And that's a wrap from OPTIMIZE 26

OPTIMIZE 26 entered its home stretch on Thursday following a memorable and insightful week out here in Houston. That's as the last of the event's 150+ sessions concluded and gave way to software training days. 

Over the course of an engaging week, the Oilholic had both on and off-record conversations about the energy industry's embrace of agentic AI.

It appears to be the inexorable direction of travel for an industry that's been talking about it quite loudly since 2023. In fact, industrial AI has become routine, and companies are going from reactive to proactive mode. 

AI-assisted recommendations are getting embedded directly into operations. But many executives from ExxonMobil to Versalis, TotalEnergies to Repsol also called for sensible, pragmatic and targeted AI deployment at OPTIMIZE and urged caution on the hype.

To put it in the word's of one senior executive - "go for technology initiatives and implementation where there is a real need to create value, not for the sake of it." One such arena is AI-driven asset performance management. 

That's where the latest technology has moved the needle considerably via operators' co-developed solutions with industrial software vendors like AspenTech. Many sessions at OPTIMIZE offered case studies of operator-vendor collaboration resulting in tangible throughput gains for major energy, chemicals and pharmaceuticals plant operators, nearly 2,500 of whom AspenTech counts among its core users' group. 

Over the last 15 months, such collaboration, feedback and software development is what led to the launch of AspenTech's AVA AI earlier this week, with the platform offering "agentic, domain-aware AI capabilities," according to the company's CTO and a name familiar with the readers of this blog - Claudio Fayad.

Alongside his peers and customers, the AspenTech CTO also emphasised on the critical importance of quality data, its gathering, management and governance that underpins AI tools, as well as the multi-billion dollar market for data fabric solutions. Speaking of which, here's is yours truly's latest Forbes piece where you can read all about it. 

"Ultimately, both our customers and us are striving for operational agility based on intelligent software-enabled decision making. The need for this is growing in today's volatile climate where operators face uncertainties on input costs, and various other challenges from interest rates to skill gaps."

Fayad also said that the cycle of software product enhancements and updates is also getting shorter by each passing year. 

"So, we need to constantly innovate, or shall I say co-innovate or co-develop with process industries. We embrace that challenge and the approaching horizon."

Unsurprisingly, the role and deployment of quality data and AI featured throughout the event's process industries content stream across executive leadership, concurrent engineering, control & optimize, planning & scheduling, manufacturing execution and supply chain management, subsurface science & engineering and asset performance management conference tracks.

And as the end of the week approached, OPTIMIZE 26 drew to a spectacular close with an event finale at Houston's Daikin Park where attendees had a great evening seeing the home baseball team Houston Astros take on the Seattle Mariners.

That's a wrap from OPTIMIZE 26 and Houston folks! More musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma, May 2026. Photo I: Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma at OPTIMIZE 26 in Houston, US. Photo II: Claudio Fayad, CTO of AspenTech (left) with Energy Analyst Gaurav Sharma at OPTIMIZE 26. Photo: Houston Astros versus Seattle Mariners at Daikin Park, May 13, 2026 © Photo: Gaurav Sharma, May 2026. 

Hosting OPTIMIZE 26's executive track & launch of AVA

As OPTIMIZE 2026 entered its second day, yours truly got involved in the proceedings by hosting and moderating the event's Executive Track designed to directly bring in industry C-Suites to discuss the approaching horizon for process industries with their peers.

The first of two topics for the Oilholic's panels was 'Modeling & Optimization: Navigating Uncertainty and Preparing for the Next Generation' with panelists Bharat Newalkar, Head of Research and Development, BPCL, Juan Carlos Ramirez, Value Chain Optimization Director, Repsol, Szabolcs Szabo, Senior Vice President, Value Chain, MOL Group and Vikas Dhole, Senior Vice President, Modeling & Optimization, AspenTech. 

The second panel's topic was 'Unlocking Enterprise-Wide Value with AI' with panelists Leon de Bruyn, CEO, Lummus, Raphael Duflos, Vice President, General Manager Port Arthur Platform, TotalEnergies, Ed Sanderson, Global Lead, Reliability Engineering, Takeda and Heiko Claussen, Chief Technologist, AI, AspenTech. 

The dialogues were on a closed-door basis in a free-flowing and engaging format with plenty of audience participation. While the Oilholic cannot blog about specific points made by the panellists and their audience of industrial technology C-Suites, the discussion largely revolved around deploying AI, strengthening data foundations and scaling optimisation strategies to manage volatility, protect profitability and achieve measurable business outcomes. 

Some candid executive perspectives and practical insights on what it takes to lead – rather than react – in an increasingly unpredictable world were put forward which will undoubtedly come to the fore at the industry continues to innovate.

Speaking of innovation (and, of course, AI), earlier in the day's proceedings, Emerson launched AspenTech AVA - its new industrial scale enterprise-wide AI platform. The company claims it is specifically designed for industries to accelerate AI adoption across the enterprise for measurable business impact. 

A spokesperson told this blogger the platform offers "agentic, domain-aware AI capabilities" with "the agility, efficiency and autonomy companies need to respond faster to operating conditions, continuously improve performance using trusted domain context and act with greater confidence through AI-assisted recommendations embedded directly in operations."

You can have a sample interaction here. 

The developers claim it is all about helping its customers to find practical ways to apply AI safely and effectively in real operating conditions. 

AspenTech CTO Claudio Fayad told the Oilholic his team have been refining the product for over 12 months prior to launch, embedding Emerson's longstanding industrial expertise and first-principles models directly into AVA's operational skills and workflows while leveraging large language models. 

"In doing so, AVA enables companies to deploy the power of generative AI as a trusted operational capability and to build an enterprise operations platform that connects data, context and decision-making across the organization. We believe it provides a practical way to accelerate AI adoption to deliver repeatable, scalable operational impact,” Fayad concluded.

Exciting times folks, let's see where this goes. We wish Team AspenTech well in their efforts. That's all for now, more musings from here to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

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To follow The Oilholic on Energy Connects click here.

To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo: Energy analyst Gaurav Sharma moderates a session at OPTIMIZE 26 in Houston, US on May 12, 2026. © AspenTech, May 2026.

Speaking and moderating at OPTIMIZE 26

Delighted to announce that yours truly be speaking and moderating at OPTIMIZE 26 - the flagship event of Emerson's Aspen Technology business - due to be held in Houston, US from May 11 to 14.

The theme for the event is "Powering Performance."

The Oilholic's engagements will include panels and executive dialogues held as part of OPTIMIZE 26's process industries and executive tracks.

Explore the event's exciting agenda here. 

Really looking forward to the deliberations, meeting thought leaders and friends. Join, if you can, for some fantastic industry exchanges and networking in Houston.

Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Forbes click here.

To follow The Oilholic on Energy Connects click here.

To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2026. Photo © OPTIMIZE 26.