ADNOC’s New CTO Shares Innovation Philosophy

Abstract

Alan Nelson is 1 year into his new job as the chief technology officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). It is a new job for ADNOC too. He is the first person to ever hold the title of CTO at the almost 50-year-old oil and gas producer, a fact he said reflects “a new mandate” to further invest in science and technology. The fruits of the approach are funneled into the organization via three core areas: innovation (i.e., research and development), the digital transformation, and sustainability. “One of the key reasons why sustainability reports into the CTO is of course that this will require new technologies,” said Nelson. “Some technologies that we can see today, that we could scale up and implement. Other technologies that are yet to be developed but that we need to develop in order to continue to be a sustainable company.” And like many of the integrated oil companies, the last downturn sparked a drive within the organization to seek out or develop emerging technologies to bring a new order of automation and lower operating costs. Under Nelson’s brief tenure, ADNOC has already made several big moves toward this goal including a partnership with Saudi Aramco to open a research center in the UK that will focus on creating nonmetallic technologies to limit the industry’s exposure to costly corrosion issues. This was accompanied by a raft of other partnerships and joint-venture projects that aim to create new artificial intelligence programs. The biggest of them is a 10-year contract with Honeywell which was selected to deploy its predictive maintenance platform across the company’s upstream and downstream assets. One of the other major initiatives Nelson oversees today is known as the Panorama Digital Command Center. Panorama leverages advanced computing tools such as artificial intelligence and digital twins to make the company’s oil fields accessible remotely. Earlier this month, ADNOC reported that the center delivered over $1 billion in value since it was launched 3 years ago. Nelson spoke about how the project prepared his company for the highly disruptive consequences of a global pandemic in an interview with SPE Live. “Through our Panoramic Digital Command Center we have real-time data at our fingertips - this is data that is updated second by second. So we can track the performance of our assets in real time, and by that we keep our people as safe as we possibly can,” said Nelson. Below are some of the highlights from the interview. What Modernization Means at ADNOC “For us, it means staying relevant, it means staying ahead of the curve. The world is changing, and we all know that we’re going through that now - whether it’s the current pandemic situation that we’re all having to work through and navigate, or whether it’s the current oil and gas price.” Nelson elaborated on the elements he considers necessary to achieving relevancy. “First and foremost is culture. In order for the company to maintain that bleeding edge on science and technology, you have to have innovation as a part of company culture.