supply chain management in oil and gas, explaining why many projects go over budget and schedule. Josh is the Chief Revenue Officer of WorkRise, an industry-leading labor business and a leading supply chain platform used by many of the biggest energy companies in the world.

WorkRise's innovative solution is aimed at completely overhauling the industry’s supply chain model rather than just tinkering with point solutions or with narrow scope. This concept emphasizes the power of data-driven decisions and efficiency to revolutionize project management and execution.

We uncover the major issues impacting the current supply chain system, and how WorkRise plans to mitigate these challenges by putting in place a streamlined, cost-effective approach to project lifecycles. Modern technology and methods play a huge role in helping overcoming the obstacles in the industry.

If you are responsible for overseeing end to end operations of an oil and gas company, you have the potential to capture very significant benefits through a rethink of your supply chain management.

Josh is a lifelong soccer player and fan, he lives in Austin, Texas.

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

Connect with Me! 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contacts for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Contacting the Guest Joshua Trott

📧email : joshua.trott@workrise.com

📇 LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuatrott/

📇 LinkedIn biz: https://www.linkedin.com/company/workrise/

👨‍💻website: www.workrise.com

Business risks and opportunities surface whenever supply and demand go wildly out of balance.

Energy transition is creating supply and demand imbalances in many ways. For example, the supply of clean energy infrastructure is lagging demand because of slow permitting processes.

Sellers gain because the price point for green energy will rise to meet the demand. Buyers risk being unable to purchase green energy after they have committed to do so, or paying a much higher price.

In this solo narration podcast I describe four looming supply and demand imbalances, why they are happening, the impacts they'll have, and what you can do to either manage the risk or take advantage and profit.

The four are:

Slow pace of permitting delays the supply of transmission infrastructure.
Supply of oil tankers lags demand, causes prices to rise for shipping oil
Mergers in oil and gas create a surplus of oil and gas professionals looking for work.
Demand for commodities for clean energy outstrip supply, making clean energy projects uneconomic.

If you work in energy this episode is for you.

You can find the transcript on my weekly substack, 'Digital Oil and Gas'.

Please hit the share button or leave a comment if you find this episode helpful.

Contact me at geoff@geoffreycann.com

If you’re working on a digital innovation when your oil and gas company has been acquired, you’re at risk, and you need a plan.

I once worked on a major merger to create Canada's largest oil company, and I know how these mergers go down, and you don't want to be a victim.

In this solo narration podcast I describe why mergers are happening now and why they'll continue, how to tell if you're at risk, and what you should do if you are working on a digital innovation as part of your job.

If you're an engineer, IT, or digital professional working in oil and gas, this episode is for you.

You can find the transcript on my weekly substack, 'Digital Oil and Gas'.

Please hit the share button or leave a comment if you find this episode helpful.

Visit 'Engineer Career Pivot' for insight into transitioning your oil and gas career into new energy fields.

Contact me at geoff@geoffreycann.com

Digital twin solutions are rapidly advancing to a point where the model will be running tightly coupled with the actual asset it models, using live data. It’s not a stretch to see how the digital twin can become the day-to-day supervisor of the actual asset. This kind of work even applies to brownfield assets that predate the internet, mobility, cloud computing, and other modern inventions.

Connect with the Guest:

👉 David Reinhart : https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidreinhart/

👉 Visionaize: https://www.linkedin.com/company/visionaize/

You might find my previous articles on digital twin of interest!

👉 Digital Twin is More than a Clone: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/a-digital-twin-is-more-than-just-a-clone

👉 Evolution of Digital Twin Technology in Energy: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/evolution-of-digital-twin-technology-in-energy

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/

📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/

🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs.

Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Every year at this time I put forth my outlook for the coming year, with a focus on the digital trends that I believe will have the greatest impact on the fortunes of the industry.

These are not so much as predictions, as they are speculations on the trends that I see marching along, and how those trend lines will play out over the next 12 months or so.

If you’re working in industry, you might keep these in mind as you consider your projects and investments in the coming year.

If you are in technology, you might want to reflect on strategies to pursue that will accelerate your success or help you avoid some of the problems that I foresee.

Timestamps:

0:10 - Introduction

1:04 - Short Term Issues - inflation, emissions, markets, capital

2:54 - Longer Stride Challenges - energy transition, assets, talent, M&A

5:18 - Artificial Intelligence Tools

7:14 - Digital Twin Technology

9:05 - Mobility and networks

10:46 - Data

12:06 - Conclusions

Additional Tools & Resources: 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

You might find my previous annual predictions articles of interest!

👉 2023 (part 1) https://open.substack.com/pub/digitaloilgas/p/the-trends-to-watch-in-2023-and-beyond-part-1 👉 2023 (part 2) https://open.substack.com/pub/digitaloilgas/p/what-are-the-relevant-macro-trends-for-2023-and-why-part-2 👉 2022 https://open.substack.com/pub/digitaloilgas/p/digital-oil-and-gas-trends-for-2022

Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/training-digital-oil-gas/ 🤬 X: https://twitter.com/geoffreycann

Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this video are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Download the Transcript!

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? You can download the transcript for this podcast here:

👉 https://open.substack.com/pub/digitaloilgas/p/my-digital-oil-and-gas-outlook-for

"First thing you need to connect the assets first and get the data. So that's we call it like static digital twin, and then you can use it for simulation. Then you move to the second version, which having like a shadow, digital twin, which you have an image of what's happening, but you can monitor. But the truly digital twin is monitor and control."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Ammar Sabbagh who is the Vice President Industry and Partnership for Private Networks for Oil and Gas at Ericsson. 5G networks are a huge step forward for telecommunications, offering a step change performance boost over 4G. If you want to run an industrial-grade, resilient, and secure network for your digital devices, you need to be on 5G.

Here are some of the key questions addressed in the episode:

What is 5G, and why is it better than 4G?
What is a private network?
What kinds of problems does a private network solve?
What kinds of innovations are enabled by 5G?
What are some of the use cases that 5G unlocks?
How do you deliver 5G networks where there are no towers?

Ammar Sabbagh is a technology professional specializing in 5G private cellular networks, cloud, decentralized cloud, and IOT solutions for business and industry.

Currently, Ammar serves as vice president of industry & partnership at Ericsson for energy and ports, where he leads business development and global partners management.

Ammar holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Portland State University and an MBA in Management, and has completed various executive leadership training courses, including Design Thinking for Innovation from the London Business School.

AMMAR's QUOTABLE QUOTES

With 4g, you're getting 100 megabits per second. With 5G you are getting one gigabit per second and even 20 gigabits pers second planned for next year or after. So 20 gig per user device.

A single 5G radio station can connect over a million connected devices at one radio station.

With WiFi 6, you can stream one gig, but the reliability of the Wi Fi is a concern, because Wi FI struggles to penetrate metallic structure [common] in the industry, for indoor.

You can trust 5G for robotics, for autonomous gantry vehicles, for assets moving.

With 5G we are not planning to replace any [SCADA] wiring.

5G [latency] operation, we are talking about 20 millisecond max. We are dropping it to one millisecond in the next version updates… But the requirements from our Oceaneering partner is only 100 millisecond.

The first question we ask what are the use cases or application you want to use? And then it's a journey. It's like you start today with one thing, and later, you move to other applications as needed.

If you have a worker with a mobile phone or connected, you know, worker, you will know exactly where they are. And you can communicate with them and support them during that session.

We like to call it dynamic digital twin. We believe the 5g will be you know, hugely valuable, because you don't want to run all these cables connecting all these sensors to the main data center, you're just wirelessly spread them. And they're connected, and sit and analyze and collect all the data and take actions from there.

Wind turbines are virtually autonomous. I mean, we connect them with cellular network, we have several references. With a cellular network, they connect the operator connect cameras and control functionality. And they remotely see what's happening on the outside and inside and adjust accordingly.

first thing you need to connect the assets first and get the data. So that's we call it like static digital twin, and then you can use it for simulation. Then you move to the second version, which having like a shadow, digital twin, which you have an image of what's happening, but you can monitor. But the truly digital twin is monitor and control

CONTACTING AMMAR ammar.sabbagh@ericsson.com

To break free of the limitations of yesterday’s technologies, the oil and gas industry is accelerating its adoption of private 5G networks.

Some time ago, I helped an oil field logistics company respond to customer feedback that its services were “in the Stone Age”. Its systems were entirely manual, inaccurate, slow, and error prone. Virtually every invoice was disputed, causing cash flow problems. Worse, its multi-year contracts were coming up for renegotiation, and there was a real risk that the contracts would not be renewed, stranding an enormous fleet of 750 vehicles.

We decided to create a fundamentally new business model that would upend the prevailing customer service standards in the industry, dramatically improve the utilization of the fleet of assets, staff, and facilities, and transform for the better its overall competitive position.

Market-leading companies in oil and gas recognize that the status quo industrial network (SCADA) and public networks are simply not fit for the purposes of responding to the pressures. Private 5G networks offer a highly appealing alternative.

As private networks, they eliminate the problem of contention for third party access or bandwidth. Solutions are free to run as designed delivering continuous near real time service. 5G networks run at much lower levels of latency compared to other network technologies such as 4G, and private 5G networks lower the latency further. Private 5G networks offer dramatically improved bandwidth compared to 4G, operating at gigabits per second, versus megabits per second. Private networks are far more secure as network access is under much tighter control. 5G networks can be deployed far more quickly than wired networks, and offer improved future-proofing for assets intended to run for years.

"We really kind of focus on the data and analytics side, really helping identify challenges where innovative data solutions, machine learning and AI technologies can be leveraged to drive more data driven insights."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Clark Lai, the CEO of Motiv Innovation Group. Clark’s team helps businesses apply data analytics, machine learning and AI tools to some of their more intractable problems. A great example is letting generative AI models feast on proprietary company data, such as engineering content, and using those models to create first drafts of new engineered assets. They won’t be perfect, but the speed to get to an editable first draft is the real prize.

"Our client is able to simply search through unstructured text and the AI will be able to retrieve and reference the associated documents within their workspace."

Clark Lai is the CEO of Motiv Innovation Group—an internationally recognized, award-winning digital innovation and venture building company. Since 2013, Clark has led the strategic vision, execution, and expansion of various business units within Motiv. Under his leadership, Motiv has helped its clients and partners increase shareholder value by over $2 billion.

"Now that you have your documents embedded within this AI model, using generative AI, you can now generate net new content and net new value as a result."

With a commitment to excellence, Motiv has been honoured with several prestigious accolades, including The Webby Awards, W3 Awards, German Design Awards, and Ember Awards. He has over 16 years of software development experience in full-stack development, system architecture, cloud computing, data science, and machine learning. Clark has also successfully launched multiple ventures across a range of verticals, including advertising and PPC, health and wellness, data analytics, e-commerce and social commerce, professional services, and AI.

"We are solving the challenges for our team that actually matter. Rather than just building the next shiny toy."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarklai/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/motivdigital

Website:
https://motiv.digital/

"There's been a real reluctance on the part of operators to jump back in to some of these higher-cost opportunities. That's further constraining exploration and development of supply."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Howard Crosby, the Founder and CEO of LGX Energy Corporation. Howard and a partner acquired an oil company in Indiana and the acquisition included some 400 miles of 2D seismic data that had been shot some 15 years earlier, but never processed. By putting this old data through new tools, LGX was able to reveal oil plays that had been overlooked. The team then shot the highly prospective locations with 3D, which helped pinpoint more precise drilling locations. What was thought to be 15 possibilities turned into 50+.

"Instead of stringing wires across farmer's cornfields to set up the geophones prior to making the recording, they’re using wireless geophones that don't need to be strung together with the wire."

Howard Crosby is the Founder and Chief Executive of LGX Energy Corporation. Howard was raised in the Pacific Northwest, and is a successful entrepreneur who has founded several companies over the years. With his background in finance and natural resources, Howard has over 40 years working with mining, gas and oil developments.

"You look at the Lima Peru field where [Rockefeller] had the first 100 million barrel field in Allen County, Indiana. They recovered over 100 million barrels, but they estimate, because of poor technology in the 1890s and early 1900s, they left 100 million barrels behind, stranded."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/howard-crosby/

Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/lgxenergycorp/
Website:
https://www.lgxenergycorp.com/

Halloween. A gory and ghastly night of ghouls, ghosts, and goblins. And as with previous years marking All Souls, I reflect on the latest digital demons molesting the oil and gas industry, how best to exorcise them, and how to speedily return them to the land of the undead.

When you open the front door to this season’s mob of treat-hunting ghouls, just remember that your work world is not only facing its own cyber spooks at the gate. There’s a better than even chance that you have more than one zombie system staggering around, AI Apparitions secretly messing up your performance system, and a cloud vampire sharpening its fangs.

Good luck.

A pioneering application of artificial intelligence at Woodside Energy is finally ready for wider deployment in oil and gas.

I learned about this use case back in 2016, at APPEA’s annual conference in Perth, where Woodside’s data science team presented their work. Surprisingly, few companies bothered to replicate this innovation, even though it was both proven and easy to execute.

Many oil and gas facilities have been in production for decades, and want to be in production for decades more.

Not only do these assets handily outlast their designers, but they’re now outlasting their maintenance engineering staff, operations, logistics managers, and key suppliers. In short, the complete original workforce.

But the oil and gas industry has long relied on the memory of its people to recall critical information about its assets, information beyond the kinds of data easily found in modern systems. Answers to questions like “why did we design it this way”, and “have we encountered this problem before” depend on the memories of workers.

Oil and gas companies cannot reliably use ChatGPT, as it was trained on the whole of the internet, and is a mix of fact and fiction, science and religion, truth and lies, and faulty logic. However, training a private version of ChatGPT unlocks a huge use case that was proven many years ago.

"Aviation fuel because it is a big amount of emissions, roughly 2% in actual measurement, but about three and a half percent in terms of impact. It's not likely to change because you need high density fuels, so batteries aren't going to work for long haul flights. And 90% of aviation is long haul flights."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with John McDougall, who is the CEO and founder of SynBioBlox Innovations, a company seeking to solve the global emissions problem by applying synthetic biology to the creation of sustainable aviation fuel. Imagine the ability to design, test, and then build, at scale, a biological microorganism that ingests a given feedstock and produces, at scale, a valuable compound. That’s the promise of SynBioBlox.

"The GHG that's being emitted and being thrown away essentially, is the opportunity to create value by turning it into products."

John McDougall is the founder and CEO of SynBioBlox Innovations Ltd. A fourth generation Albertan, he spent two decades as President of the Alberta and National Research Councils following leadership positions in real estate, engineering consulting, manufacturing, oil and gas and technology businesses. He is a former Chair of APEGA and Engineers Canada, the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, and many other social and not-for-profit organizations.

"Rather than waiting for them to evolve on a hit or miss basis, with the tools that exist today, we can actually explicitly design them and make them."

He has been an appointed member on numerous agencies and advisory committees related to trade, education, innovation, engineering, economic development and employment at the local, provincial, federal and international level. The recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, he continues to support the community with his time and resources in education, voluntary and not-for profit agencies, advisory and philanthropic roles.

"If you really want to make a difference in greenhouse gases, if you're not looking at things that are a billion tons a year or more, you're not going to make a difference."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-mcdougall-049280124 + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/synbioblox

Website:
https://www.synbioblox.com/

If you want to be a successful digital leader, you need to be able to sell your ideas to a reluctant oil and gas buyer.

Selling is so innately human we don’t even know when we’re selling or being sold. Have you ever been to a restaurant and found yourself ordering something you would usually not ever have at home, like some decadent dessert? The end of the main meal arrives and the server kindly brings you a fresh menu already open to the dessert page. They innocently ask “can I tempt you with some freshly brewed coffee?” Next thing you know you’re scarfing 2000 calories of cheesecake drizzled with butterscotch sauce. You were sold.

Selling your digital ideas to a manager in oil and gas is more complicated. Virtually everyone in oil and gas start out as digital doubters. This is a structural feature of the industry, part of the culture, linked to its safety and process adherence needs, and rooted in how the industry trains its people to manage risk.

Here’s some tactics to consider.

"Turnover and mergers are one of the biggest disruptions in companies. So when you have that factored in, if you have someone who leaves the company, then everything that they've ever done, that human brain of knowledge as well and experience within that company is gone."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Wendy Hamelin, the CEO of Astraea Energy, an advisory firm in the area of high performance organizations. Wendy notes how there is a significant loss of organizational know how when we adopt new technologies that displace human capability (think of how the lowly calculator has eroded our ability to do math by hand). Extend this to an organization scale, as we are now doing with tools like AI, and our organizations are at some risk.

"I use an iPhone, for example, an iPhone is the actual device itself. And then we add our apps to our device. So the hierarchy of information and device software, if we add a hack, or add a hacked app to our iPhone, then that violates the entire phone."

Wendy Hamelin is the President and CEO of Astraea Energy, an advisory firm founded in 2014 to provide consulting and advisory service to oil and energy projects in Northern Alberta. Wendy provides safety training and performance improvement consulting services.

"If we're onboarding a contractor, we need to remember to off board every single part of that contractor when they're completed."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wendyhamelin + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/astraea-energy-inc/

Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/astraeaenergy
Website:
http://www.astraeaenergy.com/

"Those who are working in any energy sector right now are best place to be working in that sector in another 10 years, even if it's going to be on a different technology."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Corinna Frye, who is the National Head of Renewable Energy and Clean Technology, with LVI Associates. As a recruiter focused on the energy industry, Corinna has seen first hand the demand pull from the energy industry for talent, and the best positioned to satisfy that demand are professionals already working in energy. However, it takes foresight to see the opportunity, and not all professionals anticipate the coming changes to the talent landscape.

"Clean energy is employing over 40% of all energy workers in America at this stage."

Corinna Frye is the National Head of Renewable Energy and Clean Technology, LVI Associates, a Phaidon International brand in Boston, Massachusetts, US.

"We're going to end up pulling from the traditional oil and gas backgrounds, because there aren't huge numbers of people with an anaerobic digestion background specific to biogas here yet."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corinna-frye-5b577858/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lviassociates/

Twitter handles:
@PhaidonIntl
@lviassociates
Website:
https://www.lviassociates.com/

Canada’s largest private oil company, and operator of the largest oil refinery, is carrying out a strategic review, which includes the possible sale of the company. Why would they do this?

I grew up in Saint John, and had the privilege to work at this company for a few years. My extended family members who still live and work in the area, have reached out to me for a perspective. They are naturally concerned about what the sale of the largest business in town means for their future.

Setting aside any private reasons that the family might want to sell out (from the complexities of intergenerational wealth transfer to family taxation strategies), the most important reasons involve upcoming market changes.

My advice: keep calm and carry on refining.

In case you missed it, WPC24 took place recently in Calgary, Alberta, for the second time in its history. WPC itself was established way back in the 1930s as a forum for the global industry to discuss common themes on a triennial basis. As a global event, it attracts an audience from around the planet..

The voices discussing the global energy industry’s challenges included the Energy Minister from Saudi Arabia, and the CEOs of Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil, Repsol, WestJet, Accenture, Pertamina, KNOC, Kuwait Petroleum Corp, ONGC, NNPC (Nigeria), NOCK (Kenya), Oil India, and managing directors, presidents, vice presidents, and board chairs from Cenovus, Petronas, Petrobras, Petronet, Suncor, Deloitte, Brookfield, Platts, S&P, Shell, and many others.

You never know who you’ll meet at such a gathering. As I ascended the escalator to the event floor for the opening ceremonies, I found myself standing beside a trade ambassador from Libya, who shared some personal details of the immense tragedy stemming from the floods from his country. My fellow panelists hailed from Calgary, Houston, and Saudi Arabia. I have a collection of business cards from Tema (Ghana), St. John’s, Midland (Texas), Bogotá (Colombia), Pittsburgh, Berlin, Washington, and Uruguay.

Under the broad theme ‘path to net zero’, the range of topics under discussion were in equal parts bracing and confronting, taking in supply and demand, energy transition, decarbonization, industry growth and/or decline, financing strategies, infrastructure challenges, energy security, hydrogen developments, carbon capture and storage, net zero pathways, indigenous engagement, and talent issues.

It is impossible for one person to summarize the conference because there are multiple parallel tracks, a full poster and paper show, and dozens of talks and panel discussions. You simply can’t take it all in.

Then again, you can always form a point of view based on the dialogue you did take in, so here’s mine.

Markets are starting to show interest in commodity products that are produced more responsibly, notably natural gas. The key is to be able to prove it, and that requires some changes. Customers and markets are starting to demand evidence that energy products such as natural gas are making a positive contribution to buyers’ emission reduction goals. Responsibly sourced gas will experience demand growth, rewarding gas producers for their efforts at reducing emissions in the industry.

Digital innovations have unlocked many businesses’ ability to offer variations of tracking and tracing services. Tracking is by far the easier of the two, and Apple, as one example, has created its AirTag product to exploit this opportunity. AirTags connect up with passing iPhones and relay their coordinates via the cloud to the AirTag owner, pinpointing the tag’s location.

Tracing is decidedly more difficult as it requires a date, time, and location log of the events, changes of state, and changes in ownership of the item that is being traced. There are few examples of full item tracing in industry for this reason. Tracing is doubly hard for commodities that are fungible (how dto you tell one organic tomato from another), or blended with other similar products (such as green energy).

Tracing of energy is coming to the commodity industry as market participants express greater interest in energy provenance.

Companies working in the energy sector are now prosecuting their own self-defined pathways to achieve carbon zero or carbon neutral business profiles. Digital innovations play a key role.

As part of the World Petroleum Congress, September 17-21, 2023 in Calgary, I was on a panel discussion to discuss digital transformation on the route to Net Zero. By now, hopefully, all energy companies will have defined their own pathways to zero carbon (either absolute or net). Our goal on the panel discussion is to peel this problem apart, layer by layer. It’s great that digital innovation is a topic at this event, a once-in-three years affair.

The panel agreed that there is some consensus on the need to address climate change at an industrial level, and that the question is no longer “should we”, but “how should we”.

The panel discussed the following:

The drivers of change that provide the shape and contours of the net zero journey.
The various pathways to net zero that could be pursued by the various players in the oil and gas value chain.
The digital building blocks that the petroleum industry will leverage to achieve net zero.

The panel hopes to reveal the outlines of how digital enables transparent, auditable and cost-effective carbon emission reduction strategies for petroleum companies.

This will not be easy.

The energy worker of the future will require a different set of personal attributes than those normally selected for today. Energy companies may well find these attributes in short supply.

One of my more interesting roles is the occasional advisory work for educational institutions on the skills requirements for the energy worker of the future. Since I research and write about energy topics, including energy futures, I do have an opinion on the likely skills, particularly those in the digital area.

Now energy systems are entering a phase of high uncertainty. Major questions abound on the eventual scale of various energy products, such as the various shades of hydrogen, nuclear energy, battery and energy storage technologies, fusion, fossil fuels, the renewables, geothermal, tidal, and many others. Loyalty seems rather a quaint notion in an aggressive merger and acquisition world.

Most schools lack the capacity to place risky bets on possible energy futures that might not play out, and so seek lots of input before making commitments to new educational directions.

Digital innovations are evolving even faster.

Recently I participated in a working session at SAIT on these questions, and this episode sets out some of the findings.

"Emissions combine all of the activities a company has. It's the tailpipe of the company, but it entails all of the activities that company undertakes."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Oleksiy Golovchenko who is a Senior specialist, EHS Data and Analytics with Ovintiv, a large North American oil and gas producer. Oleksiy has been part of a team delivering a real time emissions inventory management system at a highly granular level of detail across the full measure of the company. This is a hard problem to solve, and a lot of companies will want to simply buy such a solution. But Oleksiy discusses why there are no out of the box solutions in this field, that it requires a committed team and organization, and coding skills (not computer scientists) are needed.

"There's no such thing as an out of the box Emission Inventory Management System. And the reason for that is that it needs to be configured to company individual requirements, business processes that you have."

Oleksiy Golovchenko is a Senior specialist, Environment Health & Safety Data and Analytics with Ovintiv. He began his career working in environmental labs where he performed a range of chemical analyses for various media, including air, water, and soil. From there, he joined NOVA Chemicals, working variously in Catalysts, Polymers, and Petrochemicals, earning co-authorship on several patents. At Ovintiv, he deploys automation to minimize regulatory compliance, sustainability, ESG and safety risks, turning data into actionable insights and creating disruptive innovation.

Oleksiy holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Simon Fraser University (SFU), a Master of Science in Sustainable Energy Development (SEDV) from the University of Calgary (U of C), and an MBA from the Jack Welch Management Institute.

"Excel doesn't have the capabilities to handle the sheer amount of data, let alone have the functionality to do things you need to do. And let alone think about doing it all in real time, from a variety of data sources."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oleksiygolovchenko/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ovintiv/

Website:
https://www.ovintiv.com/https://www.ovintiv.com/https://www.ovintiv.com/

For all the talk about energy transition, many aspects about transition remain unexplained.

I’m in the midst of a home renovation. The renovation should allow the house last another 20-30 years with minimal upkeep, and may well be our final home as we embrace the ideal to age-in-place. The renovations are extensive—walls are being opened up for the first time in 30 years, the flooring is being upgraded, and we’ve had to move out for the four months it will take to carry out.

What’s remarkable is that it falls entirely to me to take the initiative on all new energy ideas for the house. I would have thought that the instant I surface at the local planning office to secure a building permit, someone with knowledge about the national agenda for energy transition would be chasing me to encourage me to do the right thing, and embrace these (and likely other) innovations.

Instead, it’s been crickets.

In the meantime, I’m curious how many other aspects of modern life are going to cope with the transition. Here are four that puzzle me about how transition will work.

"I'm also a very strong advocate personally of a sort of an all in approach, meaning we aren't going to solve this with one magic silver bullet, right? If that doesn't exist, we need to develop these things over time."

This is part two of a two part podcast recording with Tom Sharp, the Director of Permitting Intelligence with Arbo, and Justin Carlson, founder and Chief Commercial Officer of East Daley Analytics on the issues and challenges facing energy infrastructure projects, and some of the solutions.

"Where we've arrived is a place where agencies are getting sued so much, that the process is getting dragged out and the cost of delays is used to halt projects, regardless of whether or not this is a project for traditional energy or renewables."

Tom Sharp is a thought leader on infrastructure permitting and an expert in environmental and energy law and policy. His unique perspective is informed by 12 years of federal experience, most recently as Director for Permitting Excellence at the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC), and by positions at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) including Deputy Director for NEPA, attorney in the Office of the General Council, and Senior Advisor for Infrastructure. Tom also worked for 9 years as an attorney at FERC specializing in natural gas pipeline certificates and hydropower licenses. He graduated with a Certificate in Environmental Law from the Tulane University Law School and enjoys teaching law classes focused on NEPA and permitting reform.

"If there's a transmission line that's being built from one state to another, crossing four different states, and those states in the middle aren't necessarily getting benefit from that, you're going to probably see increased opposition there."

Justin Carlson is the Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of East Daley Analytics. With a passion for strategy and deep expertise in oil and gas market supply and demand, Justin co-founded East Daley Analytics to creatively transform data and information into market moving knowledge and wisdom to drive client success. He has also authored articles on the energy financial markets for Forbes, Oil and Gas Journal, and Seeking Alpha. Justin has a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Engineering Management from the Colorado School of Mines.

"You've got all this data that you've actually got to normalize, bring together and that's what really slows the process down. It's not all unified. It is very independent and a bit disorganized and you're not always sure what to trust."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business):

+ https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-carlson-b8033b5/
+ https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaslsharp/
+ https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7075561315259338752

Website:
- http://www.goarbo.com/
- https://www.eastdaley.com/

"There's a lot of different things that are plaguing infrastructure developers or have been for a long time, and they're all sort of coming to a head now."

This is part one of a two part podcast recording with Tom Sharp, the Director of Permitting Intelligence with Arbo, and Justin Carlson, founder and Chief Commercial Officer of East Daley Analytics on the issues and challenges facing energy infrastructure projects, and some of the solutions.

"We don't build a road that no one's going to travel on. You build a pipeline, because somebody has supply and someone has demand."

Tom Sharp is a thought leader on infrastructure permitting and an expert in environmental and energy law and policy. His unique perspective is informed by 12 years of federal experience, most recently as Director for Permitting Excellence at the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC), and by positions at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) including Deputy Director for NEPA, attorney in the Office of the General Council, and Senior Advisor for Infrastructure. Tom also worked for 9 years as an attorney at FERC specializing in natural gas pipeline certificates and hydropower licenses. He graduated with a Certificate in Environmental Law from the Tulane University Law School and enjoys teaching law classes focused on NEPA and permitting reform.

"You really have two kinds of risk. You've got risk borne by the project developer, and then you've got policy risk."

Justin Carlson is the Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of East Daley Analytics. With a passion for strategy and deep expertise in oil and gas market supply and demand, Justin co-founded East Daley Analytics to creatively transform data and information into market moving knowledge and wisdom to drive client success. He has also authored articles on the energy financial markets for Forbes, Oil and Gas Journal, and Seeking Alpha. Justin has a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Engineering Management from the Colorado School of Mines.

"Midstream companies are out wanting to develop hydrogen projects, but we don't really know where the supply is. And we also don't know who wants it, so I don't know what to do."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business):

+ https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-carlson-b8033b5/
+ https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomaslsharp/
+ https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7075561315259338752

Website:
- http://www.goarbo.com/
- https://www.eastdaley.com/

"We're creating a significant drawdown on the reservoir so we're able to get every last molecule of what's unrecoverable today that sits in the reservoir."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Herman Artinian who is the CEO of Upwing Energy, a company that has developed a compressor for downhole gas wells. One problem with gas wells is that they depressurize as they produce, which results in much of the gas (40% or more) being stranded in the well.

"We are able to boost incremental production by anywhere from 150 to 250%, which is significant."

Upwing has taken a standard gas compressor, reversed it to pull gas out of a well, and packaged it to fit down hole where it is twelve feet long but only 5 inches in diameter. It took innovations from all kinds of places to manage this kind of repackaging. But the results are well worth the investment.

"You imagine how much work and energy and employees and technology is going into commoditizing this valuable asset (oil and gas). People kind of forget how much work it is and how big the supply chain is for this."

President and Chief Executive Officer Herman Artinian has 30 years of experience in domestic and international business development and management, specializing in driving business growth by identifying and advancing disruptive energy technologies.

Before leading Upwing Energy, Herman increased the profitability of multiple start-ups. At Calnetix companies, he oversaw numerous global licensing deals for Access Energy and played a key role in the growth of Direct Drive Systems (DDS), prior to the acquisition by FMC Technologies.

Herman brings his passion for developing new energy technologies to Upwing Energy, driving his team to rapidly grow the natural gas service with industry- leading tools that increase production and recoverability in an economically and environmentally sustainable way.

He holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles: + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/upwing-energy/

Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/upwingenergy
Website:
https://www.upwingenergy.com/
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@upwingenergy
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/upwingenergy/

If there is one industry that evolves very slowly, it would have to be the liquefied natural gas industry, and yet, digital is even making an impact here.

As a digital nerd, I was alert to any digital developments at LNG 2023, but I was also curious what I had written back in 2016. At the time my weekly article series was called Fuel Up LNG, and chronicled Australia’s staggering rise from a gas exporting bit player to global LNG giant.

I regret to inform you that not much has changed, really. It takes seven years to move an LNG project from conception to reality, if not longer. There’s not much iterative technology development happening, because the capital project life cycle is so long—a project is effectively just one iteration. Perhaps an expansion project can adopt some innovations, but there will be pressure on the project to stick with the status quo to capture scale economies.

However, there were still a few pearls to share. Here are four key takeaways about the impacts that digital is having on the LNG sector.

My first exposure to the circular economy did not inspire confidence.

My Mom, my brother and I were in the attic of my uncle’s home rummaging through an old trunk overloaded with castoff clothing that my cousins had outgrown.

I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but we were clearly poor, and with 6 kids, there simply wasn’t enough money to buy new clothes. One of our most hideous family photos has us kids kitted out in fabrics I am certain were recycled from bedroom curtains.

Necessity, or in my situation a mild case of poverty, teaches you to value your stuff, make your stuff last longer, use your stuff minimally to reduce wear and tear, and to repurpose your stuff at end of life.

The hydrocarbon industry has never been particularly hip with circular thinking. In fact, the business model for the industry has been pretty much linear for my entire lifetime:

Producer extracts the resource (crude oil, raw gas, dirty coal) and transforms it into something useful (fuels, energy, petrochemicals).
The consumer uses it (burns it, wears it, builds with it, and lots of other uses), and disposes of it (carbon emissions into the atmosphere, construction materials into landfill, single use plastics everywhere) as waste.

There’s no evidence of a circle.

There are now a handful of good examples in the industry of the circular economy finally coming to life.

With Apple’s new Vision Pro hitting the news, and changing the perception of computing to include a spatial dimension, it’s worth reflecting on where and how this clever new technology could be used in oil and gas.

Apple’s latest product, spatial computing, is long on nifty and clever, but short on a must have new feature worth paying the price of a high end Mac Studio with a two hour battery life.

Watch a movie in surround vision? Ok.
Use your hands to manipulate apps instead of a mouse? Fine.
Thrown an app into space and open it? Sure.
Do a video call? Um.

During the launch, there was no obvious killer app for the masses, and nothing that compelling for business, and in particular the energy industry.

The energy world is not really about people. In fact, we spend enormous amounts of treasure trying to keep people from coming into contact with our products (fuels, electricity). For consumers, energy is just there, in the background, behind a light switch, or in response to a quarter turn of a key in an ignition. For energy suppliers, our world features many more machines, with complex interfaces, more regulations, more safety. But our house is definitely spatial.

"You better better know how to go with the flow."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Rodrigo Liang, the co-founder and CEO of SambaNova Systems. Generative AI solutions have taken the world by storm and will speed up industry by 10x.

"What’s necessary for us to train these models, we need very, very large data sets. And well guess what? These cloud services and these large hyper scalars have been able to accumulate so much data, that now you have large enough datasets that are allowing us to train these models really well."

The problem is that enterprises want to have their own enterprise AI model that uses their proprietary company data, not a generic dataset scraped from the Internet. SambaNova helps companies build these specific enterprise AI models.

"The main reason people don't use the largest model is the training cost is significantly higher than the smaller models..."

Rodrigo Liang is co-founder and CEO of SambaNova Systems, a leader in enterprise-scale artificial intelligence solutions. With deep roots in Stanford University, he and his co-founders designed a new full-stack hardware and software platform optimized for AI workflows and set the company on a mission to enable the future of artificial intelligence for the enterprise. Rodrigo says that we are witnessing the fastest industrial revolution in history – and it's happening right in front of our eyes. The way artificial intelligence has unfolded in the past few months is just the tip of the iceberg, and it's going to transform the world as we know it.

"Text is still the number one format of your data, regardless of what you say about imaging and videos and things like that. Most of your data at rest exists as text."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodrigo-liang + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sambanova

Twitter handles:
@SambaNovaAI
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/SambaNovaSystems/featured
Website:
https://sambanova.ai/

Russia’s recent claims about hacking a Canadian gas pipeline must be taken with deadly seriousness, and not just by pipeline companies, but Canadians at large.

A document leak allegedly caused by a 21 year old cyber transport professional working inside the US security services contained a story that a shadowy Russian cyber team had successfully hacked into the operations of a Canadian gas pipeline system and with disruptive intent.

The European nations with Arctic exposure have been investing with renewed emphasis in their northern Arctic flank now that the Russian threat has been exposed. The Nordic countries recognize that the security umbrella of NATO is but one element of a broader strategic defensive stance, and that stance must be bolstered with real assets and investments in the North.

The conflict in Europe between Russia and Ukraine is but one of a number of global moves that threaten the rules-based order. China has been making the same, if more subtle, noises about invading Taiwan. North Korea is perfecting its intercontinental strike capability. Iran will soon be nuclear armed. We need to be prepared.

The energy industry is very accustomed to seeking permission to do things. It is the norm in industrialized societies to set out the acceptable parameters for investment actions that can impact others, and to have project proponents follow a set of established regulatory processes. These processes take time, but they could be trusted to yield a predictable outcome for project investors and proponents.

Until recently.

Deploying energy infrastructure is an increasingly fraught endeavour in many parts of the world.

There is now a frenetic race underway to secure the best projects with the best market positions, for the long term, in the face of a permitting timeline that exceeds the time available to avert the worst of climate effects. For proponents, chasing projects with high regulatory risk wastes both time and money in a race with little tolerance for error. Delayed in-service dates for projects reduce the value of their future revenue streams, exacerbated by the current higher interest rate environment. Such delays can result in promising projects falling in value and being canceled.

However, one technology company HAS brought together the special combination of deep multi-faceted energy industry insight, permitting process, regulatory and legal knowhow, and technology capability to help infrastructure developers, operators, and investors crack the code on this problem.

Arbo is a specialist technology-and-advisory business that has delivered the new technologies, advanced analytics and algorithms to improve the ability of project developers to execute in this environment.

Russian cyber hackers claimed to have penetrated the operations of a Canadian gas pipeline and caused some disruption.

For those of us living some distance from the equator, mostly northerners, but also a few hardy souls in the south, interruptions in energy supply are rare, short lived, weather related, and almost always about electrical power. My friends in Houston, energy capital of the US, tell me that they frequently experience minor power interruptions, which we never hear about, because, frankly, it’s not news.

But when oil or gas infrastructure is involved, it’s newsworthy because it is a rare occurrence, the product is hazardous and hard to contain once it’s loose in the wild, and we generally have little direct experience about dealing with a protracted interruption in supply.

In my 60 odd years (and lately they’ve been pretty odd), I have no memories at all about coping with fuel supply disruption. And that includes years living abroad, and lots of international travel.

But there are a number of reasons why I’m skeptical about this story.

“Wow!”, exclaimed Kelly, the site supervisor at the large petrochemical plant. “Are you telling me that I can take my iPhone onto the site? It’s safe now? What can I do with it?"
Yes, Kelly, you can, IF you have the right phone AND the right case.

As they are in our personal lives, smart phones are indispensable Swiss Army Knives of digital utility, and they will be highly welcome on oil and gas sites, petrochemical plants, and many other industrial sites besides.

As Kelly well knows, today’s intrinsically unsafe device holds the record for the longest running streak as the number one controllable site safety risk for the past ten years because it induces inattentiveness for the user, enables unauthorized site surveillance, and triggers (maybe) the next front page news refinery explosion.

But tomorrow, your smart phone will be viewed as the single most important safety enabler on the site, beating out hand rails on stairs, emergency wash stations, light bulbs, and lids on coffee cups. I bet you won’t be allowed on site without on.

Here are a handful of the ways that such a phone and case could benefit the front line worker.

"The people that design software, are unfortunately often a long ways away from the people that are out in the field using it."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Shaun Syvertsen, the CEO of ConvergentIS. He has built a company around the opportunity to make a widely used technology (SAP) super easy to use–so easy in fact that users don’t need training, or very little. It all stems from the need to improve adoption rates, and it turns out that ease of use, reduction in fear of technology, and empathy, are keys to successful adoption. There’s much scope in the SAP landscape for such an idea because enterprise technology needs to appeal to a very large, multi-industry market, leaving very niche areas underserved.

"When you make it so easy that you have a group of people that can just go and follow the steps, and they know they're going to get it right, and you're guiding them to get it right, then nobody's scared to go do it."

Shaun Syvertsen is the Managing Partner and CEO of ConvergentIS. He has more than 20 years of experience leading, advising, and delivering successful programs, projects, and initiatives for various companies in the oil and gas, financial, public sector, transportation/logistics, automotive, manufacturing, and IT industries in Canada, the US, and Germany.

"Our target state is you actually can't tell the difference between our solution and what SAP built. You install it inside SAP, you don't have to figure out how to integrate it."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaunsyv/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/convergentis/

Website:
https://www.convergentis.com/

As far back as 2004, I explored the possibility of deploying cellular phones within an oil refining complex. The idea of persistent and safe communications with supervisors and lead hands by phone or text message during the work day was intuitively attractive, and we imagineered many a positive use case. This was in the era of the BlackBerry mobile phone, long before Apple created the smart phone category.

However, we ultimately abandoned the concept.

A decade later in 2014, I was reminded how far consumer technology has progressed when I was contacted by a young Australian field engineer with a creative mobile worker solution. The young engineer’s solution had cost all of $500. He had taken a risk by using a consumer-grade tablet, but the gas assets were all outdoors, and the risk of a conflagration minimal. He also took a lot of grief back in the home office for disrupting the normal work routine, and was told to cease and desist his innovation.

Fast forward yet another decade, to 2023, and Suncor has rolled out the new cases and handsets to thousands of front line workers, and the use cases that I had imagined 20 years ago are finally being realized.

Heavy industry has long known that intoxication and some kinds of work simply don’t mix. Digital technologies are helping overcome the risk of hard-to-detect intoxicants on the job site.

Worker safety is a VERY BIG DEAL in oil and gas. Moving equipment, pressurized vessels, high voltage, dangerous gases, hot surfaces, sharp objects, dark and wet conditions, drops from height, slippery surfaces, falling objects… the risks in the industrial workplace are manifestly greater. Employees need to have their wits about them at all times.

Relative to other substance challenges, alcohol is easier for employers to manage. Other impairing substances, such as cannabis, are much more difficult to pick up. Cannabis doesn’t behave like alcohol in the body. It binds to fat cells, and is detectable for weeks, well after the intoxication effect has vanished, whereas alcohol washes out of your system relatively quickly. Unlike alcohol, the amount of cannabis you consume, and the resulting level of THC in your body, is not correlated to your level of impairment.

What if we were able to supplement the industry standard law enforcement eye exam, normally administrated by a highly trained professional, but using digital technologies such as a camera, to capture eye behaviour in response to stimuli, and an algorithm that interprets the eye behaviour?

A quick trial of ChatGPT reveals its considerable strengths and its worrisome weaknesses in generating energy talking points.

One of my many contacts asked me a rather simple question earlier this week: Why does Greenpeace not like LNG? My contact is from Germany, and presumably has lots of family members and friends there who have been living through Germany’s recent natural gas energy angst.

As a thought experiment I wondered how a modern digital solution like ChatGPT might answer the same question, so I asked it the same question.

ChatGPT did not disappoint, but neither did it impress. I would be cautious relying on ChatGPT to help with understanding the complex world of energy security. This little episode is a fine illustration of the perils of this kind of technology at this early stage of its life:

ChatGPT’s grasp of the technical facts around LNG, a 60 year old technology, is weak. That does not bode well for its understanding of more modern and complicated technologies.
ChatGPT’s responses are quickly generated, which is value, but we need to be very sure we are asking the right questions, and we take the time to quiz the responses to see if interesting and relevant contradictory information is being unintentionally withheld.
Many in society lack the patience, the skepticism, and the inquiry skills to push back on the narratives produced by generative AI. Fortunately, that’s not the oil and gas industry. We’re a skeptical bunch.

"Hydraulic fracture is not just about breaking new rock, it's about fundamentally rejuvenating the existing natural fractures and bedding planes that are in the rock fabric itself."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Andrew McMurray, the CEO and Co-Founder of ShearFrac. Andrew and his team are using cloud capabilities from AWS to deliver complex calculations to frack teams that improve the performance of frack jobs (lowering the cost of fracturing operations and improving the yields). Interestingly, by giving frack teams a new actionable KPI that is geared to outputs (yield) and not solely inputs (water and sand pumped), performance improves.

"Anything that you can do in real time to respond in real time is going to add more value than if you make a bunch of decisions, look back at them and realize they were the wrong decisions."

Andrew is a Mechanical Engineer with a passion for responsible hydrocarbon recovery and technology development. Throughout his career, Andrew has been successful in developing and executing disruptive completion technologies in the industry as an operator with Shell or as part of a service company, STEP. Before Co-Founding Shear FRAC Group, LLC, Andrew was the General Manager of Canada for Darcy Partners, focused on identifying, developing, and accelerating innovative technology across multiple petroleum verticals.

"I'm so proud to be a Canadian engineer, because on a global basis, we're very respected for our understanding of the subsurface and our ability to do things environmentally friendly and responsibly."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-mcmurray-78b4521b/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28831831

YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@shearfrac2019
Website:
https://shearfrac.com/

I’ve written hundreds of articles and podcast episodes about the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, and I’m still learning stuff I didn’t know. At an LNG conference recently, I heard speakers share perspectives on a range of topics that warranted a reminder of the nuances of this fascinating industry.

LNG is a wondrous fuel with loads of potential for humanity, but it does have its quirks. The next time you hear some magical story about how LNG will save the world, or some equally gloomy review of its potential to destroy the planet, dust off this podcast for a sense check.

Here’s eight things about LNG that you probably didn’t know.

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Mike Procee, who at the time of recording was the Manager of Enterprise Innovation, Enablement, and Culture at TC Energy, a large oil and gas utility. Mike’s background in entrepreneurship and engineering came together at TC who wanted to accelerate their ability to deal with energy transition and digitalization. The company created an innovation hub that could provide its business units with facilitation, coaching and guidance to improve its ability to embrace positive change. It’s proof that big energy companies can change their stripes.

"Everyone's heard the stories about Kodak. Everyone's heard the story about BlockBuster. Nobody wants to kind of follow in their footsteps."

Here are some of Mike's quotes from the podcast...

"These little collisions, with HR combining with engineering, your marketing team combining with sales, these groups that don't typically work together getting together are seeing these innovative solutions, and then actually driving more value out of them."

"The argument can be made that you don't want to define innovation. Sometimes you want to create a very open space to let the horses run free."

Today, Mike is the Manager of Project Enablement at TC Energy. Mike is an experienced Mechanical Engineer with a demonstrated history of working in hydraulic design and leveraging those skills to help facilitate discussion for optimization. He is passionate about innovation and employee experience while exploring their connection to bottom-line impacts.

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-procee-mba-p-eng-06860478/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tcenergy/

A large integrated oil and gas company has invited me to address their global center for data excellence. That such an organizational creation is necessary is both telling for some and enlightening for others.

Data has been central to my work on digital innovations in oil and gas from the very beginning because digital innovation is almost always about capturing value from a reliable data asset. My simple digital innovation formula includes data at its very core:

Sensors generate data
Analytics (AI and machine learning tools) interpret the data
Semi-autonomous and fully autonomous devices (robots, drones) carry out real work using that data
Cloud computing is where data lives
Trusted ledger services provide confidence in the data.

In hindsight, it’s rather sensible that a center for data excellence is now part of the organization structure of a big oil and gas player. Without better data acumen, oil and gas companies are like street brawlers showing up for a fist fight only to discover the opponent is equipped with a pistol. We’re seriously outgunned in the fight for talent, the battle for capital investment, and the latest race called energy transition (which has a huge data theme to it).

The work culture of oil and gas is the basis for why our industry lags other sectors in how we think about and approach data.

“It's extremely frustrating to have to make decisions on our multibillion dollar assets, with only a piece of paper in your hand, and a radio on the other side of your hip.”

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Andrea Hine, who is a Product Owner within the Connected Worker Program at Suncor Energy. Working with Otterbox, Andrea and her team have developed the world’s first iPhone UL safety case, which means workers on industrial sites can now have a consumer-grade phone with them. This is absolutely ground breaking. The connected front line worker has been the hardest problem to solve in industry, but Andrea and team have done it.

“We're making really big decisions about worker safety and in keeping our assets running with a piece of paper that may have out of date information. You don't have subject matter experts available to you. it's incredibly frustrating.”

Andrea Hine is as a Product Owner within Suncor’s Digital Innovation and Development team. Andrea leverages her extensive front-line experience and creative mindset to drive technology initiatives. With a decade of field expertise and a fervent dedication to empowering workers, Andrea plays a pivotal role by delivering tools that enhance safety and efficiency.

“If you make workers lives easier for them by giving them software and interfaces, and a piece of hardware that's easy to use, and really intuitive, workers will be on board”

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-hine-45884928/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/suncor

Twitter handles:
@suncor
Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/suncorenergy/
Website:
https://www.otterboxbusiness.com/ccrz__CCPage?pagekey=Industrial
https://www.suncor.com

As we work through energy transition, market forces are poised to create asset discontinuities. They are already wreaking havoc with the oil supply chain.

Today’s news from the shipping industry brings energy transition into sharp relief. An industry monitor noted a collapse in the order books for very large crude carriers (VLCCs, ships that carry two million barrels or more of crude oil). You might not think this is a big deal, but if your first name is Greta, you probably think it’s great news.

Which gets us to the following problem: if the capacity to move tidal crude oil to market declines by more than the demand for tidal crude oil declines, then we will eventually have a shortage of crude oil carriers. Prices for moving tidal crude to market will have to rise.

In addition to the shortfall in capacity from a lack of orders, a number of ships have gone over to the grey market, carrying sanctioned Russian oil products, effectively being withdrawn from general service.

Extend this kind of industrial thinking to all the assets in the oil industry value chain and a number of eventualities become quite real.

A banking collapse was not likely on the long list of worries that plague the digital entrepreneur. What are the kinds of risks that digital startups face in oil and gas?

March 15 stands in infamy as the day that Julius Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting of the Roman Senate. The conspirators, led by Brutus and Cassius, were ratted out by a seer, who ominously warned Caesar that harm would come to him that day, advice that Caesar pointedly ignored because:

he was arrogant, popular and successful—precisely why the Senators chose to off him, and
the seer was not unhelpful in clarifying exactly when the harm would come, where in Rome, and what form the harm might take.

With hindsight, ‘Beware the Ides’ was sound advice from the seer, who apparently derived his insights by consulting the entrails of recently deceased animals.

I too have ‘gut instincts’, but generally I’m more data driven and not in the business of conducting colonoscopies of goats and sheep for clues about the future.

The Ides did not disappoint this year, as it turns out. The big event of the week was the failure of the Silicon Valley Bank, who stands accused of ignoring an iron-clad law of financing—they were inadequately hedged against rising interest rates, and lost a bundle when forced to sell a bond investment at a huge loss.

The biggest new supply of energy after renewables will not come from a new oil and gas field, but from virtualized energy.

A few years ago, we bought a mobile battery booster pack (itself includes a lead acid battery) for just such emergencies, but we had never plugged in it, it too was dead, and worst of all, beyond recovery. We called around only to discover that there’s no publicly accessible mobile battery boosting service in our little town.

And now both that little vehicle lead acid battery and gasoline tank are about to give way to a much larger lithium ion battery in an electric vehicle. A vehicle battery will store enough power to run much of your household needs (short of heat) for 10 days or longer.

No more visits to the gas station. Instead, all those vehicle batteries will have to plug into the power grid to get power (or to the home solar panel system if you have that kind of money) called ‘grid to vehicle’ or G2V. Power utilities have conveniently strung copper wires to virtually to every street corner.

Through that same plug, power can be dispatched back to the grid, or ‘vehicle to grid’, aka V2G.

Plug in all these vehicles to draw power at the same time and we’ll bring the grid to its knees. On the other hand, plug in enough vehicles with some software smarts at the same time, and an enormous amount of that battery power can be simultaneously dispatched back to the grid.

The biggest oil discovery of my generation was in Detroit in the form of a technology shift. The adoption of battery electric vehicles is unlocking the largest new supply of power in the form of virtual power plants, and at the same time, hammering gasoline demand, natural gas investment and power generation.

New sophisticated artificial intelligence tools are coming to oil and gas. There’s plenty of upside, but lots of worries too.

Language processing has been one of those things that humans have claimed to be uniquely of our species. Sure, other creatures are known to communicate with each other using sound—whales sing, dolphins chirp, and dogs bark—but only humans have created symbols to abstractly represent language, to allow language to be taught, to codify its usage, and to reduce the potential for misinterpretation.

Imagine a bot with unlimited patience, unlimited but flawed technical depth on a range of topics, continuously learning, fluent in multiple languages, globally consistent, universally available, supremely self confident, frequently wrong, and massively parallel. Imagine if that bot relied instead on much internal corporate resources, and not exclusively on the flawed information sources of the wild internet.

How might such a content machine impact the oil and gas sector?

"You've got huge amounts of data, and siloed, across many different teams and many deep technical disciplines. And that makes it really hard to get the full picture. And without the full picture, it's really hard to optimize something."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Riley O’Donnell, who is the CEO and co-founder of Endla. The potential to optimize a gigantic industry of unimaginably value with almost unlimited number of variables in the face of constantly improving technology is unbounded.

"Maybe it's a $100 million dollar problem that you have to have before you can really justify pulling a room of 10 engineers together for a day or two. But when you've got information assets that can help you solve that, all of a sudden, you can be tackling 20 $10 million problems across that same period of time."

It’s so hard to tackle the $100m problems that there’s no capacity to go after the $20m problems. But with better tools that break down the information silos across technical disciplines, these problems become solveable much more quickly.

"Because it's quite complex, and there's many different dials and knobs you can turn when approaching a problem, means the solution space is very, very large."

Riley O’Donnell is the co-founder and CEO of Endla. Endla began through Riley's experience in industry as a process engineer, where he built internal software to help his team do its job at both ExxonMobil and Santos. He saw the benefit of the software first hand, however, but also saw that these organisations were unable to maintain it long term. At Endla, Riley is combining engineering and software skills to provide the next generation of software to engineers working with physical assets.

"The reason we're focused on unconventionals is because it's a bit of a factory operation. It's really how efficiently and cost effectively can you put these wells in the ground."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rileyodonnell-1/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/endla/

Website:
Https://Endla.com

With payments technology innovating at a rapid clip, are energy companies ready to overhaul their snail-like order to cash processes?

In the digital world, payments technology is evolving very rapidly. Micro payments, automated payments, direct deposits, touchless payments, 100% cashless businesses, crypto exchange, non-bank banks, novel debit and credit payment solutions, loyalty points for goods and services, payment through apps… the list goes on.

But what about the energy industry? Of course, the energy sector has some unique features that make it harder to adopt these new payment mechanisms, but several innovations could transform one of the sector’s biggest headaches.

There is a huge prize to be captured here, amounting to fully 10% of the cost of large energy enterprises, once carrying costs for all purchase activity is factored in. And with interest rates on the rise, financing that float is about to get a lot more expensive for everyone. Fortunately we have all the digital tools at hand to turn that snail into a proper performance vehicle.

"Many people think of information as being data. But information is not necessarily data that they then can be analyzed and turned into analytics."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Chip Moldenhauer who is the Founder and CEO of Arbo, an energy data analytics firm. Compliance with energy regulations is a minimum requirement for any new energy investment. However, the regulations are not codified and structured as you’d find in an ERP system. It’s unstructured text, which means it’s time-consuming to find all the relevant regulations and figure out how they apply in a specific instance. Add in the urgency to hit climate targets and the huge wave of government funding heading into clean energy, and suddenly regulatory data analytics becomes highly valuable.

"The big problem that the industry was trying to solve as, as at least the United States, and most of the world was trying to do that shift from coal to gas, that was how long is it going to take to build transportation necessary to move that product that was going to help decarbonize the world and bring power to many more people."

Chip is the founder and CEO of Arbo, an energy data analytics firm that transforms energy regulatory data into business intelligence and insights that drive infrastructure permitting and commercial decisions. Chip founded Arbo to help improve the strategic decision making needed to sustain America’s critical infrastructure, achieve energy independence and support the energy evolution.

"Knowing the timing of the permitting process is directly related to how much a project is going to cost."

Prior to founding Arbo, Chip practiced energy regulatory law at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP and advised clients’ senior leaders on strategic solutions to high stakes regulatory, policy and litigation issues. Chip served with distinction as a naval surface warfare officer responsible for leading large engineering divisions on ships deployed overseas in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and The Catholic University of America School of Law.

"And I think most research shows that we need to build that grid out at a rate of four to five times what we've built before."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chip-moldenhauer/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/goarbo

Twitter handles:
@go_arbo
Website:
www.goarbo.com

For the first time in your life, the relationships you have with your energy suppliers are contestable. But why are fossil fuel companies not in the contest?

Businesses are in continuous contests for the consumer wallet. I’m presently scheming on a house renovation program and I’ve invited four renovation contractors to the contest. My relationship with a renovation contractor is contestable at the moment but once I select someone to work with, the contest is over.

How does contestability work in the context of the energy industry?

As consumers, we’re conditioned to have an ambivalent unemotional relationship with our energy. It’s just there, lurking behind the light switch, or sloshing around in the gas tank, or springing into hot action when the house temperature falls too low in winter. Many people have no idea who even supplies their energy or how it gets to their homes.

As a result, our relationship as energy consumers with energy suppliers is not particularly contestable. Once you sign up with a local gas or power supplier, you don’t easily or often change. It’s fire and forget. Even payments are automatic.

It’s been this way for my entire life, 60+ years.

And it’s all about to change.

"There has been no device historically that can detect cannabis impairment in real time. Cannabis works very differently in the body than does alcohol. So you can measure the amount of alcohol in the body and derive the experienced impairment from that number. The same is not true of cannabis."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Ken Fichtler, the founder and CEO of Gaize. Cannabis is now legal in many places where oil and gas is produced, refined and distributed. Cannabis is increasing in potency, people consume it more, and it lasts longer in body than alcohol, but with different impairment impacts. Without a better way to detect impairment, companies may simply not bother with any testing. Ken set out to find a digital solution to this problem, which is way harder than it sounds, but Gaize is now ready for prime time.

"Is there a way we can currently detect cannabis impairment? And the only thing that I could find were these drug recognition, expert eye tests."

Ken Fichtler is the founder and CEO of Gaize, a first of its kind real-time impairment detection platform. Gaize uses analyzes eye movement changes using artificial intelligence to discover impairment from cannabis and other drugs. He’s a prior founder, proven operator, angel investor, and most recently served as Director of Economic Development for the State of Montana under Governor Steve Bullock. There he was responsible for adding thousands of jobs paying radically more than the state’s average wages, recruited leading technology companies to the state, and managed the economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ken lives in Missoula, Montana with his family where he enjoys a broad variety of outdoor activities and serves on several boards.

"Each class of drug has a unique bio signature that manifests in the eyes. And that basically just translates to a unique way in which the eye movement changes in response to that drug or to the impairment from that drug."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenfichtler/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gaizesafety

Twitter handles:
@GaizeSafety
@kenfichtler
Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/gaizesafety
Website:
https://www.gaize.ai

This week concludes a series I started last week on the trends to watch in 2023.

As a reminder, at the start of every year, I take a step back from the daily news feeds about energy to dwell instead on the many longer-stride trends that are impacting oil and gas.

There are many ways to frame such analysis, and the framework I’m using goes by the name STEEPLE. The letters form a mnemonic, which refers to Social, Technology, Economy, Environment, Politics, Legal, and Ethical. The mnemonic started life as PEST, then evolved into STEEP, PESTLE and STEEPLE by progressively adding additional categories.

This episode will focus on the back half of STEEPLE: Environment, Politics, Legal, and Ethical.

The environmental trends are those that concern themselves with our natural world.

At times, the energy industry seems to be driven by a singular environmental factor—rising levels of atmospheric carbon concentration. However, there are many other worrisome trends to keep front of mind.

Political trends are almost by definition country specific, but there are a few biggish ones that factor into energy calculations.

The first trend is aggressive energy geopolitics. Russia has demonstrated how an autocratic political regime over time can be tempted to use a carefully constructed energy market monopoly to bend market dependents to its will. Energy importers will be careful not to lock into such dependencies in the future, and the trend will clearly be to diversify energy supply or move to self sufficiency in energy.

The legal environment for energy is not static, but it doesn’t change quickly either. Nevertheless, I keep an eye on a few important trends.

Activists have been successful in weaponizing legal systems in western economies to tackle the energy industry. Approval cycles for energy developments (and even housing for veterans) in the western world continue to slow down and are now structurally out of step with both the rising demand for energy and the speed society demands to deal with climate effects.

It has long been recognized that there is an ethical dilemma at the very heart of the industry—the production and consumption of petroleum delivers great benefits for society but at a serious environmental and social cost. Halting the industry will quickly starve us and continuing the industry will slowly cook us.

"It is very similar to what we've been doing an oil gas for many years, in an exploration sense. The mindset is there’s risk. At the beginning... you look at data."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Patrick Ng, the CEO and Founder of ShaleForce, a geothermal company, on generative AI and how it has been used by ShaleForce. If we drill deep enough, we will find geothermal resources, but not all are suitable. One application idea is to aim for geothermal resources where there are existing coal power plants. These plants will eventually be retired, but with a different kind of boiler, the plants could find renewed life. Geothermal energy is also applicable to many industrial processes currently supplied by hydrocarbons, including steel making, cement, food processing, pulp and paper, and many others.

"Early in the shale revolution before 2010, people will say, hey, there’s shale everywhere. I look at it like factory drilling. I look at so many acres, and look at how many wells I can place and go with it. Very quickly, they find out if that's the way you go, you're gonna blow a lot of capital. The reason is geology is not uniform or costs, right? It has the variabilities."

Patrick Ng is the founder and CEO of ShaleForce, a data analytics and energy intelligence company. Patrick started his career in R&D, and eventually moved into analytics, primarily software development, geophysical imaging and inversion applications / services for the oil & gas sector. His passion is helping communities thrive during energy transition by leveraging his background in technology application and petroleum geology to expand the energy supply and radically lower emission for industry, such as geothermal.

"If our target, our goal is to radically reduce carbon emission for industry, let's say not just electrons, not just electricity, there are a lot of industries with heavy use of energy, that can benefit from direct heat, or superheated water."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-ng-6421b5

Website:
https://www.shaleforce.com
Reference paper:
https://energy.utexas.edu/research/geothermal-texas

I admit it. I’m an energy industry junkie. My news feeds are chock full of energy stories, I chase down obscure items that interest me, and I scrutinize energy industry changes to understand their hidden meanings and bigger implications. It’s for this reason that every year around this time, I step back from the task of satisfying my daily energy news fix and focus instead on the many bigger swinging trends that are buffeting the world.

In this episode I’m using a framework called STEEPLE, which refers to Social, Technology, Economy, Environment, Politics, Legal, and Ethical. It’s a way to categorize ideas into manageable buckets.

The category of social trends includes topics like demographics, shifts in settlements, human migrations, and cultural changes.

I like to consider the social trends with the biggest impacts on the energy industry which tend to be those that drive demand and supply.

Tech trends cover more ground than just digital, and include science advancements, materials, new energy, health care, and many others, but I’m mostly focused on digital for this article.

The pace of digital innovation is not abating, and is likely accelerating as investments in select foundational capabilities come to fruition.

Economic trends covers such topics as markets, commodities, interest rates, employment, and much besides. Looking beyond commodity price reveals a host of important trends in the global economy.

"There's a move towards digital transformation. And there's two aspects of that. There's digitisation and there's digitalization."

"If it's digitized, you're simply taking, like a hardcopy, and you're scanning it near attaching it to a record of some sort."

"By digitalizing, it, I'm actually putting it in a format that the computer can process. It's much more efficient..."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Tony Ciliberti, who is the founder of Reliability Dynamics. Tony is an authority on digitalization of equipment operating data, which is near and dear to my heart. Without good data, you can’t really get the full benefits of digitalization. Worse, poor quality reliability data costs money, and carbon, as engineers have to drive to visit facilities when they don’t need to. Better quality reliability data pays back very quickly.

"[Reliability] means is being able to make equipment perform better by having the information necessary to make better decisions for the equipment."

Tony Ciliberti is the Founder and Principal of Reliability Dynamics. He is a chemical engineer with 30 years of experience in equipment reliability and risk management in the petrochemical and oil and gas industries. He is an authority on data digitalization and the application of ISO 14224 methods. He developed and patented engineering methods that resolve pervasive equipment performance data quality issues in EAM solutions. He chairs the CCPS Process Equipment Reliability Database (PERD) Project. He participates actively in ISO technical standards development as the ANSI-appointed US Expert in ISO/TC67/WG4/PG1 and is a contributing author of the ISO 14224:2016 standard. He teaches the ISO course on how to apply ISO 14224 in enterprise software.

"If I'm thinking that I'm gonna get information from the field, and I want to be able to validate it with a system, which I do, right, I've got to make sure that the data requirements aligned with the type of work."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tciliberti + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reliability-dynamics-llc/

Websites:
https://reliabilitydynamics.com/
https://pf-prod-sapit-partner-prod.cfapps.eu10.hana.ondemand.com/profile/0001223132
https://store.sap.com/dcp/en/product/display-0000060110_live_v1/industry-standard-solution-for-plant-maintenance
https://www.sap.com/dmc/exp/2013_09_adpd/enEN/#/partners?search=ispm&id=p:p10016
Patent
System and Method for Enterprise Asset Management and Failure Reporting System and Method for Enterprise Asset Management and Failure Reporting, US 11,157,519 B2 · Issued Oct 26, 2021

There are a handful of oil and gas industry conferences (ADIPEC, Gastech, CERAWeek) that are distinguished by their global nature, the topics being discussed, the scale of their trade show floors, and their enduring focus. Gastech is one of the biggest and best of the lot. I first came across Gastech in 2015 when I was living in Australia, and the Gastech conference was then being held in Singapore—unsurprisingly, as Australia was then building out its world-class liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, gas prices were off the charts in Japan (US$18 per gigajoule), and the talk was all about expansion potential. Today $18 seems like a bargain and LNG is back on the table in a big way.

Gastech moves around the world to different locations, but is planned out years in advance. Sometimes the gods place favour on locations by dint of world happenings, and this year’s affair was conveniently located in Milan, Italy, a mere 6 months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Energy security suddenly leapt onto the agenda.

Not everyone has the budgetary wherewithal to travel to distant centers for conferences (I know I don’t) and time zones get in the way of attentiveness. Here’s a snapshot of the key topics discussed at the conference.

Overshadowed by events in Europe, the drive to digitalize the energy industry took a back seat to energy security and energy transition at the conference. Read between the lines, however, and the importance of a robust digital foundation in a rapidly evolving energy landscape has never been greater.

The world is getting a stark lesson on energy geopolitics and energy security in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

It’s useful from time to time to view the decisions that major energy exporting nations are making that impact the energy security profile of consumer nations, and the risks of man-made catastrophic supply disruption, including the aftermath of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

For example, China, as a big oil importer but with a strong industrial policy towards clean energy, will be able to seek favourable trade deals with exporters, in exchange for market access. On the horizon is the shift to new drivetrain technology for mobility. The list of countries that have banned the sale of internal combustion engine cars beyond 2030 is starting to grow impressively.

Digital issues factor into this kind of analysis, which gives rise to the question: how does digital innovation play into the geopolitics of the global oil industry? Digital innovations will increasingly play a role in the geopolitical world of oil and gas, and with unpredictable effects.

"The kind of customer centric focus, despite the industries being so different, [means] that the customer has a need for an easy to use interface and fully supported software as a service that has no downtime, because the people have no downtime either."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Kate Allen, who is the Product Manager, PetroChemical Division for TruSolutions. Kate’s team focuses on supporting both third party and owner/operator inspections of industrial equipment, which historically has been a pen and paper process, with lots of manual reports. But in the face of staffing shortages, new tech savvy employees, and the pending retirement of aging experts, companies are transforming their inspections practices and technologies, and gaining important strategic benefits alongside proven ROI.

"Third parties are being asked to provide the same number of inspections with a significant shortage in staffing who are qualified to do so. Both industries are facing this great changeover with all of their subject matter experts heading towards retirement age."

Kate Allen is the Product Manager, PetroChemical Division for Tru Solutions, a company that provides quality assurance software for industrial companies. Kate describes herself as ‘a wife, mother, and Petrochemical Product Manager from St. Louis, MO.’

"If you're not capturing your data digitally now, how do you think you're gonna throw it into this awesome 3d modeling of your entire refinery?"

Kate began her career in software over 20 years ago with a small, local start-up serving the third party recruiting market. Since then, she has worked in a variety of industries across various platforms helping clients standardize processes, improve efficiency, and leverage data for decision making. When she's not visiting the nation's finest refineries, you can find her screaming from the sidelines at a youth sports match, or perfecting her sourdough recipe.

"Compliance and safety are a byproduct of conducting your inspections correctly."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-allen-57601061/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tru-solutions-digital/mycompany/

Website:
https://trusolutions.com/solutions/api/

TradeLens, the IBM/Maersk venture to overhaul international shipping documentation handling, has been abandoned and will come to an end. Long live TradeLens.

Now, if you’re wondering what this post has to do with digital innovations in oil and gas, consider that oil (and increasingly gas) is shipped internationally. The oil and gas industry is also a huge buyer of stuff that is sourced internationally and improvements in shipping are directly relevant to the cost of the industry. The underlying technology building blocks (cloud computing, blockchain, data standards, analytics) are common to many oil and gas innovations too.

TradeLens had a lot going for it:

A big and global problem to solve
A compelling business case for the customers
Big global partners with deep pockets able to finance the development and actuate the marketing
Deep skills in the key domains (shipping, technology)
Alignment with the partners’ respective business strategies (IBM as delivery partner and Maersk as business domain expert)

The timing for the venture was not ideal. Despite being well hypothesized, the pandemic timing was not predicted, nor was the timing of the invasion of Ukraine. The pandemic has hammered supply chains globally, and the invasion has disrupted food movements, energy flows and lots besides. Participants throughout the supply chains likely have their hands full just trying to cope, let along embrace new ways of working. I can imagine uptake wasn’t strong, but that’s the reality of start ups and shouldn’t be an excuse.

So here’s to the death of TradeLens the platform, but long live TradeLens the idea of transformation international shipping to be more like Uber and less like Where’s Waldo.

"There were some really important and interesting measurement problems that were non medical, but most venture dollars went into medical than what you'd think from the the market size for the most important measurement problems..."

In this episode Ian and I have a lengthy discussion on the challenges of data measurement and management in oil and gas. The industry is heavily dependent on the data it gathers from sensors, and dramatic improvements in telecommunications and analytics has thoroughly upended how companies can approach the management of their data. Topics include data uncertainty, how much measurement is too much, the impact of better measurement for careers in the industry, and much else besides.

"When the original IT infrastructure was built, it was built with the assumption baked in that you had to curate most of your data before it left the field."

Ian Burgess is President and co-founder of Validere. He is the technical and innovation lead and has become one of the leading industry experts on commodity measurement, emissions and carbon sequestration measurement, and the emerging carbon markets.

"If you think about geoscience and all of the advances that have happened up to and including the shale revolution in downhole, it just seems like it can't be true that the reason why there's a data management problem, whether you're looking at emissions or quantities themselves, is because oil and gas operators don't like technology."

Ian is an interdisciplinary scientist whose inventions have been recognized with an R&D 100 Award and featured in Scientific American, Chemical & Engineering News, Nature Photonics, and Materials Today. He has a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard and a Bachelor’s in Math and Physics from the University of Waterloo.

"There's not enough emphasis placed on understanding the uncertainty in a piece of data, and accounting for what affects that uncertainty and what doesn't."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-burgess-35966337/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/validere/

Twitter handles:
@validere
Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/valideretechnologies/
Website:
https://bit.ly/3Dw7fcF
Interesting article by Ian:
https://bit.ly/40wwCFc

Leaders lead by example, but what does that mean for the manager or supervisor of an oil and gas asset tasked with embracing digital?

In my book, ‘Carbon, Capital, and the Cloud’, I describe the stages of personal change that people go through as they deal with digital, particularly in heavy industry, such as oil and gas. People are so different—not everyone starts at the same stage, their pace varies dramatically, and many will not progress beyond doubt or skepticism. Their progress is influenced both positively and negatively by outside forces as well as internal influencers.

Digital adoption in heavy industry is hard work because it’s about people and culture, but there are many small and immediate steps managers can take to get going.

None

"There's a gap currently between the way the small startup companies would think about how to get investment dollars and grant dollars to keep their company alive, and what the big operators need to have a deployable project."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Bradley Wamboldt, who is the principal associate of Hawk and Squirrel Innovation. Bradley specialises in helping industrial companies innovate with hard technologies such as new industrial equipment and processes. Innovations in hard technology have strong parallels with soft technology (digital), and hard technology these days is usually accompanied by some kind of digital overlay.

"If you look to move to a more distributed energy generation and consumption model, there's going to be a tremendous amount of infrastructure required. We're talking about 20 terawatts of energy used by the planet. Currently, about 85% of that is fossil fuel. So the scale of this energy transition, we're really just starting to scratch the surface."

Bradley Wamboldt is the Principal Associate at Hawk & Squirrel Innovation, a boutique consultancy and technology development practice in Calgary. Bradley has over 30 years of experience in oil and gas operations, project development, commissioning, operations, and technology development with both Shell Canada and Suncor Energy.

"Every day you go to work you think about three things, and none of them have to do with change. Number one is safety. Safety is always making sure everybody comes home. Number two is how many barrels did you produce today. Number three is keeping the costs in line."

He is currently focusing his efforts on assisting large and small companies in advancing new energy transition and decarbonization technologies from research through to commercial deployment. Bradley has a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from McGill University and an MBA (with distinction) from Ivey School of Business at Western University.

Here are some of the key questions addressed in the episode:

Is there more than one way to roll out industrial infrastructure? What are they?
Who is good at introducing change to brownfield infrastructure?
What are the key incentives that drive the energy industry?
Where should innovation be placed in an organization? Operations?
What tactics work well in driving business improvements and disruptive change?
What changes do we need to see implemented to accelerate the pace of change?

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradley-wamboldt-54890a16/

LinkedIn Newsletter: https://www.linkedin.com/newsletters/6962843417353543682/

The World Petroleum Congress is just around the corner, and it’s coming to Calgary.

n the global landscape of oil and gas events, a few stand out because they are truly global in that they change venues rather like the Olympics, they’re infrequent (perhaps every three or four years, allowing the passage of time to provide for fresh insight on the latest topics), and they’re large. My most recent personal experience at such an event was LNG18, held in Perth, Australia in 2016, with a focus (obviously) on the global liquefied natural gas trade. Australia had arisen, from the ashes of the 2008-09 global financial crisis, to become one of the world’s largest producers of LNG, and Australia’s experiences were the topic of considerable global interest.

Well, Calgary is about to experience something quite rare, which is a return visit of the World Petroleum Congress (WPC), in September of 2023. This is a big deal, and not just because of the inflow of tourism dollars into the local economy. Only four cities have ever hosted the WPC more than once.

Now is the time to get this on your business calendar for 2023.

"Europe is building a bunch of regasification plants on their end. So the demand is going to be high for people to start filling that pipeline, for LNG."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Mark Smith, the President and co-founder of CleanConnect.ai. In a prior life, Mark launched Windows NT Magazine, an international publication about the fast evolving technology called Windows NT. I remember reading the magazine!

"Instead of us being able to buy carbon credits from say trees in Africa and offset, the actual suppliers are going to need to prove their provenance and their carbon intensity just to sell into the gas supply chain. It's going to shift from a voluntary to much more of a mandatory deal."

Mark Smith is the President and co-founder of CleanConnect.ai. Our software suite is the only government-approved AI solution that can replace human leak-detection-and-repair operators for oil & gas companies. Mark is also the host of Digital Roughnecks, a video podcast for energy executives. Mark previously launched Windows NT Magazine, with 1.5M IT professionals subscribers in 160 countries.

"[EPA regulations will] add at least 1.4 to 1.6 million more inspections across all the operators, which is a 471% increase. I estimate it'll cost them about $831 million to do that. So that's a biggie, right? 3500 new trained LDAR inspectors."

Mark is quite used to putting out predictions about the future, and in this episode we discuss five predictions that Mark forecasts for the oil and gas industry.

Here are the 5 predictions:

Energy demand will continue to grow, but some energy products, notably LNG, will experience hypergrowth.
Energy regulations coming on stream will drive a huge ramp up of energy inspections, and with it, the need for inspectors.
Talent shortages will not only persist but will worsen as US industry reacts to the Inflation Reduction Act, pulling talent into new sectors.
Proof of emissions will become mandatory for anyone selling energy products (gas, oil, LNG)
Energy companies embrace new technologies, notably AI-enabled computer vision, to cope with the talent shortfall and regulatory growth.

Mark elaborates on these predictions with examples and anecdotes from his ongoing work and experiences in the industry.

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markhoustonsmith/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/clean-connect/

Website:
https://www.EPACheatSheet.com

A town in British Columbia can’t seem to muster the business case to purchase electric vehicles. What lessons does this hold for business leaders facing similar technology upgrade decisions?

After the usual fiscal deliberations, Administration has recommended to Council that the town stick with the status quo gasoline models for now, rather than plunking down for newer more expensive electric vehicles, based on the acquisition cost of the vehicles. It’s not a big purchase, just two trucks, but the saga illustrates the challenges that await all businesses, not just small municipalities, about facing up to the pressures of decarbonization and digitalization.

The CFO, and their organization define the swim lanes, set the rules, dictate the parameters (such as interest rates and carbon prices), and manage the overall process.

At what point do you make jump from dirty to clean and from dumb to smart? For businesses, that decision is clearly hard to make. It’s going to be up to the CFOs to change the way capital decisions are taken so that we accelerate our way to a digital energy future.

"The way we're looking at it right now is to bring balance by not consuming. That means that your car has been planned to charge during the night. But the grid operator says that there's an imbalance on the market. And then by not charging those 500,000 cars, we’re actually delivering energy to the markets and therefore a gas fired plant doesn't have to turn on."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Nick Verhoeven who is the strategic accounts manager for Jedlix. The energy stored in the battery in the average vehicle is 10 days worth of power for the average house if you exclude energy for heat.

"Power within your house for a whole day is just 10% of your car battery. And then the day after, you can just ride back to work, charge your car, again, probably solar power from the roof of your office and do the same thing again, tomorrow if necessary."

EVs both expand the demand on the grid but also create an entirely new energy customer relationship, which is up for grabs. We talk through what this means, and the implications for fuel retailers.

"Imagine you're a car brand and you want to really encapsulate your customer, and you want to really be close to them, and you sell them an electric vehicle that you want to help them charge as clean as possible. Because if not, he's going to find it somewhere else, and you lose this customer touchpoint."

Nick Verhoeven is a Strategic Accounts Manager with Jedlix, a smart meter technology company based in the Netherlands. From his first career in energy sales at an oil and gas major, Nick became increasingly exposed to renewable energy, and transitioned to the world of electric vehicles (EV) which do not use hydrocarbon fuels.

"Don't forget, an electric car uses pretty much the same amount of power in a year as a house does. So having a household with an electric car pretty much means two clients [for a power utility]."

His energy background is an asset in navigating the world of EV, which is more complex and multi-party than fossil fuel markets. At Jedlix he is responsible for building out the market for vehicle energy management solutions.

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nickverhoeven90 + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10317294/admin/

Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/Jedlix/
Website:
For businesses: https://www.jedlix.com/
For consumers: https://www.jedlix.com/evdrivers

An ad campaign asks the provocative question: if oil and gas came with a label, what would it say?

The Canadian Energy Center (CEC), a government-owned corporation, is tasked with promoting Canada as a supplier of choice for responsibly produced energy. The country’s energy industry (oil, gas, power) prides itself on its ability to meet the highest regulatory standards, its track record on environmental performance, and the general transparency of its operations, but lacks a means to give voice to these accomplishments without sounding self-serving. The CEC helps solve for this gap, and to counter the many voices keen to sway public and political opinion to oppose the energy industry in all aspects of its business.

Fortunately, the wave of digital innovations that have transformed many other markets (financial services, telecoms, entertainment), is about to have the same positive impacts on energy. The building blocks that enable democratic choice for energy products enabled by labelling energy are falling into place. These components—internet of things, cloud computing, blockchain—allow for the tracking and tracing of energy products completely throughout their independent and increasingly interconnected value chains.

I ask why energy doesn’t come with a label, and how to give it one.

Digital transformation has been sweeping across society for over a decade now, and has finally arrived in oil and gas. Digital has been a thing in our society now for over a decade. Digital businesses and models have so thoroughly permeated our daily personal lives that we are startled when we encounter the odd business that is still operating as if smart phones and websites don’t exist.

For oil and gas companies, the industrial logic of digital adoption is now both economic and existential. Digital pays for itself in cost, productivity and emissions gains, and without it, industry has little chance to attract the talent and capital it needs to evolve and adopt new business models.

If oil and gas doesn’t actuate its culture to embrace digital with urgency, it becomes increasingly difficult to attract capital, and impossible to attract talent. Fortunately, capital markets have not declared any energy company yet in a break out from the pack, so there is time. There is no Tesla yet among energy majors. New business models await.

Our sluggish response so far needs a boost of urgency.

Plug And Play, a well regarded technology incubator from Silicon Valley has announced a new cohort of Sustainability start ups that they will guide through their process. They help run innovation programs for corporates and accelerator programs for startups, across a suite of industries, including energy. You might recognize some of the small brands that they’ve nurtured — Google, PayPal, and Dropbox. Plug And Play has hundreds of corporate partners, billions in accessible capital, and access to thousands of startups.

Of the cohort, the majority, if not all, have some kind of hard technology component (sensors, vessels, charging stations, reactors, windmills, solar panels). This makes sense—the energy industry is all about molecules and electrons, chemistry and physics, steel and cement, heat, pressure and force.

For most of the plays, you have to read between the lines to detect whether there is a digital layer to the solution.

Here’s a handful of items that you might want to keep an eye on during the upcoming quarter.

My first book, ‘Bits, Bytes, and Barrels: The Digital Transformation of Oil and Gas’, set out the business case for the oil and gas industry to adopt digital innovations to lower costs and improve asset productivity. It described a way for oil and gas companies to develop digital strategy, but was relatively light on the how of digital adoption, reflecting the industry’s relatively low level of adoption.

‘Carbon, Capital, and the Cloud: A Playbook for Digital Oil and Gas’ picks up the story where ‘Bits, Bytes, and Barrels’ ended, with the current state of the industry, the rapidly evolving technologies, the emerging business models, and the pressures on change management. To make the book practical, it includes nine case studies of companies drawn from across the oil and gas industry who are moving ahead with digital adoption.

I believe every company working in oil and gas, and energy more broadly, can find their own version of the sweet spot, and claim it for their own. It’s not too late. The real challenge is not even technical, but rather the gap between our ability to innovate and the pace by which we can help people adopt innovation. The winners are going to be those that figure out how to close that gap, at scale.

Bits, Bytes, and Barrels: The Digital Transformation of Oil and Gas

None

An oft-identified barrier to adopting digital innovations in oil and gas is that the data is too ‘dirty’. But is it true?

It’s not at all surprising that the data assets of oil and gas companies are viewed with suspicion by those tasked with figuring out how to exploit digital, and by extension, data. Much of that data originates in places that are cold, dark, wet and muddy. It’s easy to assume that it’s the conditions that make for poor quality data. But that’s not the whole story.

Questionable data looks all but inevitable in an industry that works where it is cold, dark, wet and muddy. However, the reaction to, and treatment of, dirty data is well within the control of leaders in oil and gas charged with digital deployment. Immediate tactics are helpful, but we are only going to be more digital in the future, so longer term changes are the way to go.

"For emissions in the sector that we studied, the 80/20 rule really applied, because it was 80% of the emissions coming from 20% of the facilities...For those 20% it was generally not the case that there wasn't an easy fix—better maintenance programs, or just even having an operator drive by and unstick a valve."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Austin Mitchell, the CEO and co-founder of Synota, on the topic of energy finance transformation. One of the legacy challenges of energy finance is the separation of energy transactions (the movement, measurement, custody transfer, and ownership of energy products — electrons and molecules) from the financial transactions of energy products (purchase and sale agreements, contracts, settlements, and accounting).

"We've designed a physical system that's really incredible [at moving energy around], but as I spent time in industry, what became really apparent to me is that we are way less efficient at moving money back up the value chain."

Modern digital tools can fundamentally overhaul this long-standing structure by enabling real time settlement of transactions, and releasing billions of dollars in credit, interest payments, financing charges and resourcing associated with energy finance.

"In that entire value chain everybody's extending credit to everybody. If credit’s not being extended, then you're the entity having to borrow the cash to pay the person who won't give you credit. So there's credit, there's collateral, and there are departments at every energy company to manage that."

Austin Mitchell is the Co-founder and CEO of Synota and has spent his career in the energy industry. He started in academia where his research informed energy and environmental policy at state and federal levels. Austin's energy expertise includes markets, utilities and regulation, business strategy, and risk management. He is passionate about solving the global problems of energy equity and access.

"We arrive at conservative estimates of 10% of the cost of the average business and residential bill is directly tied to that financial inefficiency. It's everything from the payment processors, to the bad debt. And all of the back office processes and resources dedicated to managing the existing system."

Austin holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton, and a PhD in Engineering & Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

Austin is a proud father of two kids, loves to be active, and gives back to his community.

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/austinmitchell3/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/synota/

Twitter handles:
@aisaacsmitchell
@synota_
Website:
http://www.synota.io/

Hydrogen is suddenly the sexiest commodity on earth, with even staid German statesmen visiting Canada of all places to ask for a piece of the action.

For regular readers of this article series, you’ll know that I’m an advocate for energy in general, and a pragmatist or realist when it comes to energy planning and delivery. I don’t pick sides as I believe we need all of all when it comes to meeting the planet’s energy needs affordably, sustainably and securely. But I also believe we need to be clear-eyed about our energy policies and choices.

Hydrogen has a lot of appeal, but it’s not a short term answer to any problem I’m aware of. It’s a long term play, and to make it work, it needs the sustained collaboration of a variety of market participants. Investor beware.

The front line worker in oil and gas has been overlooked in the drive to bring digital innovation to the industry.

The career success for this group of employees is likely linked to how well they stay abreast of important developments in the industry, from the impacts of new regulations dealing with climate change to the changing energy demand and supply patterns driven by the war in Europe. To a degree they are paid to stay on top of things, and may have a small expense allowance to spend on maintaining personal awareness.

But this is not the world of the front line worker.

By definition, the FLW works in the field, usually far from a large office and rarely, if ever, are there large numbers of FLWs in a big city. They may have visited the home office during their first few weeks of initial training, but since there are so many field workers, it’s generally more cost effective to send the occasional trainer to the field, rather than fly the field to the training center.

We need to fix that.

To help bridge the gap between the front line worker and the world of digital, I’ve recorded a new short video training course on digital’s impact on the oil and gas industry, specifically for the front line worker.

It’s intentionally short, at just 50 minutes long, in 7 short videos, in keeping with the minimal amount of time that front line workers have available in their day.
It’s available on all browsers for mobile phones, tablets and laptops.
It features a handful of short quizzes that help reinforce the content.
It includes specific examples for oil and gas to underscore practicality.
It directly addresses some of the misperceptions of digital and presents the reality.
Students can take the course based on their own capacity and availability.

The course is housed on Udemy, a leading platform for on-line learning.

Look for it here.

"We estimate that potentially 25 to 30% of the overall effort on smaller brownfield projects is in just trying to find reliable records that can be edited and updated to address whatever project you're trying to do."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Scott Mussbacher, who is the Systems Integration Business Unit Manager at Vista Projects, an engineering, procurement and construction company based in Calgary. Construction engineering is critical to the oil and gas industry because the industry is capital intense–pipelines, refineries, tanks, processing plants all need complex engineering to make them functional, safe, and cost effective. Scott is helping to reimagine the interface between the build phase of an engineering project and the operate phase – how does the information generated in build play a role in operations.

"When a regulator visits, they give you a couple of weeks notice. And it's typically a big scramble to try to find the documentation, the maintenance records, the data sheets, and all the information about some asset in their sights."

Scott Mussbacher leads Vista’s System Integration team, and works closely with Vista’s Process Engineering and Project Management teams. Scott has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering – both from the University of Alberta, and is a member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA).

Scott is an expert in process engineering, project management and data-centric project execution. As the System Integration Manager, Scott leverages his expertise to guide the team through the development of digital twins for multiple clients in diverse industries. With his unique background, he brings a holistic approach to digital twins to enhance value from initial project conception through to operations and maintenance.

"An engineer does not want to be trying to find where their issues are, find where there's concerns. They want to be focused on innovative ways to solve those problems. And so you're really taking out some of the worst part of our job as engineers trying to find problems, and really focusing on the value added tasks for the project."

Scott has contributed to many client’s research and development programs by leveraging his graduate school education and experience in process engineering and management. Scott has also presented his research and expertise at multiple conferences and exhibitions.

Scott appeared on an earlier episode of Digital Innovations in Oil and Gas, and you might want to take in the previous episode.

https://digitaloilgas.libsyn.com/187-interview-with-scott-mussbacher-of-vista-projects

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-mussbacher-4350b31a + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/vista-projects/

Twitter handles:
@vistaprojects
Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/VistaProjectsLtd
Website:
http://www.vistaprojects.com

Incoming waves of new digital innovations promise to transform a hidden but important business model embedded throughout oil and gas—the ERP platform.

You might not know this, but many years ago, when I was on my way to becoming a partner with Deloitte, I studied how to implement enterprise resource planning (ERP) technologies, specifically PeopleSoft. I took a number of courses at their offices in Walnut Creek California on the Finance modules. But in the oil and gas world, SAP became the dominant solution, Oracle purchased PeopleSoft, and my short-lived career as an ERP implementation consultant came to an abrupt end. And so, I replaced it with a different career which was as an ERP strategist.

SAP has now developed a foundation, or platform, on which companies can operate entirely new business models for the use of SAP ERP technologies. It’s unimaginatively called Business Technology Platform, or BTP (SAP is not prone to dynamic over the top branding, and BMW was already taken).

The way that companies have historically deployed their ERP systems is now a tired business model that looks profoundly ill-suited to our more kinetic and dynamic business landscape. It is time pay the debt that the model represents, and overhaul the ERP business model for the future.

Is Canada really a plausible supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to European markets? I spent four years working on the Australian LNG export businesses, and wrote 200+ articles about the global LNG trade, how it works, what’s needed for success, and how to be competitive. An LNG supply window has just opened but how well is Canada equipped to supply?

The enthusiasm for Canada to step up and become a viable and globally relevant LNG supplier to one of the world’s most important markets is laudable. But the country must be absolutely clear eyed and sober about our true competitiveness and how we are going to improve. It will take something Canada is just not good at, which is to move quickly and decisively. And now the world is watching.

"We don't lead with Blockchain, we lead with the value."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Victor Wong, who is the Chief Product Officer and Founder of BlockApps, on the problem of seismic entitlement management for upstream oil and gas companies. Seismic data is long life, frequently changes hands, very high value, multi-format, and gains in value as interpretation technology advances. The administration of the rules of use and access, called entitlements, are contracted between companies, but administering those contracts is very hard because of the nature of seismic data. Blockchain technology presents a very attractive solution, reducing process times to seconds (vs months and years for the status quo).

"You can think of it as like a registry that you can trust. And because it exists on the blockchain, it's kind of neutral. It's not held by one party, and it's not owned by anyone."

Victor Wong is a serial entrepreneur and recognized thought-leader in the blockchain space. In his current role as Chief Product Officer & Founder at BlockApps, Victor has helped define the STRATO architecture to solve key blockchain issues of permissioning, data privacy, and enterprise-level performance.

"The best thing that a startup has, in their complex world, is speed of execution. That's your one advantage, because there are always going to be bigger companies, there are always going to be people that have more resources, but the bigger you are, the slower you make decisions."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vic4wong/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/blockapps/

Twitter handles:
@blockapps
Website:
https://blockapps.net/

Gasoline prices have been off the charts volatile for the past several weeks. Excess volatility will be an unpleasant feature for western markets for just 20 more years.

Gosh, but gasoline prices are elevated. Like record-setting elevated.

Car owners grumble about the high cost of fuel, yet people are furiously driving around, rental cars are scarce, new car lots are sparse, and used cars are in short supply. I have yet to even meet anyone in my circle who has put their F150 up for sale.

And so, I see three questions worth pondering:

Why did prices rise so quickly?
When will prices come down?
Is price volatility the new normal?

"You can't really connect the dots moving forward, but you can connect them backwards once you make sense of it."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Christian Retek who is the Chief Revenue Officer at Flutura. The topic is ‘process engineer meets data science’. You can substitute any engineering discipline for process engineering, and the concepts in this episode still hold—how do you introduce data science ideas and solutions into highly risk-averse, change-hesitant industries like oil and gas?

"I describe processing engineering as the understanding and application of the fundamental principles and laws of nature that allow humans to transform raw material and energy into products that are useful to society."

Christian Retek is currently serving as the Chief Revenue Officer at Flutura and is a specialist in designing scalable, replicable sales processes for digital innovations across Education, Defense, Construction & Oil & Gas. Flutura helps refineries, gas processing & chemical manufacturing plants successfully automate the prediction of equipment failures, process upsets and swings in quality using their aggregate plant data & camera footage.

"Our goal here is to enable people with the insights that they can make, so they get to be the heroes."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianretek/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/flutura/

Twitter handles:
@revenuedrivers
@fluturads
Website:
http://www.flutura.com/
http://www.reliability.flutura.com/

"When we can remove people, and put in redundancy with sensors, it's not just for safety; sometimes it also helps with automation, where they can do more with fewer people."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Lenny Shaver, who is Director of Strategic Marketing at Advanced Energy, in the critical sensing and control product group. Sensor technology, the source of data for digital business, is rapidly evolving. New use cases are appearing that improve safety and enhance process integrity and reliability. We’ll talk more about where this technology is headed.

"Something that actually is the most exciting is to get Operations' feedback when we deploy this, because for anyone to succeed in this space, they have to really think about the design for the real world: how it's going day in and day out, how will it survive, and how not to be a maintenance nightmare for the operations crew."

Mr. Shaver has been with Advanced Energy (AE) in a variety of engineering, product development, product management and strategic roles for more than 25 years. Today Mr. Shaver is the Director, Strategic Marketing for AE’s Critical Sensing and Control business unit. AE offers innovative sensing technologies and software used by industrial plants to improve process control and to automatically detect deviations. Taking advantage of AE’s broad experience, he works to guide developments that enable users to deploy sensors with real-world payback.

"You do need to find a champion at the site who really is willing to stick their neck out a little bit, and try something new or get it approved."

USEFUL LINKS * LinkedIn profiles (personal, business): + Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lenny-shaver-10a3781/ + Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10545 * Twitter handles: + @AdvEnergy + @ * Facebook pages: + https://www.facebook.com/advenergyinc * Website: + https://www.advancedenergy.com/

As the world moves to electrify its transportation services, it will slightly turn away from oil, and dramatically towards an alternate range of commodities, leading to new and different supply risks and opportunities.

Electric power plants, motors and generators are well proven technologies, and the techniques for manufacturing electric systems are well understood. Not much novelty there. R&D in batteries continues apace. The problem is that the raw materials for a wholesale shift to battery electric transportation may not be in sufficient supply to meet the potential demand. And it’s not just lithium that may be a problem.

Theres also copper, nickel, cobalt, and other rare Earth metals.

Resource producing countries face unique opportunities to capture the high value commodities of the future. Or they can face a series of helium-like moments. It’s not too late to chose.

"So you come in with something innovative, right? You come in with with a digital solution. And one of the very first things we hear when you're deploying something digital, again, is, hey, look at it sounds great once you get the data in there, but I'm wearing all this PPE, I'm wearing gloves or oil spray, and all over the place. It's hot."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Rudy de Anda, who is head of Strategic Alliances with Stratus Technologies. The industrial internet of things coupled with edge computing is set to transform legacy oil and gas environments that have been to date resistant to much improvement. Digital technologies that have matured for applications in areas such as finance are now ready for deployment in sectors requiring high availability and high reliability. Rudy goes over a case example in the offshore that shows the power of newer digital infrastructure.

"Where does the innovation fit in with the workflow processes that exist today? I s this really going to help my operators? Or is this just going to be something else that they have to maintain, work around to get their job done?"

Rudy de Anda is the Head of Strategic Alliances for Stratus focused on driving new alliance relationships in the Industrial Automation and Edge markets. Rudy is responsible for driving strategy, go to market plans, and the development of new alliance relationships. Rudy has deep industry expertise in industrial automation, technical sales and business development. He is a graduate of the University of Central Arkansas where he earned a Bachelor’s degree of Business Administration in Economics with a focus on International Business.

"And if the input is digital, from one end of it is digital, but the output is physical, then you're at the edge. Typically, if it's digital in digital out, you've got some more leeway for failures, leeway for decision making time, latency. But really, when you're looking at the edge, and you've got a digital input, and being processed, and then a physical output, the physical world doesn't stop, it doesn't stop working, a pump doesn't stop turning."

Links:

LinkedIn profiles:
- Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rudy-de-anda-378b7412/
Twitter handles:
- @StratusAlwaysOn
Website:
- https://www.stratus.com/industry/oil-gas/midstream/
- https://www.stratus.com/industry/oil-gas/upstream/
- https://resource.stratus.com/case-study/enginuity-global/

With carbon increasingly on the corporate agenda, how can CFOs turn what looks like a huge liability into a fantastic opportunity.

This is the conclusion to a two-part series on the impact that society’s new emphasis on carbon emissions will have on the corporate Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

In Part 1 of this series, I highlighted the many ways that carbon-related issues will have in disrupting the usual nighttime slumber of the oil and gas CFO. Suffice to say, it’s one hot mess. There’s not one aspect of the job of the CFO that is untouched by carbon, which isn’t really a surprise when a new and costly commodity suddenly shows up at the party.

CFOs are being asked to do something they never planned to do, their organizations don’t have the skills to handle the problem, and they’re being asked to deal with it everywhere and immediately. Of course, one company’s problem is often another company’s treasure. How can the CFO turn this huge liability and risk into a growth opportunity?

There is a gap in the energy market for companies to carve out for themselves a carbon-as-positive positioning that is counter to the predominant market narrative of carbon-as-negative. Rather than being scared shirtless, CFOs should view carbon as a transformation catalyst.

Duration: 13m 09s

"The network people are worried about data being stolen. The engineers are worried about a process being affected. This is where our big difference lies."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Joe Weiss, who is the Managing Partner, of Applied Control Solutions, and Managing Director of ISA99. The ISA99 committee establishes standards and practices for defining procedures for implementing electronically secure manufacturing and control systems and security practices and assessing electronic security performance. A mouthful, but a cyber expert. We discuss the impacts that cyber problems are having on the oil and gas industry.

"[Cyber is] electronic communication between systems where people and systems that affects confidentiality, integrity, or availability. The point being nowhere in that definition, is the word malicious ever used."

"Cyber became an IT issue, which is what we’re dealing with, to this day."

Joe Weiss is an expert on control system cyber security. He has published over 80 papers on instrumentation and control systems, control system cyber security, book chapters on cyber security for electric substations, water/wastewater, data centers, and cyber policy, and authored Protecting Industrial Control Systems from Electronic Threats. He is an ISA Fellow, Managing Director of ISA99, a Ponemon Institute Fellow, and an IEEE Senior Member. He was featured in Richard Clarke’s book- Warning – Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes. He has patents on instrumentation, control systems, and OT networks, is a registered professional engineer and has CISM and CRISC certifications.

"Y2K. Because they knew exactly when it was going to end and what it was, there was a law that basically made all officers and directors personally liable. And because of that, a personal silos came down personally liable for what exactly? Anything that would occur from Y2K."

Links:

LinkedIn profiles (personal, business):
- Personal: https://https://www.linkedin.com/in/joew1
Website:
- http://www.controlglobal.com/unfettered
Book
- http://www.momentumpress.net/books/protecting-industrial-control-systems-electronic-threats

Carbon pressures are mounting and it’s the Chief Financial Officer who is the most alarmed about carbon impacts on the business. And they’re right to be concerned.

Global interest in all things carbon is keeping CFOs up at night. No, that’s not quite correct—it’s terrifying them beyond reason. And it has to. Every year the price of carbon keeps rising, companies are struggling to hit their carbon targets, and the curve keeps getting steeper and steeper. Miss your 4% target this year and next year it rises to 5%. Just consider some of the implications on the captains of money trying to come to grips with a gas that you can’t see, and you’ll start to feel for them.

Part 1 of 2

"I felt the industry needed a more advanced methods of determining outcomes before millions of dollars were spent..."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Jon Ludwig who is the President and co-founder of Novi Labs, a data platform for the upstream oil and gas industry. Jon is a serial entrepreneur with a background in finance and oil and gas, who was struck by the challenge facing on-shore oil and gas producers when they allocate capital to well programs. Legacy ways of forecasting well performance and optimal well delivery, based on one or two wells at a time, simply don’t work when operators are aiming for 500 well manufacturing programs. Using new tools and methods to aggregate data and machine learning algorithms to crunch the numbers, NoviLabs helps improve capital allocation and economic performance of the industry.

"Secure energy independence is really important. It's fundamental. Everyone likes to know that when they flip the light switch, the lights are gonna go on. But for some of us that live in Texas, there is a period where the lights didn't go on for a whole week in 2021. We had no lights, no power, no water. And suddenly people knew what it was like to not have energy independence right or not have a reliable infrastructure."

Jon Ludwig is the President and co-founder of Novi Labs, a software company that develops a machine learning driven software platform that drives improvement in economic outcomes for upstream oil & gas companies and investors.

Prior to Novi, Mr. Ludwig was a Director at Hess Corporation where he founded the company’s data analytics program, which gave rise to a move of critical business systems to the AWS Cloud, and unlocking the concept of a next generation platform for upstream oil & gas predictive analytics.

Jon has also worked at Cap Gemini as a Principal leading the Enterprise Portal and Search practice, as a Partner for iPath Solutions in Houston, and as Founder and CEO of eLinear, a publicly traded software company based in Boulder CO.

"Our products act, and our data acts as an advisor that informs the design of the drilling program? Meaning, how far apart? How many wells? Do you stack horizontally? How do you stagger them? Or how do you complete the wells?"

LinkedIn profiles (personal, business):
Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonvludwig/
Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/novilabs/
Website:
Https://novilabs.com

Dramatic changes in satellite technology are bringing out-of-this-world capabilities to the oil and gas industry. It’s a surprise that few seem to be taking advantage of it.

Spotting satellites used to be rare and a little magical, but not anymore. Last summer I found myself out in the wilderness far enough from a big human settlement to see the night sky in its full glory. In the space of just a few minutes, we picked out a handful of satellites on the move.

The result of all this expansion is that the satellite industry is somewhat over built, particularly the segment that supplies imagery. Indeed, there is an overhang of data already accumulated that has yet to be processed or consumed. One new business model even contemplates charging only for interpretation of selected images, rather than charging for taking the images, transmitting the images to earth, and storing the images (such services are now of so little value that they are effectively free).

The oil and gas industry is particularly well suited to take advantage of these new in-space data boxes.

"We saw this as an opportunity where we could use our experience and marry the engineering talent of Calgary with the fast frugal software ecosystem of Bangalore and build a global company."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Amardeep Sibia is the founder & CEO of Drishya AI Labs. Drishya started in 2019 to develop a foundational solution to a specific energy transition problem. There is a huge installed base of oil and gas infrastructure that predates the digital era and the data about those assets is held largely in near-paper format (JPGs and PDFs of engineering diagrams). Drishya has developed a clever AI-assisted cloud solution that converts those diagrams into actionable data.

"Net Zero plans, decarbonisation, whatever you want to call it, is demanding an extremely fast and extremely vast level of mechanization across the industry. So in order to make changes you need to know what's out there. That's the basic problem."

Amardeep Sibia is the founder & CEO of Drishya AI Labs, an award-winning Deep Tech company in the business of AI for Digital Oil & Gas based in Calgary, Canada with a subsidiary in Bangalore. Drishya enables companies to meet their decarbonization goals by using AI to build digital twins of brownfield industrial plants. Drishya also embeds intelligence and makes new-age equipment intelligent from the ground up, enabling faster and scalable adoption of equipment essential for meeting net-zero targets.

Previously, Amardeep was CEO SatSure, CTO at Earth2Orbit and a Vice President at Goldman Sachs, where he served for 17 years across US, UK and India.

He led SatSure to become the leading large area analytics startup for agriculture. SatSure leverages advancements in satellites, machine learning and big data analytics to generate business-critical insights across the agriculture value chain.

Amardeep is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) and holds a Bachelor of Technology with Honours from Thapar University, Patiala.

He is also a Mentor for TechStars Bangalore, a member of CII’s National Committee for IT and a guest faculty at IIM, Bangalore where he teaches analytics.

"One single customer, a super major said because we don't have the structural data, this high quality structural data, we are leaving about 100 to $150 billion on the table over a five year period, because we can't really optimize and the inefficiencies."

LinkedIn profiles (personal, business):
Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amardeep-sibia
Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/drishya-ai/
Twitter handles:
@DrishyaAI
@amardeep_sibia
Website:
Https://drishya.ai

"When machine learning algorithms that come from the digital world meet the physical world, there's a lot of challenges that are unresolved."

Today's episode is a chat with Christopher Nguyen, CEO of AItomatic.

"When we became part of Panasonic, we essentially operated out of the global CTO office. And so we became this oracle desk. People come and say, Can you sprinkle a little AI on my product and transform the revenue flow or something?"

AITomatic is a technology company that is addressing a huge shortcoming in industrial digital areas. Machine learning models and artificial intelligence solutions in industry need to incorporate domain expertise from real human experts, or the results from the solutions are often worse than having no insight at all. The process of capturing and using human domain knowledge isn’t scalable, and is fraught with social and cultural problems. AITomatic is developing new methods and tools to capture and incorporate deep domain expertise into industrial digital solutions.

"We learned that most machine learning based predictive maintenance approaches out there are actually worse than nothing."

With a career spanning four decades, Christopher Nguyen’s tech bona fides are second to none. Since fleeing Vietnam in 1978, this multiple-time tech founder has played key roles in everything from building the first flash memory transistors at Intel to spearheading the development of Google Apps as its first Engineering Director. Today, he’s become an outspoken proponent of the emerging field of “AI Engineering” and a thought leader in the space of ethical, human-centric AI. With his latest company, Aitomatic, he’s hoping to redefine how companies approach AI in the context of life-critical, industrial applications.

"We stopped making things in North America in the last few years.. And now we're saying, let's bring it all back. And there's a generational gap between the software generation and the people who make things."

LinkedIn profiles
- Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ctnguyen/
- Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aitomatic/
Twitter handles:
- @pentagoniac
- @aitomatic
Facebook pages:
- Https://facebook.com/

Website: https://aitomatic.com

Today's episode is a chat with Jeff Krimmel, the Chief Strategy Officer of Pinnacle. Pinnacle focuses on helping energy, wastewater, mining, and other heavy industries leverage their data for better reliability. This results in increased productivity, lower maintenance costs, and improved safety and environmental performance. Today we discuss the above, along with Pinnacle's strategy within the market, and what the "reliability" marketplace looks like.

Linkedin:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkrimmel/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/pinnaclereliability/

https://pinnaclereliability.com/

"Our industry, because of its complexity, it needs technology. And technology is a very good tool to reduce risk, because it allows you to have this digital model of your reservoir or your facilities, and it gives you a degree, to reduce risk, and that's valuable."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Mario del Pino who is a petroleum engineer and entrepreneur. Mario represents the next generation of oil industry professionals and his perspectives on the industry are helpful to understand how to improve the attractiveness of the industry to talent.

Mario has spent several years gaining deep education in petroleum engineering, and is a self-professed nerd on technology. He has worked a major gas play in Peru for several years, and during the pandemic, helped deploy innovative solutions to bridge the challenges of social distancing in operations. He has left oil and gas to help companies with their various transition challenges.

"Digital technology in the industry has been so heavily dominated by major players that innovation has been lagging a lot. You have this kind of oligopolies, where you have certain very well established companies that they have their software, there's not that much incentive to develop new tools."

Mario del Pino is not only an academically stubborn Petroleum Engineer, having a Bachelor and two Master degrees in the subject, but also a fierce advocate of the role of our industry as a catalyst for economical development. With only 30 years, he has experience in drilling operations, surface facilities construction, production and transport operations, and project engineering. Over the last years he has embraced the world of data, having worked with most of the state of the art technologies that are disrupting our industry, including digital twins, machine learning models, smart wearables, drone-driven surveyors, and more. He is also an active member of the Society of Petroleum Engineering, being the Young Professionals Chairperson of the SPE Lima Section, and has recently been selected to be part of the SPE International Young Members Engagement Committee

"A bunch of brilliant, really young people eventually left the industry, and that's a huge loss for the industry, because we have people that right now are working at Google or Facebook. We've lost that massive potential..."

http://www.linkedin.com/in/mariodelpino

"If we can remove people from the site to work virtually, there's a huge [safety] benefit to that."

"The challenges with terrestrial laser scanning are the huge terabytes files that are generated, and the expertise and the cost of the hardware. The advance of low cost 360, cameras, and the software to do photochromatic data processing of that data to create your virtual tours, but something we can do very quickly with a hardhat and a camera that's $1,000."

"We’re talking about digital twin technology—taking reality capture and BIM and physics based engineering, to start to understand and to replicate these processes in a virtual environment before we do them in the real environment. And there's some unbelievable cost savings here."

"The safest job site is the one that you don't visit."

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Kelly Watt who is the CEO of VisualPlan.net. The world of three dimensional data (or 3D) has absolutely transformed over the past several years because of cloud computing (to store and process data), and inexpensive data collection tools (LIDAR, 360 degree cameras, and others). This data enables businesses to virtualise many aspects of operations that are still reliant on people-based processes (such as travel to site). The amount of value at stake is measured in the billions of dollars. Kelly sets out the use cases that oil and gas businesses are now poised to capture.

Kelly Watt is the CEO of Visual Plan, and a specialist with 3D lidar, photogrammetry, video imaging, and analysis technologies. He is also a level 1 thermographer with experience in spectral imaging and reliability testing.

Kelly is an SME on 3d technologies working in the past for 2 of the largest manufacturers FARO Technologies and Trimble Navigation. He is currently an instructor at Mohawk College, which is a major engineering school outside of Toronto Canada, teaching digital twins – fundamentals, techniques, and approaches which is a course he developed. He also supported the creation and currently supports the digital twin program at GA Tech Master of Construction Management.

Kelly is focused on providing efficient utilization of 3D visualization for critical infrastructure and campus-wide implementations of digital twin technology through lifecycle digital integration in oil and gas, power, utilities, transportation, and complex infrastructure. He has extensive experience in the 3D documentation for risk assessment, security design, construction, project oversight, asset management, and reliability management programs working with large engineering firms.

LinkedIn profiles
Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-watt/
Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/visual-plan-reality-capture-digital-twins-solutions/
Weblinks:
Website: https://visualplan.net/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCynpGWGD2VgZSmgXSyMlcOA

Today's episode is a chat with Albert Rooyakkers, The founder and CEO of Bedrock Automation. Bedrock is using electromagetic-backed sensors to provide enhanced cyber defense for assets. In this talk we'll go over how that can help with cyber issues, and how cyber issues will impact oil and gas.

Duration: 36m 08s

Today's episode is a chat with George Danner, author and president of Business Laboratory. George is an advocate for AI and data driven solutions in business, particularly digital twins. Today we talk about all three in the oil and gas space.

Duration: 33m 21s

It has never been more important for fuel companies to track the provenance of their products, and the excuses why it can’t be done look increasingly hollow. Many commodity companies are trialing their way through the various hurdles that our legacy norms impose, including blending, vessel transport, pipeline movement, storage, and product quality. Conferences about carbon tracing are popping up.

Duration: 11m 49s

For today's podcast, Alastair Caithness, the CEO of Ziyen Energy and Energy Tokens returns for a chat. Ziyen tokenises oil and gas financial assets to help improve trust and reduce conflicts over ownership of these assets. Today we discuss new developments in blockchain and it's intersection with the oil and gas industry.

Duration: 31m 03s

The world’s energy context has suddenly changed. The pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine are thrusting energy security onto a crowded energy transition agenda and triggering fresh strategy challenges. Energy priorities, including decarbonization, energy diversification, and now energy security, create a multifaceted urgency that requires exceptional leadership from industry and governments.

Duration:

SpaceX’s odd new interest in traditional fossil fuel energy could underlie its interplanetary ambitions. The challenge faced by all rocketeers is the amount and type of fuel required to free a projectile from whatever gravitational force is holding that rocket to its terrestrial resting place. Earthly energy suppliers should take note.

Duration: 11m 30s

Today's poadcast is a chat with Eric Anderson, the CTO SynMax. SynMax is a data managemenbt company which is trying to create stability for the energy industry by imrpvoing data standards. Today we discuss the data problem that oil and gas is facing how satellite photography may offer a solution.

Duration: 32m 14s

Today's episode is a chat with Senthil Kumar, the CEO of Sierra Digital. Sierra is a Texas-based company which is working on delivering tailor-made software to energy companies, through SAP's new S4 project. Today we discuss what's happening in this space, with particular focus on JV and PRA.

Duration: 33m 06s

Resilient supply chains are beneficial to society. And to improve the resilience of your supply chain, use blockchain technology.

This podcast is the remarks I gave at Wales Week, focusing on blockchain technology. Duration: 12m 54s

Today's episode is a chat with Sarah Tamilarasan, the CEO of SOTAOG AI. SOTAOG applies machine learning and AI to operations in oil and gas to improve chash flow. Our discussion today focuses on how this works, and what kinds of returns oil and gas companies can see from AI in their operations.

Duration: 33m 18s

Canada rarely makes the global case for advanced technology adoption, but the trucker protest movement has given a big and unexpected boost to autonomous trucking. I didn’t even consider the possibility that truckers themselves would make the case to accelerate autonomous and electric vehicles, but here we are.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the reverse of an integrated liquified natural gas export project. Smart operators will insist that these projects be designed with an eye not just to their day one operating requirement, but their operating needs five years from now. Here’s how digital makes CCS projects more valuable.

Duration: 11m 32s

Today's episode is a chat with Heather Killough, SVP of Energy at DTN. Focusing on data, analytics, and associated technologies, DTN manages and analyzes key data and intelligence to enhance operations in a variety of industries. Today we discuss downstream oil and gas, and the many processes that can be overhauled through better data management.

Duration: 36m 26s

The war in Ukraine has highlighted the role that cyber plays in modern warfare. Some of these tactics are poised to impact the oil and gas industry. Get ready. Duration: 11m 45s

Register to attend the June 2nd virtual panel discussion–hosted by Geoffrey Cann–to learn how to proactively protect industrial organizations and critical infrastructure from cyber threats. Hear from leading OT (industrial) Cybersecurity experts– from OTORIO, ACSI and Netscout–on risk management strategies for industrial organizations as they discuss:

--risks of convergence: OT & IT

--how to talk to the Board

--the importance of cyber hygiene

--risk management best practices

Who should attend:

Cybersecurity decision-makers (IT and OT) who want to proactively protect their industrial organizations and critical infrastructure from cyber threats. Register today: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9616503154908/WN_GPZT_zuaRc6D0BncLhgaiw

Today's episode is a chat with Tom Krikke, the oil and gas sales director at HiberHilo. HiberHilo is developing as product called HiberHilo, an oil well monitoring system. The focus of this episode is on remote location monitoring, and how new technology unlocks better productivity in those assets. Duration: 32m 32s

Most, if not all, large energy companies now include climate change as a critical topic on the Board agenda. As managers, you may be wondering what your business can do about it. More than ever, we need to turn to technology to help us strike a new more sustainable balance.

Duration: 13m 25s

Today's podcast is a chat with Patrick Ng, the CEO of ShaleForce. Shaleforce applies data science, automation, and analytrics to solve business problems in the energy industry. In this episode we talk about data, and what ShaleForce does to interpret and manage data.

Duration: 34m 48s

The reality is that energy systems are actually innovating wildly. It’s as if the consumer is the handle of a whip, and the system is the far tip. The handle might not be moving much, but the business end of the whip is just cracking. If you’re interested in keeping up to date with energy innovations, you might want to subscribe to this new video series: https://www.youtube.com/EnergyNowMedia

Duration: 9m 22s

Today's podcast is a chat with Katherine Kraft, the Director of ESG and Product Strategy at Teren Inc. Teren is focusing on environmental sustainability and asset resilience by analyzing LIDAR and geospatial data with AI to predict incoming environmental issues. Today we discuss that technology and how oil and gas can benefit from better environmental analytics.

Duration: 31m 34s

Digital innovations are setting up a number of time bombs that will eventually go off. If there’s an upside from knowing you have such a thing, it’s that you at least have advance warning to put in place some mitigations or even to defuse it entirely. Now is the time to defuse them before it’s too late. Duration: 9m 57s

Today's podcast is a chat with William Standifird, CEO of Intelligent Wellhead Systems. Intelligent Wellhead Systems develops and deploys workflow efficiency and safety tech for well completion. Today we discuss the range of technologies that help boost well completion rates.

Duration: 34m

Digital twin technology for energy infrastructure is on the cusp of a dramatic transformation as we decarbonize energy supply. Sources of energy are becoming distributed, decentralized, more varied, and in some cases, more variable and unpredictable. Here’s a snapshot of where this technology is headed.

Duration: 10m 33s

Enrollments at U Calgary’s school of engineering petroleum studies have collapsed. What does a future engineering talent shortage mean for Canada’s largest export industry? What we need is the right narrative—there is a place for all energy products, just not in their current proportions. And we need that message to be delivered loudly, and consistently, from industry and government.

Duration: 12m 10s

Yet another more aggressive target for ending the sale of new petroleum vehicles was announced recently. Private companies need to start thinking about how they’re going to position themselves for the future now that the policies are moving. What are the implications for companies merchandising in petroleum?

Duration: 11m 50s

Today's episode is a chat with Haideh Farahmand, a pHD candidate in business administration, focusing on blockchain solutions. Haideh is researching industrial applications of blockchains, as well as the intentions behind accepting blockchain technology. Today we disucss her research, blockchain itself, and the particulars of how companies select and adopt distributed ledger technology.

Duration: 27m 12s

There’s been lots of chatter about the metaverse and its impacts on society, but what about the real world of digital energy?The metaverse is an online digital world, which combines clever technologies like video, audio, and virtual reality, creating a place for humans to interact virtually with each other and with a digital environment of digital things from anywhere, at any time. What’s the angle for merchants in electrons and molecules?

Duration: 12m 21s

Today's podcast is a chat with Jim Crompton, Professor of Practice, Petroleum Engineering Dept of Colorado School of Mines. Jim has many years of experience with Chevron in developing the digital oil field. Today we discuss that principle, as well as the data and sensors necessary to fully digitalize an oil patch. duration: 37m

COP26 may be behind us, but the hard work is still in front of us. E, S, and G are interrelated and sometimes at odds with each other. For example, a warming planet both extends the northern growing season (helping farming communities) while raising sea levels (harming island economies). Solutions, such as adopting green energy, pushes up the cost of energy for those least able to afford it.Digital innovations can help oil and gas companies exceed their ESG commitments.

Duration: 11m 38s

Today's episode is a chat with David Moore, the CEO of ESG Solutions. ESG Solutions is a microseismic monitoring compamny which deploys sensors and software to increase productivity and to enable carbon capture. Today we discuss the value of carbon capture and how microseismic monitoring enables this emissions-reduction approach.

Duration: 32m 05s

With all the pressures on energy businesses today, you can often find the technology budget you need to fund innovation hidden in plain view. But energy companies are not the most nimble of businesses. If you find yourself devoting too much of your resources to keeping the lights on, consider some of the pro moves you can make to extract hidden value from your technology budget.

Duration: 12m 13s

Thanks to digital innovations, the energy system and fintech are converging in a powerful new model that may well disrupt the established order. Bitcoin is the high visibility blockchain use case that has captured the imagination of many investors, but blockchain has so many other uses that can create value in oil and gas by lowering costs, eliminating disputes, and detecting fraud. Please pay Attention.

In case you think blockchain technology is losing its appeal to oil and gas, think again. It’s not lost on anyone in oil and gas that the industry is under very strong pressures for change. Blockchain in oil and gas is a bit like Tesla in the auto industry—not getting the attention it deserves, and soon it will be all too late.

Duration: 13m 26s

Will there be one blockchain to rule them all in oil and gas? Oil and gas has a long and proven history in adopting one way to do things, certainly at the business model level. I can safely forecast that blockchain will not be cast into the fiery pit at Mount Doom, and there will not be one blockchain to rule them all, but beyond that, I’m guessing. Duration: 12m 22s

One of the really great side benefits of my self-defined role as head cheerleader for digital innovation in oil and gas is the constant exposure to novelty and new ideas. I am regularly invited by conferences to review paper abstracts and posters. If you’re submitting a funding request to a competitive call for investment proposals, here’s some tips to help you make the killer pitch. Duration: 12m 19s

The oil and gas industry runs on data. Today, our industry is in desperate need of smart people who understand data and how to put data to work. Now the industry must face its greatest challenge — how to keep the trains, planes and automobiles running while we transition to new energies. All of which will require data to pull off. Duration: 7m 36s

Today's episode is a chat with Thomas Fox, PHD, the President of Highwood Emissions. Highwood is tackling errant emissions in the oil and gas industry, espeically methane, created through the operations of assets. Today we discuss all of the ways that emissions can be reduced, including what can be done immediately and without total rework of operations.

Duration: 38m 22s

The world is at the start of a golden age of energy infrastructure development. Technology entrepreneurs are alert to those sectors of our society that have lagged behind in the adoption of modern tools and technologies.

For a look at how leading companies are tackling the gap between design and fabrication, check out Glove Systems and their clever technology that helps eliminate rework, lower costs, and accelerate asset delivery

Duration: 12m 19s

Today's podcast is a chat about asset integrity and resilience with Alan Johnston, President and CEO of MIMOSA and George Varghese. MIMOSA is a non-profit trade organization dedicated to making commonplace IT and IM standards in asset and infrastructure management. Today we turn our gaze to Australia, and how they have been at the head of asset resilience.

Duration: 37m and 50s

A fresh ransomware attack on an energy company reminds Boards that cyber threats are still real, and that energy infrastructure remains vulnerable. Colonial Pipelines of Georgia suffered a ransom-ware attack, and as a precaution, the company shut down its pipeline operations until the business could be secured. Fortunately, the digital tools are at hand to help companies secure their perimeters and fend off the robots.

Duration: 13m 01s

Today's podcast is an interview with Deren Boyd, the senior vice president of new markets at KPA. KPA is a provider of environment, health, and safety (EHS) software, helping companies in a variety of industries achieve safety compliance and protect their employees and assets. Today we discuss changes to safety reporting and the value of new EHS software in oil and gas.

Duration: 34m 38s

Today's podcast episode is a chat with Mike McLean, the CEO of the Innovation Asset Collective, also known as the IP Collective. The IAC is a nonprofit which helps organizations and individual innovators capture revenue for their intellectual property. We'll be taking a look at the state of IP ownership in Canada, as well as the importance of IP ownership in a digital economy.

Duration: 31m 58s

A digital twin of an operating facility is more than just a clone. The idea of a digital twin is not a foreign idea in oil and gas. I think the first examples of creating a digital version of an asset originated with the geology team. There’s now enough technology horsepower available at relatively low cost, that any business can build a fully functioning end-to-end digital twin of their business.

Duration: 11m 16s

A fossil fuel-producing jurisdiction has decided to tax electric cars because they exist. The wrinkle in this new tax model is that it replaces a consumption tax with a flat tax. This might be fine in some instances, but there’s a risk of inadvertently introducing unintended consequences. Why not enroll the electric car owners of Saskatchewan in trials of new technology to create a usage-based model to mimic the current fuel tax?

A non fungible token or NFT for a digital work of art sold recently for several million in crypto currency. An NFT is a certificate of ownership for a non fungible asset that is stored immutably on a blockchain ledger. Like many technologies that come first to other industries, NFTs will eventually find a home in oil and gas.

Duration: 10m 53s

Companies working in the energy sector are, or soon will be, on their own self-defined pathways to achieve carbon zero or carbon neutral business profiles. In my view, digital innovations will play a decisive role. Digital tools can lower costs, improve productivity, create new business models and lower carbon emissions.

Duration: 11m 18s

Today's podcast is with Jonathan Kohn of BitPetro. BitPetro is a midstream company which purchases natural gas from Upstream operators which would otherwise be flared or stranded. This gas is then used to power bitcoin mining operations. Today we discuss the implications and impacts of blockchain and crypto currency on the energy sector .

Duration: 35m 36s

Today's episode is an interview with Rama Sreenivasan, the CEO and co-founder of Blitzz. Blitzz provides the tools for remote, AR-driven inspections of heavy assets, allowing for safe, quick inspections of remote assets, with little to no driving time. Today we discuss how this applied in oil and gas, and the implications on carbon emissions for remote inspections.

Duration: 31m 54s

Today's podcast is a chat with Guillermo Salazar, the CEO of ICwhatUC. Utilizing augmented reality technology, ICwhatUC creates a virtual work environment to allow for experts to guide customers in rep[airing their own assets. We look into the topic of repair, maintenance, and virtualized work in general, and how augmented reality is changing the game.

Duration: 36m 07s

Today's podcast is with Doug Kibler, the Solution Principal at IAMTech. They focus on asset management solutions for energy companies, particularly where there are many remote assets like upstream and midstream. Today we discuss new solutions in this field, and what the future looks like.

Duration: 35m 07s

For all the talk about energy transition, many things remain unexplained. What feels like a fast moving train isn’t, and what looks like a quickly arriving destination is still a long ways off. Here are four that puzzle me about how transition will work. At least they keep me amused.

Duration: 10m 51s

Today's podcast is a chat with Jordan Kyriakidis, the CEO and Co-founder of QRA Corp. QRA Corp handles specification and engineering data for projects such that it is consistent, well-written, and error free. Today we discuss their role in improving standards in the oil and gas industry and the challenge of maintaining clear specifications.

Duration: 34m 05s

Today's episode is a talk with Glenn Kelley, the president of Muddy Boots Online. Muddy Boots provides a cloud-based platform for field operational data, allowing for faster and more efficient operations and compliance. Today we discuss how digital is impacting field work and why cloud is so transformative.

Duration: 33m 55s

In the rush to exploit digital innovations, the oil and gas industry may not be paying close attention to the ethical questions associated with digital adoption. It might not be that obvious but there are indeed vexing ethical questions lurking behind the use of digital tools in oil and gas. I suppose these questions might be trivial in the eyes of the industry, but there is still merit in at least considering them as the industry evolves with the times.

Duration: 10m 53s

Digital innovations are slowly unleashing the digital front line oil worker, but are the workers ready to deal with the change? For the past 20 years, hiring practices for front-line oil and gas have been careful to recruit individuals with the requisite hard skills, and not the soft skills that best exploit digital. This will need to change in the near future.

Duration: 10m 21s

Today's episode is a chat with Andrea Petrone, who runs AP Executive Coaching. After a long career in oil and gas, Andrea now coaches executives on change management and getting the most of of their business. Today we discuss the issue of change - be it digital or regulatory - in oil and gas.

Duration: 32m 15s

Your digital transformation likely requires people with specific skills that are unlikely to be in your company. There are many ways to get the help you need for your digital transformation journey, and it starts with having a guide who can take you to the summit. But luck is not a good business strategy. To move your digital agenda forward, you need pick carefully.

Duration: 11m 10s

This episode is produced with the help of Datagration.

As we can see from Amazon, Apple, Uber, and AirBnB, platform solutions are the future. They allow companies to implement change much faster. Platform solutions save time and money and improve business decision quality. And now there are even specific platforms for oil and gas.

Duration: 12m 38s

ESG (Environment and Social Governance) and digital transformation pressures are hammering the fortunes of oil and gas. ESG thinking has come about because traditionally, the production and consumption decisions that countries, enterprises and individuals make typically place a priority on short term and narrow criteria. But digital can also help accelerate the ESG agenda.

Duration: 11m 28s

Because of remote working, we are now all video producers and audio engineers. To be career competitive, we need to get much better at these new demands. If you want to have the same impact in your new virtual and on-line world as you had in person, think of yourself as a video producer and audio engineer.

Duration: 9m 32s

There is no better candidate industry for edge computing than oil and gas, and it’s a wonder that the edge isn’t closer than it should be. Legacy SCADA systems have become long-in-the-teeth, and new sensors and edge devices will provide new horsepower to remote assets. But what is Edge computing, and how will it come to replace SCADA?

Duration: 10m 30s

Today's episode is with Floyd Baker, the VP of Antea USA. Antea is an asset integrity management software company, providing services to many leading energy, utility, petrochemical, and other industrial players. Today's talk goes over the remoteness and challenges of oil and gas asset integrity, and what Antea is doing to help.

Duration: 32m 37s

Today's podcast is with Matt Stambaugh, the director of information and geospatial technology at GeoVerra. GeoVerra is a geomatics firm that does surveys in a variety of settings and industries. Today we discuss 3D spatial data, how to manage it, and how exploration is changing.

Duration: 35m 28s

Today's episode is a chat with Philip Black, currently working on digital and energy for Wood PLC out of Australia. Wood is working on engineering new solutions for the energy industry. Lately, they have been focusing on digital and where it plays in energy. Today we discuss those changes and innovations.

Duration: 34m 32s

Today's podcast is a chat with Matthew Iak, the Executive VP of finance in U.S. Energy Development Corporation. U.S. Energy is an E&P company operating across the US and Canada. Today we are focused on the finance and capital side of the question, and some of the challenges facing oil and gas in capital markets.

Duration: 37m 24s

Today's podcast is with Donna King, the founder of Energy Point LLC. Energy Point is a consulting and accounting firm that specializes in land and asset management. Today we discuss this side of the industry and how it's been impacted as of 2021.

Duration: 33m 20s

For today's episode, I have Roger Simonson, a returning guest and this time for Black Powder Solutions. Black Powder Solutions is the manufacturer of magnetic filter systems which remove black powder contamination from oil and gas assets. Today we discuss that system in detail and the possible environmental benefits of this innovation.

Duration: 32m 08s

Today's episode is a chat with Alvin Pyke, the CEO of Titan Logix. Titan Logix is helping companies manage their tank assets with more sophisticated data. Today we discuss the world of tanks and pipes, and how these seemingly dumb metal containers have changed.

Duration: 38m 06s

Today's returning podcast guest is Brett Chell, the president and CEO of Cold Bore Technology. Cold Bore's SmartPAD allows for frac pad autonomy and master control for gas operations. Today we discuss the new developments in well automation, given the circumstances after 2020.

Duration: 33m 07s

Is green energy a luxury good? Luxury goods are defined by their exclusivity and price, and it appears as though Solar fits the bill. Only the rich can afford it. Until it becomes plentiful and affordable, green energy will have a long road to full adoption.

Duration: 10m 38s

Today's podcast is the first in a two part interview with Rebecca Hofmann, the president of Blockchain for Energy. Blockchain for Energy is a consortium of energy companies collaborating on blockchain solutions in the energy sector. Today we'll discuss the value of blockchain in energy and where it can work for oil and gas.

Duration: 31m 57s

Today's podcast is the first in a two part interview with Rebecca Hofmann, the president of Blockchain for Energy. Blockchain for Energy is a consortium of energy companies collaborating on blockchain solutions in the energy sector. We look at blockchain solutions in this episode, and how Blockchain for Energy got started.

Duration: 19m 07s

How might the world of oil and gas gas unfold in a post pandemic world, given rising nationalism challenging globalism, and fast growing renewables challenging fossil fuels? There are four possible scenarios that may occur, and they keep changing. This episode is a summary of a 45 minute presentation on the future of oil and gas in a post pandemic world.

Duration: 12m 38s

Today's episode is a conversation with Analise Thompson, a knowledge management expert at Datagration. Datagration, featured previously on the podcast, help companies visualize their production data. Today we discuss issues relating to training, knowledge transfer, and how better user design makes for better tools.

Duration: 36m 31s

Today's podcast is with Stephen Sponseller, the Kepware channel director for the Americas at PTC. Kepware is a software offering at PTC, and they provide a suite of services to help connect automation devices and sensors in a variety of industries. Today's chat is mostly on edge devices, and how Kepware brings them together for businesses.

Duration 36m 06s

Not only does blockchain play well with other oil and gas technologies, it helps others deliver more value. Convergence is a good term to describe the reality of blockchain. One plus one really does equal three, but it depends on who is doing the math, and how.

Duration: 10m 27s

Today's episode is a chat with Shane Istre, the CEO of Digital Twin Studios. Digital Twin is an E-learning platform that uses AR, VR, simulations, and other technology to teach industrial and military personnel. Today we discuss how training has evolved with these new technologies, and new, more active teaching methods.

Duration: 36m 30s

Today's podcast is the second of a two-part interview with Sabrina Sullivan and Sheryl Connelly, both being futurists at Ford. They clock trends and patterns in consumer behavior so Ford can best plan for the future of motor vehicles. Today we discuss in detail some of those trends, and methods to research them.

Duration: 34m 08s

There is a difference between buying digital (the default position in oil and gas) and being digital (the default position of young people). Early successes in industries that adopted digital focused on building ecosystems, concentrating on speed to market, and enabling new disruptive business models. Oil and gas must be digital to have any hope of attracting top talent in the future.

Duration: 12m 51s

Today's podcast is the first of a two-part interview with Sabrina Sullivan and Sheryl Connelly, both being futurists at Ford. They clock trends and patterns in consumer behavior so Ford can best plan for the future of motor vehicles. Today we discuss what Futurism is and how it works within Ford Motors.

Duration: 31m 35s

Today's episode is a chat with Roger Simonson, the CEO of One Eye Industries. One Eye Industries produces magnetic filtration systems which extract metals and other contaminants from industrial equipment. Today we discuss the value of this technology, how it was developed, and where it can be applied in oil and gas.

Duration: 33m 02s

Sometimes it takes a shock to a system to accelerate a change already underway. Such a shock brought the concept of track and trace to the infrastructure sector. It’s not too hard to imagine track and trace rules coming to many different kinds of assets, including tanks, terminals, and turbines, particularly as the world builds out trillions of dollars in new infrastructure.

Duration: 12m 38s

Today's episode is a chat with Michael Maltsev, the president of RigER. RigER is an oilfield equipment rental platform which connects equipment to companies and wells that need it. Today we discuss how this rental platform works, what benefits is provides, and how digital has leveraged this novel business model.

Duration: 35m 54s

Today's podcast is with Vicki Knott, the CEO and Co-founder of Crux OCM. Crux uses AI and analytics to create semi autonomous pipelines, and they're looking to make waves in the pipeline industry. Today we discuss their technology, change in pipelines, and how digital is impacting them.

Duration: 33m 09s

The collapse of oil prices and the ravages and the possibilities of the pandemic are becoming clear. Management in oil and gas should be going after those cute but problematic hedgehogs guarding the status quo. Identify the hedgehogs in the business and move them along to someone else’s burrow.

Duration: 10m 28s

For today's episode, I am happy to be joined by Larry Young of Total Containment. Total Containment creates pipeline containment systems which ensure that any spills, no matter how small, can be contained in high-consequence areas. Today we talk about the pipeline sector, environmental and social governance, and their "Envirolock" system.

Duration: 34m 45s

Today's podcast is a sit down with Nick Verhoeven, the head of sales at PowerD. PowerD is trying to accelerate the energy transition by enabling smart energy charging in Europe for electric vehicles. Today we take a look at the question of energy demand and the adoption of electric vehicles, two questions that oil and gas needs to consider.

Duration: 33m

Today's podcast is a sit-down with Rick Ryan, the Chair of roundLAB inc. Based in Calgary, roundLAB specializes in real-time survey data that helps operators be more effective and precise. Today we discuss how roundLAB helps upstream companies drill and hit their targets, and how better, faster data is making changes.

Duration: 34m 48s

Today's podcast is a chat with Michael Ligrani, the CEO of Iron IQ. Iron IQ is a SCADA company that utilizes cloud based technology to bring digital smarts to oil and gas assets. This lets companies get data from their assets remotely from anywhere. Today we discuss the recent developments in this field, and how new SCADA is different from old SCADA.

Duration: 33m 04s

Today's podcast is a discussion with Greg Chudiak, the president and CEO of Pandell. Pandell is a SaaS company that works with the energy industry, providing cloud-based technology to upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas, alongside mining, renewables, and utilities companies. Today we discuss how Pandell is addressing the needs of the industry, and what those needs are.

Duration: 32m 14s

Today's podcast is with Matt Harrison, the co-founder and CEO if Wellaware. Wellaware helps companies by providing monitoring and operations data directly to workers on the site. Today we discuss the value of better well data for upstream companies, and where this better data can lead in terms of future innovations.

Duration: 35m 56s

Today's podcast is with Greg Belbin of Gyrdodata. Gyrodata is a long-operating oilfield technology company. As their name suggests, they specialize in gyrometric surveying and data gathering. Today we look at how this field is evolving, and how oil and gas can capture more and better data.

Duration: 33m 42s

Today's podcast is a sit-down with Katrina Ingram, the founder of Ethically Aligned AI. This organization looks at the ethical issues around AI adoption, focused on issues of fairness, job loss, and the responsible use of algorithms. Today we discuss these dimensions of AI in the oil and gas space, and the degree that algorithms are starting to have a bigger impact on our lives.

Duration: 32m 42s

Today's podcast is a chat with Krys Korczewski, formerly of NAL Resources. Krys helped NAL transform their business and upstream oi land gas through new technological innovations. We discuss his journey today, alongside how these transformation plans can be executed in oil and gas.

Duration: 34m 05s

Today's podcast is with Dave Shook, the founder of ShookIoT and now a part of Uptake. Dave returns to discuss the acquisition of his company, and the state of industrial internet of things. We go into greater detail about where IoT creates value and what Uptake is doing in the energy sector.

Duration: 37m 12s

Today's podcast is with Clarence Montiero, the principal at Teamwork Group. Teamwork is a single platform that hosts apps and technology to help downstream companies manage workflows. Today we discuss the changes to downstream that are being seen, and how the pandemic has impacted the industry.

Duration: 33m 19s

Today's podcast is with Chad Hayden, the founder of Galatea. Galatea is developing water management solutions that optimize and automate water use in oil and gas. Today we discuss the growing question of ESG and what new technologies can do to help improve the environmental and social records of energy companies.

Duration: 33m 19s

Today's podcast is with Azad Abbasi, the CEO of Genius XR. Genius XR is a company that creates content based on AR, VR, MR, and AI. They build video content based on those four pillars, which is called XR. Today we discuss the rapid and increasing maturity of virtual reality tools, and where value can be generated for industry players.

Duration: 34m 38s

Today we have a chat with Greg Corey, of Freewave Technologies' customer support group. Freewave develops Machine to Machine infrastructure to deliver data in IIoT environments. Today we discuss the data challenges behind IIoT, the shifting attitudes towards it in oil and gas, and where value can be created.

Duration: 34m 08s

Today's podcast is with Kenton Gray, the Chief Technology Officer at Datagration. Datagration looks at the various sets of data in oil and gas companies and helps them integrate, analyze, and then process it. Today we discuss the data problem in oil and gas, the amount of time engineers spend figuring it out, and how much value can be gained from better practices.

Duration: 34m

For today's podcast, I have a great chat with Neil Wagner, the head of IT at the Calgary Counselling Centre. The Centre is currently the largest of it's kind in Alberta, and it provides charitable counselling services of all sorts. Today we discuss how modern technology is changing even the world of counselling services, and the impact COVID-19 has had on our community.

Corrections: The original number of staff at the Centre was 4, not 12.
The volume of face-to-face sessions from Jan 1 to Mar 16 of 2020 was 9607; from March 17 to Dec 31, there were 35,075 via Teams.

Duration: 39m 06s

Today's interview is once again a chat with Omar Morales. Having moved from oil and gas to Advano, a battery company for electric drivetrains, Omar lays out how one petroleum worker is using his skills in a new environment. We also discuss the energy transition and how oil and gas talent can move with the times.

Duration: 34m 35s

Today I have a conversation with Scott Mussbacher of Vista Projects. Vista is an energy engineering firm that helps companies transform their operations through new digital technologies. Today we discuss that change initiative, how digital and innovation is coming to energy, and how Vista is operating in that space.

Duration: 32m 09s

For Today's podcast, I have a chat with David Lepa of Anaplan. Anaplan provides planning tools over the cloud, allowing companies to drive change and adapt to challenging circumstances. Today we discuss the power of planning tools, Anaplan's vision for the future, and how we can tackle these difficult times.

Duration: 32m 35s

Irving Oil, operator of Canada’s largest oil refinery by volume, is looking to purchase North Atlantic Refining Limited (NARL), a refinery and fuels business in Newfoundland.

If in these challenging times you’re able to acquire a struggling competitor, digital innovations are a compelling means to capture value.

Duration: 12m 31s

VURBL station is https://vurbl.com/station/3vTEKH37KDh/

Today's podcast is a chat with Shawn Zulfikar, the CEO and co-founder of OGHelp. OGHelp is a platform that connects oil and gas companies to relevant professionals around the world, so businesses can access international talent for whatever jobs need doing. Today we discuss remote work and the gig economy, and how these trends may change how we view employment in oil and gas.

Duration: 32m 31s

Vurbl show is https://vurbl.com/station/3vTEKH37KDh/

Today's podcast is an interview with Deepak Atyam, the co-founder and CEO of Tri-D Dynamics. Tri-D develops sensors for pipe infrastructure, to access difficult-to-reach and remote assets to make autonomous, "smart" pipelines. Today we discuss attaching sensors to pipelines, managing the data generated, and Tri-D's vision for the future.

Duration: 32m 12s

Today's podcast is with Travis Parigi, the CEO and President, as well as the founder, of LiquidFrameworks. LiquidFrameworks provides a mobile platform for field operations, allowing field workers to track jobs and manage their work. Today we discuss field operations and how mobile platforms are making changes.

Duration: 33m 51s

This episode is an interview with Samantha Stuart, the VP of Strategy and Corporate Development at TC energy. TC is one of North America's largest energy companies, from transporting hydrocarbons to the production of renewable energy. Today we discuss the changes and challenges to the energy sector, digital innovations on the horizon, and how TC is approaching the energy transition.

Duration: 31m 52s

Today's podcast is with Bobby Mason, the President and CEO of SPOC Automation. SPOC Automation specializes in automating pump controls, allowing for fine-tuning and higher levels of efficiency. Today we discuss the savings available with automation, how small savings can add up over time, and the increasing degree of automation in the North American gas sector.

Duration: 34m 35s

Today's podcast is an interview with Waclaw "Wally" Jakubowicz, the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Hampton Data services. Hampton tackles the data challenge posed to oil and gas companies, who are now swimming in an ocean of subsurface and asset information. Today we discuss that ocean and how companies can navigate it.

Duration: 35m 15s

Today's podcast is an interview with Wayne Karpoff, the CEO of Willowglen. Willowglen Systems provides industrial automation technology, from Flow Computers to SCADA infrastructure. Today we discuss the evolution of SCADA systems in oil and gas, the current trend of automation, and the value of better asset management.

Duration: 32m 50s

Today's interview is with Brent Rhymes, the CEO of WolfePak Software. WolfePak develops software tools for oil and gas companies that enable business automation, from streamlining work processes to managing ticket purchases for crude oil. Today we discuss the field ticket process, how much of oil and gas is still rooted in paper-based processes, and where data management and automation fit.

Duration: 30m 59s

Today's interview is with Andrew Bruce, the CEO of Data Gumbo. Data Gumbo is utilizing blockchain to transform transactions in the oil and gas industry. Today we discuss blockchain's place in oil and gas, what sorts of transactions can be improved by the technology, and where automation can drive value.

Duration: 30m 48s

Today's podcast is an interview with Tony Wood, the CEO of Catalyst44 Ltd. Catalyst is a small consulting operation which focuses on digital transformation and strategic growth for businesses. Today we discuss transformation, adoption of digital, and how to change the mindset in the industry towards new technology.

Duration: 35m 07s

Today's episode is with Roy Christensen , the founder of KT Project. KT Project, or Knowledge Transfer Project, was founded in 2018 to help companies successfully execute capital projects by transferring knowledge and skills to team members. Today we discuss the need for knowledge transfer, the technologies which enable it, and the value for oil and gas.

Duration: 27m 15s

Today's podcast is an interview with Bertrand Groulx, A100 member and former Verdazo president. Bertrand is an expert on visual analytics and it's applications in various business sectors. Today we discuss operations in oil and gas, the cost-saving opportunities, and what COVID has done to the industry.

Duration: 27m 23s

It’s become clear that the adoption of new ways of working enabled by digital tools is a critical pathway to lower cost. Moreover, it turns out that digital innovations are THE key solution to solving the problems of the pandemic AND the cost challenges of the industry. And they’ve been in front of us for a couple of years now.

Duration: 12m 39s

There are a lot of change agents in oil and gas, helping their organizations adopt digital innovations. They might want to reflect on the inner dialogue taking place in the heads of their co-workers. Oil, gas and services companies intent on adopting digital (and that means all of you), should be helping their employees deal with some uncomfortable truths and deeply unsettling feelings.

Duration: 11m 34s

Successful industries have successful ecosystems. Today, the oil and gas industry is in a struggle to survive, let alone be successful. Let’s call it a terrible, horrible, no good very bad year. Now is the time for the digital ecosystem to help reshape and reform oil and gas, and capitalize on the opportunity.

Duration: 13m 30s

Today's podcast is an interview with Morgan Eldred, a managing partner of Digital Energy. A Dubai-based research and technology company, Digital Energy brings digital solutions and new business models to companies. Their main offering is ODIN, an integrated network which acts as a platform for digital solutions. Today we'll be discussing that, and the other work Digital Energy does.

Duration: 34m 33s

Today's podcast is with Edward Eichstetter, the CEO of EKU Power Drives Inc. EKU takes innovations from the automobile sector and brings them to oil and gas drive trains. EKU has helped make hydraulic fracturing much more energy-efficient as a result. Today we discuss electric vehicles, the innovations that EKU is bringing, and what digital innovations they are bringing to oil and gas.

Duration: 36m 40s

Today's podcast is an interview with Ian Cunningham, President and CEO of Wave9. Wave9 is a platform that utilizes sensors, cameras, and AI to allow oil and gas companies to track, monitor, and manage assets. Today we discuss the challenges of asset management, the changes that AI and sensor technology brings, and the power of digital solutions in oil and gas.

Duration: 36m 31s

Today's podcast is an interview with Matt Kleiman, the co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Digital Systems. Cumulus is a company which makes oil and gas tools smart through sensor technology. This lets companies track and monitor tool use. Today we discuss where this technology came from, what oil and gas companies have found when using it, and how this can make work-sites much more efficient.

Duration: 34m 35s

Today's podcast is an interview with Omar Morales, the head of the Omar Project. The Omar Project is a blog and community site for project management. Today we discuss the various challenges of project management, be it from COVID-19, digital transformation, new technology on-site, or issues in oil and gas in general.

Duration: 35m 12s

Today's podcast is an interview with Clinton Bonner, the VP of marketing at Topcoder. A global coding crowdsourcing platform, Topcoder connects businesses to a worldwide resource of coding expertise to help them develop software and technology. We'll be discussing crowdsourcing, the value it presents, and Topcoder's place in the oil and gas sector.

Duration: 37m 04s

Today's podcast is with Ryan Dawson, the CEO and Founder of Corva. Corva provides real-time data and analytics for oil and gas companies, servicing some of the world's largest players. Today we discuss the monitoring software and hardware used by oil and gas, the innovations that are incoming or have come to the industry, and what Corva offers to their clients.

Duration: 32m 09s

Today's podcast is an interview with Brendan Boyle, the President and CEO of Vintri Technologies. Vintri Technologies is the leading supplier of Material Traceability and Data Integrity in the pipeline industry. In this interview we discuss the pipeline industry, challenges with data acquisition and management, and which technologies can solve those issues.

Duration: 31m 44s

Today's podcast is an interview with Tony Nash, CEO and founder of Complete Intelligence. Specialising in revenue forecasting and predictive analytics, Complete Intelligence develops artificial intelligence solutions. In this interview, we discuss predictive analysis, how Complete Intelligence works, and what value these forecasts can generate.

Duration: 37m 56s

In today's episode, we have an interview with Tom Poteet, VP of Corporate Development at Mesa Natural Gas Solutions. Mesa is a developer and manufacturer of natural gas powered microgrids and generators for the oil and gas sector. Today we discuss Mesa's technology, the issues and challenges of remote power generation, and what innovations Mesa is bringing to the table.

Duration: 32m 22s

In today's podcast, we have an interview with Amit Bhargava, co-founder of EnviroApps. EnviroApps is a platform for digitally tracking hazardous materials manifests, in order to reduce errors and ensure compliance. Today we discuss the challenges of having paper-based systems, the value of tracking and tracing, and technology can assist companies in achieving their environmental targets.

Duration: 32m 05s

We will look back on 2020 as a pivotal time in the recent history of the planet, likely more so than 9/11, the Great Financial Crisis, and most assuredly, Brexit. A number of cherished oil and gas business orthodoxies have been thrown on the discard pile as we cope with this pandemic. New ones are taking their place, and those that become habits will endure beyond this current crisis.

Duration: 11m 26s

Today's podcast is an interview with Dusty Sonnier, director of engineering and technology at McCoy Global. McCoy is a provider of wellbore integrity and sensor technology for oil and gas companies. Today, we'll be discussing the technology McCoy provides, the importance of good data for the industry, and business units of oil and gas that the public rarely gets to see.

Duration: 34m 35s

Today's episode of the podcast is an interview with Travis Schindler, the director of sales at SkyX. SkyX is a provider of unmanned aerial drones for the purpose of collecting data and monitoring work sites. Today we'll be talking about the use-cases for drones, how they operate, and where oil and gas companies can find value in the technology.

Duration: 36m 7s