Bringing 'superintelligence' to the energy industry

The Oilholic was delighted to join the demo day of UK-based energy AI firm Applied Computing in London on Tuesday. 

The firm recently announced a £9 million seed funding round - largest ever for a British AI company's at seed stage - to bring what it describes as "superintelligence" to the energy industry. 

Applied Computing’s flagship product - Orbital - has been built using multi-foundation AI powered by a new class of models built to optimise the physical world. The company's CEO and co-founder Callum Adamson said this was not just language models his team was talking about but also time series, physics and chemical engineering models delivering explainable AI that can be trusted in real-world applications.

Applied Computing claims Orbital utilises "100% of available data from downstream energy facilities" – compared to 8% captured by traditional methods – and is outperforming previously benchmarked state-of-the-art software by 90% in key metrics.

The company offered the attendees, present company included, a demo of Orbital in action. It appears to be going places in its bid to bring AI to the oil and gas sector, which, as Adamson noted, is the most "under-optimised industry on earth." 

Applied Computing sees opportunities across the sector's value chain from refining and petrochemicals to upstream and LNG, although its current focus is on downstream. 

The £9 million seed round has been followed up by strategic hires from Shell, Palantir, BP Launchpad and Imperial College. Applied Computing has doubled in size since January and is now preparing for a Series A in the second half of the year. 

Ahead of the demo, The Oilholic - as announced to the readers of this blog earlier this month - also moderated an industry panel discussion titled - Redesigning Energy: New Technologies Powering the Transition. 

The panel explored the critical role of technologies such as the ones Applied Computing and its peers are marketing, as well as their potential to help reshape the future of energy, industry, and sustainability.

The all star cast of speakers included leading voices from across the world of energy, venture capital, and AI innovation to explore the insights, strategies, and technologies reshaping the energy landscape. 

They included Kari Jordan, Founder of Leaps and Bounds, Ulrika Wising, Senior Energy Executive (a former Centrica, Shell & Macquarie executive), Eliza Eddison, Vice President of Operations at Applied Computing, and Fred Destin, Founder of Stride.VC, all of whom provided many invaluable insights that made for a riveting hour-long session. 

Well that's all for the moment folks! More musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo I: CEO and co-founder of Applied Computing Callum Adamson speaks at the demo of the company's Orbital AI. © Gaurav Sharma, June 2025. Photo II (left to right): Gaurav Sharma, Energy Analyst, with Kari Jordan, Founder of Leaps and Bounds, Ulrika Wising, Senior Energy Executive (Former Centrica, Shell & Macquarie executive), Eliza Eddison, Vice President of Operations at Applied Computing, and Fred Destin, Founder of Stride.VC © Westen Macintosh / Applied Computing, June 2025. 

Moderating panel at Applied Computing's Orbital demo

Delighted to announce that yours truly will be joining Applied Computing's Demo Day proceedings on June 10, 2025 at IET London Savoy Place in London, UK. The Oilholic will also be moderating the panel discussion titled - Redesigning Energy: New Technologies Powering the Transition - where we'll explore the critical role of technologies and their potential to help reshape the future of energy, industry, and sustainability.

The session will bring together leading voices from across the world of energy, venture capital, and AI innovation to explore the insights, strategies, and technologies reshaping the energy landscape, including Kari Jordan, Founder, Leaps and Bounds, Ulrika Wising, Senior Energy Executive (Former Centrica, Shell & Macquarie), Eliza Eddison, Vice President of Operations at Applied Computing, and Fred Destin, Founder of Stride.VC

If you’d like to attend the panel discussion or Applied Computing's full Demo Day, kindly register here. 

Really looking forward to the proceedings and discussions, meeting the Applied Computing tech team and friends from the wider energy industry. 

More soon. 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, June 2025. Photo I & II: Speaker profile of energy analyst Gaurav Sharma for Applied Computing's Demo Day on June 10, 2025, and details of a discussion panel on how new technologies are powering the energy transition. © Applied Computing, June 2025. 

ADIPEC Days III & IV: Connecting minds. Transforming Energy

Over the course of Wednesday and Thursday - days III & IV - of ADIPEC 2024 that put us on the home stretch towards the conclusion of global event, conversations turned to a collaborative transformation of the energy mix. 

It was acknowledged that a blend of human ingenuity, finance and technology, with conducive inter-governmental policies would go a long way. 

Hence, event participants got to grips with how to make it happen along with flagging some tangible examples of successful private investments, public-private partnerships and international collaboration. 

Familiar industry subjects were also under the microscope on both days - including but not limited to - stepping up efforts on achieving global carbon neutrality, crucial role of natural gas in a future energy mix, infrastructure for alternative fuels for transportation at ports and airports, tackling methane emissions, and emerging hydrogen energy solutions. 

Speaking of hydrogen, yours truly hosted a panel on Day III titled 'Asia's role in defining the hydrogen market' with panellists - The Right Honourable Abang Johari Tun Openg, Premier of Sarawak, Malaysia, Hiroshi Matsuda, Chief Regional Officer, EMEA, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Koji Yamamoto, SVP, JOGMEC, Shoichi Kaganoi, SVP, Hydrogen & CCUS Development, INPEX and Karine Boissy-Rousseau, VP Green Gases, TotalEnergies.

We discussed how Asian countries are positioning themselves within the global hydrogen economy, focusing on their advances in production technologies and infrastructure, and the geopolitical implications of their evolving roles as both importers and exporters in the hydrogen market.

Afterall, as Asian nations start to configure their hydrogen markets, the region provides a compelling case for the development of new technologies to produce lower cost hydrogen, as well as investments in a rapid expansion of enabling infrastructure for international hydrogen trade.

And the Oilholic brought his ADIPEC 2024 engagements to a close with a panel on the 'strategic role of NGOs in unlocking energy investment for emerging economies' on the final day of the event.  

Eminent panellists for this session included Maha Attia, Head of the Strategic Planning Committee and Assistant Vice-Chairman for Foreign Trade at the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS), Madadh MacLaine, Secretary General, Zero Emissions Ship Technology Association, Huda Al Houqani, Director, Abu Dhabi Sustainability Group (ADSG) and Michel Abi Saab, General Manager, Emerge.

We discussed how non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are fostering energy sector growth in developing countries by overcoming regulatory and infrastructural barriers, and how strategic collaboration with NGOs can unlock significant investment potential in emerging markets.

By collaborating with governments and industry, NGOs help to refine policies and showcase scalable clean energy projects, making emerging markets more attractive to energy companies and financial institutions. These strategic partnerships not only advance sustainable development but also enable organisations to navigate complex regulations, secure funding, and confidently enter high-growth markets.

Finally, global events like ADIPEC cannot of operate in isolation from international developments, none bigger than the 2024 US presidential election that saw Donald Trump reelected. News of the return of Trump reverberated midway through the week-long event. 

Goes without saying, his presidency will likely have a profound impact on global energy markets, as summed up by yours truly in a Forbes piece. And on that note its time to bid goodbye to Abu Dhabi folks, until next year. So keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo I: Energy AI exhibition at ADIPEC 2024. Photo II: Gaurav Sharma hosting a panel on hydrogen markets in Asia at ADIPEC 2024 on 06.11.24. (Courtesy: dmgevents) Photo III: Gaurav Sharma hosting a panel on the strategic role of NGOs in unlocking energy investment for emerging economies at ADIPEC 2024 on 07.11.24. (Courtesy: dmgevents)

ADIPEC Days I & II: All about 'Energy^AI'

The first two days of ADIPEC 2024 in Abu Dhabi have whizzed by with one theme dominating proceedings - the deployment of AI as a service. 

In whichever direction you look around the venue - ADNEC Centre - you can't miss signage flagging it. 

At the opening ceremony on Monday, ADNOC's CEO and the UAE's Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber said the state-operated energy company will deploy autonomous AI for the very first time and called on his peers to embrace it too for the benefit of the wider energy industry.

ADNOC's move - dubbed Energy^AI or 'energy to the power of AI' will be in partnership with government-backed G42, AiQ and Microsoft. Here's The Oilholic's full report for Forbes on Al Jaber's remarks and ADNOC's wider plans. ADIPEC itself has allocated 40,000 square feet of exhibition space showcasing AI, quantum computing and the latest in robotics. 

Technology driven energy transition efforts were variously revisited throughout the day, just as many big oil CEOs including BP's Murray Auchincloss and Shell's Wael Sawn highlighted market and geopolitical complexities they are operationally anxious about as well as a return to the basics of traditional oil and gas exploration and production to firm up their bottomline. 

Monday also saw several ministers speak at ADIPEC including the UAE's energy Suhail Al Mazroui and India's minister for petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri, as did OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais, fresh from the crude producers' group's decision to postpone its planned production increase by a month. Most were united in their belief that oil and gas will continue to play a role as part of a wider energy mix for decades. 

The 2024 round of ADIPEC features conference several streams new and old including - its Strategic Conference, Hydrogen Conference, Downstream Technical Conference, Decarbonisation Conference, Maritime &  Logistics Conference, Digitalisation & Technology Conference, Technical Conference, Finance & Investment Conference and Voices of Tomorrow. 

Yours truly kick-off his ADIPEC 2024 journey by hosting a panel titled: 'Climate finance: The role that of the energy and finance sectors' with panellists Lina Osman, Managing Director & Head, Sustainable Finance - Africa and MENAP at Standard Chartered, Bruce Johnson, Director, Corporate Finance and Treasury at Masdar, and Debnath Mukhopadhyay, CFO of TruAlt Bioenergy.

In a riveting session, we all discussed how the energy transition represents a trillion-dollar investment opportunity for investors and how the energy and finance sectors can work more closely together to accelerate the flow of investments in clean energy projects to match investor risk return expectations.

The Oilholic also took time out for a BBC Business Today interview with Sally Bundock to discuss the goings-on at ADIPEC, OPEC's decision to postpone its production cuts, state of the oil market and climate finance. 

We discussed current oil market permutations, impact of the US election, how a possible protectionist White House may impact crude demand in 2025 and why climate finance and investing in energy AI / technology is a major part of the discourse at this year's ADIPEC, and as a potentially politically charged COP29 approaches. 

Tuesday, Day II, brought more discussions on sector innovation to the fore, and a renewed emphasis on why the shift to low-carbon energy was imperative in a gradual march to net zero, and the critical role governments of the world can play in facilitating this. 

Of course, the event saw divergent views on whether this should be achieved via taxation, subsidies or be left to the free markets. Or perhaps a combination of all three. Technology occupied centrestage here too, with several industry participants outlining the various ways in which AI, advanced analytics, quantum computing and IIoT can make a difference in helping the energy sector as well as the wider global industrial complex discover a low - to - ultimately zero carbon future. 

For his part, the Oilholic hosted his second panel of ADIPEC 2024 titled 'Standardised sustainability reporting: building energy transition trust to boost investment' first thing on Day II with panellists Karim Arslan, Executive Director, Green & Sustainable Finance Originator, Green & Sustainable Hub, Natixis Corporate and Investment Banking, Semih Ozkan, Executive Director, EMEA Energy, Power, Renewables, Metals & Mining, J.P. Morgan and Don Dimitrievich, Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for Energy Infrastructure Credit, Nuveen.

We discussed the critical subject of how standardised sustainability reporting could provide the key to boosting investment into the energy transition through higher levels of investor insight and confidence. And here's to more insightful dialogues over the days to follow. That's all for now folks. There's plenty more to come from ADIPEC 2024. So keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo I: Energy AI signage at ADNEC, Abu Dhabi - the venue of ADIPEC 2024. Photo II: AI display at ADNOC exhibition booth at ADIPEC 2024. Photo III: Gaurav Sharma host a panel on climate finance at ADIPEC 2024 on 04.11.24. (Courtesy: dmgevents) Photo IV: Gaurav Sharma on BBC World Business Today on 04.11.24 at 9:50 GST. (Courtesy: BBC)