Bo Qiliang (left), Vice-President, PetroChina, and Amin H Nasser, Senior Vice-President, Upstream, Saudi Aramco.
By Satish Kanady
DOHA: The future of energy industry lies in technology. Technology must lead the industry agenda, captains of global energy Industry said yesterday.
Attending a plenary session on the opening day of International Petroleum Technology Conference (IPTC), top executives of global energy companies said the industry need a right key to reopen the resource beds.
Amin H Nasser, Senior Vice-President, Upstream, Saudi Aramco, said that the energy producing countries must demonstrate immense boldness to form powerful alliances, which is key to address the challenges faced by the industry. They should work for game changing innovations, he said “Technology must lead industry agenda. Technology advancements are important for long-term strategy.”
Bo Qiliang, Vice-President, PetroChina, said: “The global energy landscape is changing remarkably. We always consider new trends while we design our corporate strategy. The world still has high expectations on recovery of oil and gas.”
Both the supply and demand sources are getting diversified in the changing landscape of global energy. On the supply side, he said, the US is set to emerge as the world’s largest energy producer in the world by 2030. North America will also reduce the amount of energy dependency. However, Middle East will still be important oil supplier in the world, he said.
The global energy map shows that the market structure will continue to change. Natural gas consumption is rising by 2.5 percent across the world over the past two decades. In China it has been growing by 17 percent since 2000.
Bo said the new era demands cleaner fossil energy. Natural gas production capacity has to be increased. Asia-pacific is witnessing a huge demand growth. China also attaches great importance to the recovery of its ageing oil fields. Innovation is key for recovery of oil fields.
Sudhir Vasudeva, Chairman and Managing Director of India’s ONGC, noted that his country has been projected as the world’s top energy consumer by 2030. The country is looking for cutting-edge technology and innovation to revitalise its ageing major producing fields and its ‘poor to moderate’ recovery fields.
India’s major oilfields are 25-30 years old. The country is looking for collaboration with international companies whose recovery factor is 20 to 40 percent.
Commenting on the exploration side, Yves-Louis Darricarrare, President, Upstream, Total, said improved imaging techniques are essential to reduce exploration risks and help optimising field development. He said total has been investing 60m euro over the four years in high performance computer to possess seismic data.
Matthias Bichsel, Project and Technology Director, Shell, said technology will play a key role in unlocking the shale and tight gas resources. “If we really want to unlock energy in emerging economies, we need to invest in technology in the coming decades.”
“The application of technology in the energy sector is happening like never before,” said Jakob Thomasen, Chief Executive Officer, Maersk Oil.
Nasser Al Jaidah, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Petroleum International, chaired the plenary session.
The Peninsula
