Silicon Valley tech giants to become major players in oil and gas industry

The Silicon Valley technology giants of FAAMG — Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet’s Google — now amongst the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world, will emerge over the next decade to play a leading role in servicing the global oil and gas industry, comparable to Schlumberger or Halliburton today, according to 54 per cent of those polled in a Gulf Intelligence Survey.

The deployment of the brightest minds available in the FAAMG group of companies could indeed go a long way to help the oil and gas industry to boost recovery rates from the world’s ageing reservoirs.

The current global average of how much oil can be recovered from a reservoir stands at about 35 per cent of oil in place — but with the deployment of future technologies this number could soar to 70 per cent, according to two-thirds of the Omani energy industry stakeholders who participated in the GIQ Survey on the eve of today’s Oman Energy Forum.

More than 200 of Oman’s oil and gas industry stakeholders gathered in Muscat, including the leadership of Petroleum Development Oman, Occidental of Oman and Shell Development Oman, with the objective of identifying the best possible strategies to adopt to prepare the energy sector for the arrival of such disruptive technologies as artificial intelligence, robotics and automation.

“We can be victims and debate threats from downward circles, or we can focus on the radiating possibilities and opportunities this revolution will bring,” said Raoul Restucci, Managing Director, Petroleum Development Oman.

“There are huge market and business opportunities arising in Oman and the region, and I believe these will offset and spawn from the automation substitutes, thus creating more jobs — to ensure this happens, we need to increase our ability and speed to adapt,” he said.

The fifth edition of the Oman Energy Forum presented a progress report on the Oman Energy IndustryAcademia RandD Protocol — an Uber-like digital platform for industry, academia and government to collaborate on research and innovation in the Sultanate.

The annual industry gathering also hosted the OXY Oman Student Awards 2017 for the Advancement of Post-Graduate Education.

The commemorative 5th anniversary of the Gulf Intelligence Oman Energy Forum was supported by S&P Global Platts and Oman Trading International, and tackled the question of how the so-called 4th Industrial Revolution could transform the future of work and the work of the future.

The Forum was also supported by GlassPoint Solar and the Oman LNG Development Foundation.