Striving for smart, sustainable cities & urban excellence

On Wednesday, the second and final day of the Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Summit, over 4,000 attendees visited the exhibition and conference. 

They included royalty as the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan joined the crowds. He met exhibitors, officials and visitors alike during his visit. 

The Crown Prince also stressed on the vital importance of leveraging advanced technologies in urban planning to ensure the long-term sustainability of infrastructure that meets the aspirations of current and future generations and enhances societal wellbeing, by investing in integrated, future-ready infrastructure, including facilities powered by artificial intelligence and other smart solutions. 

Of course, the pursuit of urban excellence is a moving target with diverse global contexts. Abu Dhabi’s ambition to redefine urban living through world-class infrastructure and quality of life enhancements finds resonance in the transformative strategies of pioneering global cities.

That was the subject matter of the second panel at the summit moderated by The Oilholic at ADIS. The panelists included Daniel Liu, Executive Director of MORROW Intelligence, Emre Arolat, Founding Partner and Principal at Emre Arolat Architecture, Greg Bargull, Executive Director of Development at Modon and Asma Aljassmi, Executive Director of Projects Control and Operations at Aldar Projects. 

We discussed how successful urban centers worldwide are redefining city planning through context-specific innovations that balance economic growth with human-centric design. 

From Singapore’s holistic balance of economic growth, environmental sustainability, and social inclusivity to Chongqing’s technology and sustainability integration, Copenhagen’s Nordhavn district’s 5-Minute City model, and Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City balancing sustainability, heritage and innovation - the world’s most innovative cities promote a strong sense of place and identity for their residents and community said the panelists.

They also offered pragmatic insights on the challenges and opportunities along the route toward urban excellence, and learning as much from the mistakes of others as their successes, whilst keeping sustainability and energy efficiency almost always in sharp focus. 

And on that note, it's a wrap from the inaugural ADIS 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 2025. Photo I: Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (right) visits the exhibition at the Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Summit © Abu Dhabi Media Office, June 2025. Photo II: Energy analyst Gaurav Sharma (left) moderates a panel at the Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Summit. © ADIS, June 2025.

Getting going at Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Summit

The Oilholic is in Abu Dhabi, UAE for the inaugural Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Summit. It is being hosted by Abu Dhabi Projects and Infrastructure Centre (ADPIC), which manages government capital projects in the Emirate, alongside overseeing infrastructure project implementation and delivery. 

The summit - being held from June 17 to 18 at the city's Energy Centre - is expected to draw in over 2,000 attendees from nearly 100 countries, 25 major exhibitors and over 70 global speakers (present company included). The theme for this year's event is "Future cities: Rethinking infrastructure for better lifestyles." 

In line with that theme, over the next two days yours truly will take part in the programme that includes leading voices from the world of renewable energy, real estate development and design, aviation, architecture and urban planning, alongside proponents of AI and emerging technologies. 

The whole idea is to bring together government entities, semi-government bodies, developers, investors, contractors, technology providers, academia, and global associations, in order to facilitate what the organisers describe as meaningful collaboration across the entire infrastructure ecosystem.

Looking forward to an exciting and insightful few days in Abu Dhabi. More musings to follow soon folks. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo: Gaurav Sharma at the Abu Dhabi Infrastructure Summit © Gaurav Sharma, June 2025. 

Media missives from Emerson Exchange 2025

With Emerson Exchange 2025 - the thought leadership event of global engineering services, industrial automation and technology giant Emerson - drawing to a close on May 22, the Oilholic enjoyed a fascinating and engaging week out in San Antonio, Texas, US. 

An action-packed week included insightful 1-on-1 discussions, panel chats, a product launch and wider interactions on the global energy and industry mix, and, where it is heading to with the "plant or factory of the future." 

All of The Oilholic's blog entries for Emerson Exchange may be found here. Yours truly also provided insight and an exclusive interview to Forbes from the event as detailed below. 

• Emerson To Seamlessly Integrate Its Industrial Automation Tech Stack, May 20, 2025
• $40 Billion Of Asset Deals In 4 Years, Room For More, Says Emerson COO, May 22, 2025

That's all for the moment 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 2025. Photo: Emerson Exchange 2025 held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, San Antonio, Texas, US. © Gaurav Sharma, May 2025. 

On AI and more at Emerson Exchange 2025

As the week progressed, Emerson Exchange 2025 came into its element sparking discussions under the event's core them of accelerating innovation. 

Over 300 presentations, client engagements and panels took place covering AI, automation, IIoT, predictive analytics, smart industrial equipment and more. 

The industrial sectors covered included traditional energy, renewables, power and utilities, chemicals, mining, pharmaceuticals, automotive, and food and beverage, but to name a few. 

Speaking of AI, the Oilholic moderated a TechTalk session titled - Industrial AI: Driving Smarter, Safer, and More Sustainable Operations. Subject matter experts on the panel included: Heiko Claussen, Chief Technologist, Emerson, Nate Harris, Global AI Sales Lead, Data & AI, Microsoft, Lynn Comp, Global Head of Sales for the AI Center of Excellence, Intel, and Clint Schneider, VP of Technology at Emerson's Final Control Business.

The panel touched on how AI is rapidly reshaping industrial operations, enabling predictive insights, process optimization and greater sustainability. At the heart of the discussions was AI deployment across the global industrial and manufacturing complex to enhance decision-making, improve efficiency and address complex operational challenges.

Cybersecurity and a re-skilling of the workforce - key facets of the ongoing industrial
transformation - also came under scrutiny, with a discussion on the workforce of the future and zero trust security architecture. 

Whichever way you look at it dear readers, in the quest for improved throughput and a lower carbon footprint (which are joined at the hip in the Oilholic's opinion) - an embedding of AI with safeguards into process systems, turning information and data into actionable insights, and a shift toward optimized autonomous operations are all but inevitable. 

Emerson is eyeing massive opportunities in this sphere and has been repositioning its business via acquisitions, divestments and bolt-on transactions worth $40bn in just the past four years alone. Here's this blogger's exclusive interview on the subject for Forbes with the company's Chief Operating Officer Ram Krishnan. 

The logic slots in particularly well in the case of the global oil and gas industry that's constantly learning to do more with less, at a time of cyclical volatility and lower oil prices.

And if you happened to tour the technology exhibits at Emerson Exchange, various solutions being showcased pointed to exactly that. 

Elsewhere, yours truly also hosted leadership conversations for Emerson on the sidelines of the event. Over a dozen members of the company's divisional and corporate leadership team kindly took part in the conversations to share their invaluable industry insight. 

As a teaser they included, Emerson COO Ram Krishnan, CSO Mike Train, CTO Peter Zornio, CMO Vidya Ramnath, and Emerson's AspenTech business CTO Claudio Fayad among others. The recordings will be published in due course by the Emerson team, and the Oilholic will alert you when they are online. So, watch this space. 

Well, that's a wrap from Emerson Exchange 2025 until next time. Its been a memorable, insightful and exciting week here in San Antonio. 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 2025. Photo I: AI TechTalk at Emerson Exchange 2025. © Denise Clarke, May 2025. Photo II: Behind the scenes at the recording of Leadership Conversations with Emerson at Emerson Exchange 2025 hosted by Gaurav Sharma © Scott Leech / Brandspeak Communications, May 2025. 

Boundless automation at Emerson Exchange 2025

While the doors of Emerson Exchange 2025 opened on Monday, formal proceedings got underway on Tuesday morning with a keynote from Emerson CEO Lal Karsanbhai.

The global industrial technology and software vendor's boss said his industry is facing dynamic markets in an evolving industrial landscape. 

"Emerson is moving in the right direction with purpose, conviction and agility in automation, shaping what's next for global industries," he noted.

Flagging $40 billion worth of transactions from Emerson over the last four years, Karsanbhai said the company was also displaying remarkable agility from within via "boundless automation", and an ever improving offer of software premised integrated solutions that both the markets and his company's customers have come to expect of it. 

The Emerson CEO also lauded his company's acquisition of industrial software leader AspenTech for $7.2 billion because it supported "a software driven approach to shape the future direction of travel for Emerson."

To that end, Karsanbhai also delivered a teaser of 'Project Beyond' - Emerson's new product suite that seamlessly integrates its entire industrial automation technology stack. 

Following the keynotes came the formal launch of Project Beyond, hosted by yours truly alongside Peter Zornio, CTO of Emerson, Claudio Fayad, CTO of AspenTech, Nina Schwalb, Head of AspenTech DataWorks inmation, and Dave Denison, Vice President of Software Applications at Emerson Automation Solutions. 

The quartet described how Project Beyond brings industrial AI together with contextualized data across a diverse set of automation environments – embedded, edge and cloud – to "unlock flexibility, safety, sustainability and performance" to facilitate "boundless automation." 

For more details on the actual launch itself, here's this blogger's report for Forbes. At the launch, a statement by COO Ram Krishnan noted that Emerson was looking for an increased take-up of its integrated product offer from energy, power and utilities, chemicals, mining and pharmaceuticals. 

“Companies are eager to modernize automation and keep pace with the promise of new technologies like AI without ripping and replacing their existing infrastructure or dealing with the pain and costs of integrating new applications and millions of fragmented data points,” Krishnan added.

“Project Beyond will use the power of software-defined control to introduce an entirely new, scalable, seamlessly integrated infrastructure with automated data contextualization to turn trapped data into powerful operational efficiencies.”

Following the product launch, and the commencement of the conference program, the event's technology exhibition also opened its doors to visitors showcasing Emerson's hardware and software solutions based on the six "building blocks" of Project Beyond. 

They include - computing power, networking and connectivity, data operations, app marketplace, AI orchestration and a zero-trust security architecture for industries. Overall, an exciting day's outing with plenty more to follow soon. 

On that note, its time to say goodbye for now. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo I: Lal Karsanbhai, CEO of Emerson delivers his keynote at Emerson Exchange 2025. © Gaurav Sharma, May 2025. Photo II: Launch of Emerson's 'Project Beyond' on May 20, 2025. © Keith Larson / Endeavor Business Media. Photo III: Glimpses of the technology exhibition at Emerson Exchange 2025 © Gaurav Sharma, May 2025. 

Getting started at Emerson Exchange 2025

The Oilholic has arrived in San Antonio, Texas, US for the week-long Emerson Exchange 2025. It is the thought leadership event of engineering services, industrial automation and software giant Emerson. 

The event - being held at the city's Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center - is expected to draw in nearly 4,000 attendees from over 50 countries, representing 300-plus companies integral to the global industrial and manufacturing complex. 

The theme for this year's event is Accelerating Innovation. Over the course of the week, attendees can expect around 300 presentations as part of a varied content program. 

Yours truly will also take part in the program, including a panel on industrial AI on Wednesday, details of which will follow soon. While this blogger's interest is in the energy segment, over a dozen industries would be represented here from pharmaceuticals to food and beverage. 

Emerson Exchange 2025 will also hold an exhibition spread over a 130,000 square foot exhibition hall with nearly 100 exhibitors showcasing over 500 industrial solutions. Expect a few product launches too. Looking forward to an exciting action packed week out in Texas. 

More soon as the week progresses! Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2025. Photo: Gaurav Sharma at Emerson Exchange 2025 © Gaurav Sharma, May 2025. 

Visiting a 'sustainability lighthouse' factory

Earlier this year The Oilholic headed to Le Vaudreuil in Normandy, France, some 115 km northwest of Paris, to get up close to Schneider Electric's ongoing smart factories drive. 

Its plant in the French commune is one of 11 such sites around the world where digitalisation and automation are in full swing to improve throughput, and, of course, to demonstrate the efficacy of Schneider Electric's solutions to existing as well as potential customers. 

Essentially, the global energy management and automation vendor has converted a 50-year-old brownfield site - of around 14,000 square meters that produces its hardware - into a fully functional staging post for automation solutions banking on EcoStruxure - its IIoT solutions suite. 

Here is yours truly's feature for Forbes on the site visit and the company's motivation for the exercise that Le Vaudreuil is an integral part of. The said transformation was several years in the making.

Schneider Electric embarked on the journey in 2018, and now in 2025, a fully automated Le Vaudreuil is yielding some impressive results. Power consumption is down by 36% and CO2 emissions lower by over 80%. Furthermore, the delivery lead time has improved by 70%.

As the battle for a slice of the industrial automation market heats up, such sites will prove invaluable for the company as showcases for live action demonstrations if one may use the expression - something it happily flags. 

What's more, the drive has seen Schneider Electric bag accolades from the World Economic Forum (WEF) which has designated the Le Vaudreuil plant as a "sustainability lighthouse" - i.e. a leader in sustainable industrial processes. Six other such manufacturing sites owned and operated by the company have also bagged the WEF badge. 

Overall, this blogger was delighted to have gotten up close to view how AI, IIoT, predictive analytics, robotics, machine learning, and more, keep the factory of the future going. So, here's a big shout out to Schneider Electric's team at Le Vaudreuil who spared their time to show The Oilholic around, demonstrate the plant's kit and processes, answer queries and provide the necessary data for research purposes.

That's all for now 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 2025. Photo I: Gaurav Sharma, energy analyst, Oilholics Synonymous (third from right in high visibility jacket) with the team at Schneider Electric's 'sustainability lighthouse' factory in Le Vaudreuil, Normandy, France © Nicole Love Lloyd / Schneider Electric, 2025. Photo II: Gaurav Sharma outside Schneider Electric's Le Vaudreuil factory in Normandy, France.

GMIS 2024 and industrial safety manifesto launch

The Oilholic recently had the privilege of speaking and moderating at the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS) in Abu Dhabi, UAE on December 5, hosted by the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development at the inaugural Abu Dhabi Business Week, with a key theme of building resilience across the global industrial, manufacturing and petrochemical complexes. 

The summit deliberated at length the challenge of ensuring safety and security for key infrastructure in the digital age. In line with this thinking, a first-of-its-kind Manifesto for Global Industrial Safety was launched at the event to widespread recognition and support from leaders and experts across the global industrial ecosystem. 

Developed by the Global Initiative for Industrial Safety (GIFIS) in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS), and the Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy (CIIP), the manifesto sets a new global benchmark for safety and sustainability in industrial practices.

Each year, approximately three million deaths worldwide are linked to insufficient safety measures and dangerous working conditions, resulting in an economic loss of 3.9% of global GDP, according to the International Labour Organisation. Cognisant of this, the manifesto offers a strategic blueprint for stakeholders to harness technology and effectively address safety risks for workers around the world. 

In doing so, it outlines guiding principles and vital contributions required from industry, government, academia, regulators, and international organisations to accelerate the safe adoption of technology in new industrial processes and to integrate technology-enabled safety solutions in traditional industries. 

Delivering a keynote address at the event, post-launch, Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cyber Security for the UAE Government, said the manifesto underscores the importance of continuing to prioritise safety, security, and collaboration. 

"Partnerships, communication, and information-sharing are vital to maintaining this progress and achieving a resilient and secure future." More so, as the global cybersecurity market booms in the digital age, as recorded by yours truly in a Forbes missive from the event. 

An exciting event agenda also saw several topics of interest deliberated throughout the day-long event. Proceedings included a fireside chat hosted by yours truly on pioneering industrial resilience by leveraging technology and the pivotal role of leadership in industrial safety, with Barbara Frei, Executive Vice President Industrial Automation, Schneider Electric and Courtney Gregoire, Vice President and Chief Digital Safety Officer, Microsoft. 

Both Barbara and Courtney touched on best practices from an OT and IT perspective as industries and whole sectors embrace IIoT, AI and robotics. 

Later in the day, and to bring the event proceedings to a close, the Oilholic also moderated a panel session titled 'Built to Endure: Resilience in High-Stakes Industries.'

Panellists included Amer J Siddiqi, Executive Director, Mubadala, Hazeem Al Suwaidi, CEO, Borouge and Hesham Awda, COO, NMDC Energy Offshore. They offered their respective takes on why building resilience in high-risk industries requires a multi-faceted approach that combines technology, strong leadership, and a culture of safety. 

This now incrementally involves the deployment of advanced technologies, such as predictive analytics and machine learning, to anticipate potential disruptions before they occur.

As global supply chains become increasingly interconnected, industries’ ability to endure and adapt to challenges will be a defining factor in their long-term success, happened to be the verdict of the panel, and the wider GMIS discourse. 

Offering a parting food for thought - for governments and businesses alike, resilience has become a strategic asset that not only safeguards operations but also drives sustainable growth. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo I: GMIS 2024. Photo II: Dr. Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, Head of Cyber Security for the UAE Government speaks at GMIS. Photo III: Gaurav Sharma hosts a fireside chat with Barbara Frei, Executive Vice President Industrial Automation, Schneider Electric and Courtney Gregoire, Vice President and Chief Digital Safety Officer, Microsoft. © GMIS 2024. 

Speaking and moderating at GMIS 2024

The Oilholic is delighted to be back in Abu Dhabi, UAE for GMIS 2024, being held here on December 5 as part of the inaugural Abu Dhabi Business Week. Yours truly will be hosting one fireside chat and one panel session at the event with distinguished industry thought leaders. 

Please do join if you can for some fantastic and insightful industry dialogues. Here are the details of the sessions:

Thursday, December 5, 2024 @ 12:30 GST

Pioneering Resilience: Technology and Leadership in Industrial Safety

With: 

- Barbara Frei, Executive Vice President Industrial Automation, Schneider Electric

- Courtney Gregoire, Vice President and Chief Digital Safety Officer, Microsoft

(Click image to enlarge)

Thursday, December 5, 2024 @15:15 GST

Built to Endure: Resilience in High-Stakes Industries

With: 

- Amer J Siddiqi, Executive Director, Mubadala

- Hazeem Al Suwaidi, CEO, Borouge

- Eng. Hesham Awda, COO, NMDC Energy Offshore

(Click image to enlarge)

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 Motley Fool click here.

To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo © GMIS 2024. 

ADIPEC 2024 sessions to be hosted by yours truly

The Oilholic is delighted to be back in Abu Dhabi, UAE for ADIPEC 2024, the world's largest energy conference and exhibition of its kind, being held here from November 4 to 7. Yours truly will be holding four panel sessions at the event with distinguished industry thought leaders. 

Please do join if you can for some fantastic and insightful industry dialogues. Here are the details of the sessions:

Monday, November 4, 2024 @ 15:30 GST

Climate finance: the role of the energy and finance sectors

With:

- Lina Osman, Managing Director & Head, Sustainable Finance - Africa and MENAP, Standard Chartered

- Bruce Johnson, Director, Corporate Finance and Treasury, Masdar 

- Jassim AlSane, Co-head of Investment Banking MENA, Goldman Sachs 

- Debnath Mukhopadhyay, CFO, TruAlt Bioenergy

(Click image to enlarge)

Tuesday, November 5, 2024 @10:00 GST

Standardised sustainability reporting: building energy transition trust to boost investment 

With:

- 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

- Don Dimitrievich, Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager for Energy Infrastructure Credit, Nuveen

(Click image to enlarge)

Wednesday, November 6, 2024 @14:30 GST

Asia’s role in defining the hydrogen market

With:

- 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

- Karine Boissy-Rousseau, VP Green Gases, TotalEnergies

(Click image to enlarge)

Thursday, November 7, 2024 @11:45 GST

The strategic role of NGOs in unlocking energy investment for emerging economies

With:

- Maha Attia, Assistant Vice Chairman for Foreign Trade, Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS) 

- Madadh MacLaine, Secretary General, Zero Emissions Ship Technology Association (ZESTAs) 

- Huda Al Houqani, Director, Abu Dhabi Sustainability Group (ADSG)

- Michel Abi Saab, General Manager, Emerge

(Click image to enlarge)

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

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo © Gastech / dmgevents 2024. 

Gastech Days I & II: Energy transformation through innovation

The first two days of Gastech 2024 have flown by with talking points aplenty and a who's-who of the energy industry in Houston at the city's George R. Brown Convention Center. 

Former US President George W. Bush got things going on Monday night by highlighting his state and country's achievements in the global energy sphere at the Gastech pre-event gala dinner. 

The state of Texas is the US' top crude oil and natural gas producing state. It also has the nation's highest refining capacity by some distance and remains a wind power leader. As Q4 2024 approaches, the US remains world's largest LNG exporter and its largest crude oil producer. 

However, as Day I of Gastech - which is formally running from September 17 to 20 - kicked off on Tuesday, energy bosses bemoaned the lack of clarity and consistency from Washington on policy matters pertaining to natural gas exploration and LNG permits. (Read full report for Forbes here)

The Oilholic kick-started his Gastech 2024 speaking circuit journey on Tuesday as well, with India's Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri - a seasoned diplomat turned politician and a lively keynote speaker at international events. 

Our fireside chat was titled 'Energy transformation through innovation and investment'. It also served as a curtain raiser for India Energy Week 2025. 

Puri explained how India was managing the cyclical volatility in the energy market, its efforts aimed at improving energy diversity, investments in renewables and a call for changing the paradigm from a production-oriented approach to a more consumption-oriented approach. All at a time when oil prices are currently lurking around 2021 lows. 

The event's exhibition floor also opened its doors on the first morning for the 4-day event, with 800 exhibitors and 20 international country pavilions. Overall 50,000 attendees are expected this week, with 7,000 delegates from 125 countries. 

Later on Tuesday, yours truly also hosted a pivotal panel discussion titled 'Harnessing the advantages of natural gas to fuel the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.' 

The panellists included Rebekah Eggers, Global Client Engagement & Innovation Director, Energy & Resources Sector, IBM, Arun Kumar Singh, Chairman & CEO, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, Ken West, President & CEO, Honeywell Energy and Sustainability Solutions, Naser Al Yafei, SVP, Strategy, Sustainability & Transformation, ADNOC Gas, and Matthew Babin, Head of Energy & Natural Resources, Palantir Technologies. 

The panel touched on the growing need for electricity - often and increasingly generated by natural gas plants - to power data centers and fuel the AI revolution. This is expected to drive a surge in natural gas demand. 

Some panellists noted that natural gas is the most cost efficient energy source capable of delivering the round-the-clock, reliable power required by tech giants. Others said AI itself could chalk sustainable future pathways predicated on renewables. 

It better be, for according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), global power demand from data centers could skyrocket to over 1,000 TWh by 2026 – double the levels seen in 2022. 

It is a subject area yours truly rounded up the first day of Gastech 2024 with a BBC Business Today interview with Sally Bundock. We talked about the complexities and opportunities of using natural gas to power the AI revolution which seems to be the most plausible near-term solution. 

Day II - Wednesday - brought further profound discussions on the energy transition and learning to do more (in terms of throughput) with less (energy). It is something the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) segment is taking pretty seriously. 

The Oilholic touched on the subject in a fireside chat with Chris Ashton, CEO of Worley, who discussed how contractors manage these variables in today’s operational landscape and are having to contend with a high interest rate and inflation climate in a very competitive industry. 

Ashton also offered perspectives on how AI, new technologies and innovative approaches are revolutionizing energy networks, power grids and gas infrastructure, and how these advancements contribute to the efficient and cost-effective completion of projects to accelerate the path toward net zero. 

That's all for now folks. There's plenty more to come from yours truly from Gastech. 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: Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center, the venue of Gastech 2024. Photo II: Gaurav Sharma holds a fireside chat with Hardeep Singh Puri, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, India on 17.09.24. Photo III: Gastech 2024 exhibition floor. Photo IV: Gaurav Sharma on BBC World Business Today on 17.09.24 at 11:46 CDT. (Courtesy: BBC) Photo V: Gaurav Sharma holds a fireside chat with Chris Ashton, CEO of Worley on 18.09.24.

'Partnering for the future' at OPTIMIZE24

The second and final day of the main conference program at OPTIMIZE24 has now concluded. It started with an early morning primer on the energy transition challenge from geologist, documentary filmmaker and founder of the Switch Energy Alliance Scott Tinker. 

This set attendees up for an insightful panel discussion on navigating net zero hosted by AspenTech's Chief Product & Sustainability Officer Rasha Hasaneen. She was joined by fellow panellists Andre Argenton, Chief Sustainability Officer at Dow, Suresh Kotha, Chief Information Officer at SMUD,  Darryl Willis, Corporate Vice President, Energy & Resources Industry at Microsoft, Zhanna Golodryga, Executive Vice President, Emerging Energy and Sustainability at Phillips 66, Aqil Jamal, Chief Technologist, Carbon Management Research Division at Aramco, and Mike Train, Chief Sustainability Officer at Emerson. 

The hour-long discussion that followed dwelt on how digitization and collaboration in the energy and industrial complex remain crucial to navigating net zero challenges and achieving a just energy transition by tackling the energy trilemma (of sustainability, security and affordability). 

Summing up, Hasaneen noted that existing digitalization tools may hold many of the answers, while innovations - like artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing - may enable a more consistent adoption across both traditional and emerging energy sectors. 

Ultimately, as the AspenTech sustainability head noted: "Technologies do exist to make the world greener and cleaner, willpower and collaboration is what's needed." Or in other words - all parties need to "partner for the future."

Elsewhere, over the course of the day, this blogger heard interesting sessions touching on cybersecurity best practices for operational technology, how AspenTech solutions are being deployed for automating well production, flaring and downtime reduction in the Permian basin, performance engineering for petrochemicals and the company's solutions for supporting the wider hydrogen industry. 

Away from it all, the Oilholic was delighted to host thought leadership videos for AspenTech at OPTIMIZE24 with several of the company's key movers and shakers including Hasaneen (pictured above). The software company's strategic partners and clients also participated in the exercise.

They included senior executives from EY, Accenture, Wood, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Westlake, TenneT and SMUD. The videos will be posted soon on AspenTech's and their partners' commercial and social channels. So watch this space folks!

And finally, the Oilholic shares with you a glimpse of the event's really cool "smart" lanyard. How so? Well the mini device attached to the strap, carried yours truly's event sessions preferences, and flashed a reminder each time they were due to start. Not only that, touching / syncing it with a fellow attendee's lanyard exchanged mutual contact details! All very, very handy and innovative! And that alas is it for the latest edition of OPTIMIZE. 

All that remains is to thank the wonderful Team AspenTech for putting on a fabulous and insightful event in Houston, and for their warm hospitality. Here's to the next installment in the very near future. More musings to follow soon after the flight home to London. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo I: 'Navigating net zero' panel at AspenTech's OPTIMIZE24 on May 1, 2024 in Houston, Texas, US. © Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo II: Gaurav Sharma recording an AspenTech thought leadership video with Rasha Hasaneen, the company's Chief Product & Sustainability Officer on May 1, 2024. © Pete Yagmin /AspenTech 2024. Photo III: OPTIMIZE24's smart lanyard. © Gaurav Sharma 2024.

Revisiting 'EcoStruxure' At Schneider Electric's Innovation Summit

Earlier this month the Oilholic had the pleasure of attending a Schneider Electric event after a gap of nearly six years - the company's Innovation Summit in Paris, France. 

A lot has happened since this blogger last attended a Schneider event. The inimitable Jean-Pascal Tricoire has moved on from being CEO to the Chairman of the company, with former AVEVA boss Peter Herweck now in the boss' chair. 

But one constant has been the company's relentless development and marketing of its Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) architecture - EcoStruxure - conceived to deliver "smart" automation and digitization solutions within the energy sphere for a plethora of industrial, manufacturing and processing clients. 

So it was a pleasure to receive two use case demonstrations of how the product suite is being applied and has evolved since the turn of the decade. For this blogger, the company's EcoStruxure Automation Expert, a software-centric industrial automation system, and EcoStruxure Hybrid Distributed Control System  (formerly branded as PlantStruxure PES), a single automation system to engineer, operate, and maintain a plant's entire infrastructure, stood out amidst a sea of solutions and myriad use cases. 

These were use cases for a "sustainable, productive and market-agile" future that the company envisions for the wider industrial and manufacturing complex, according to CEO Herweck, who in his keynote, noted that: "Being more electrical, being more digital, means being more efficient."

And "Digital + Electric = A Sustainable Future" was the simple equation put forward by Herweck for a world facing the complex issue of managing carbon emissions. 

Here's a Forbes report summing up Herweck's comments in Paris. It was also revealed at the Innovation Summit that Schneider Electric was driving up its R&D spend from 5.4% to around 8% of headline revenue. The company is also practicing what it preaches by converting key facilities into the very sort of "smart factories" it is recommending to the world, something the Oilholic intends to revisit later down the year.  

Elsewhere, your truly also got to grips with a number of fascinating home energy management software solutions and applications alongside battery inverters (used as a way to control flow of electricity in residential properties) and allied smart home concepts. 

Commercial power management software and hardware, grid operations software, artificial intelligence (AI) powered monitoring systems, datacenter cooling systems, and electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure displays and demos at the exhibition floor completed an interesting and informative visit. 

Or a glimpse of a digitized and electrified horizon, as the company's C-Suites and public relations executives will tell you! And on that note, its time to say goodbye. More musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

Additional note 25.04.24: Here's yours truly's recently published interview with Barbara Frei, Executive Vice President, Industrial Automation at Schneider Electric following a meeting in Paris. 

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© Gaurav Sharma 2024. Photo I: A Schneider Electric EcoStruxure display at the company's Innovation Summit in Paris, France. Photo II: Schneider Electric CEO Peter Herweck delivering his keynote. Photo III: Sustainability message dominated proceedings, Apr 3-4, 2024. © Gaurav Sharma 2024.

All missives from CERAWeek 2024

With CERAWeek 2024, organised by S&P Global, drawing to a close last week, the Oilholic marked a fascinating and engaging week for the energy markets with a number of pieces for Forbes as well as daily blog posts. 

Here are the Forbes pieces:

• Aramco Investing ‘Big Time’ In Renewables But CEO Slams ‘Fantasy’ Of Phasing Out Oil And Gas, March 18, 2024.
• Oil Is Nearing 5-Month Highs And Its Not Just About Supply Fears, March 18, 2024.
• What Will Oil Demand Look Like In 10 Years And When Might A ‘Peak’ Occur?, March 20, 2024.
• Why Bill Gates Reckons Houston May Become The ‘Silicon Valley Of Energy’, March 24, 2024.
• Global LNG Market: Sliding Prices In 2024, Rising Opportunities By 2030?, March 27, 2024.
• Energy Transition: Challenge Of Financing And Investing In A $6 Trillion Megatrend, March 28, 2024.

All blog entries for each CERAWeek day may be found here. 

And that's a wrap. More musings to follow soon. Keep reading, keep it here, keep it 'crude'! 

To follow The Oilholic on Twitter click here.

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To email: journalist_gsharma@yahoo.co.uk  

© Gaurav Sharma 2024.