Marketplace Launched! The upstream oil and gas supply chain is about to get a much needed boost in procurement efficiency with the launch of a new e-commerce marketplace. Such marketplaces are very common in the consumer industry (Amazon being an example), but rare to non-existent in oil and gas. Despite years of investment in big enterprise system…

Australia is the lucky country when it comes to energy transition. The country is blessed with ample non-renewable energy resources, including gas, coal, uranium, lithium, and oil. In addition, the country is bathed in sunshine, surrounded by coastlines and tides, and is largely empty, suitable for wind farms. The LNG sector is now incredibly impor…

About the Episode The world of geospatial analytics is transforming how we manage industrial infrastructure. In this interview with Sean Donegan, the CEO of Satelytics, we discuss the use of satellite data to tackle major challenges like methane leaks, water contamination, and infrastructure damage with cutting-edge AI technology. The traditional m…

In this interview with David Khani, we discuss pipeline tariff negotiations and how regulatory analytics can help shippers win big. Policies such as the Inflation Reduction Act are reshaping energy infrastructure, along with global events, such as the Ukrainian conflict. Natural gas market dynamics are changing rapidly, and systemically. Dave and E…

Where are oil and gas prices going, and why. That’s the focus of this wide-ranging interview I had with Andrew Botterill, head of Deloitte’s chemicals and oil and gas industry vertical. Deloitte produces a regular price forecast for oil and gas, and we provide the context, covering the turmoil and volatility in global markets, heavily influenced by…

AI innovations are helping transform regulatory processes by providing access to data that has been beyond analytical reach. AI tools such as ChatGPT, Bard, and CoPilot are revolutionizing how energy firms and professionals tackle complex regulatory data, especially in sectors like energy infrastructure. These generative AI tools ingest the huge vo…

In the US lower 48 states, between $200 billion and $400 billion are spent in the supply chain every year and are still run with practices designed decades ago. The energy sector's supply chain is broken and needs a new vision to take it to the next level. In this interview podcast with Joshua Trott from WorkRise, we’ll look at the outdated practic…

Business risks and opportunities surface whenever supply and demand go wildly out of balance. Energy transition is creating supply and demand imbalances in many ways. For example, the supply of clean energy infrastructure is lagging demand because of slow permitting processes. Sellers gain because the price point for green energy will rise to meet …

If you’re working on a digital innovation when your oil and gas company has been acquired, you’re at risk, and you need a plan. I once worked on a major merger to create Canada's largest oil company, and I know how these mergers go down, and you don't want to be a victim. In this solo narration podcast I describe why mergers are happening now and w…

Digital twin solutions are rapidly advancing to a point where the model will be running tightly coupled with the actual asset it models, using live data. It’s not a stretch to see how the digital twin can become the day-to-day supervisor of the actual asset. This kind of work even applies to brownfield assets that predate the internet, mobility, cl…

Every year at this time I put forth my outlook for the coming year, with a focus on the digital trends that I believe will have the greatest impact on the fortunes of the industry. These are not so much as predictions, as they are speculations on the trends that I see marching along, and how those trend lines will play out over the next 12 months o…

"First thing you need to connect the assets first and get the data. So that's we call it like static digital twin, and then you can use it for simulation. Then you move to the second version, which having like a shadow, digital twin, which you have an image of what's happening, but you can monitor. But the truly digital twin is monitor and control.…

To break free of the limitations of yesterday’s technologies, the oil and gas industry is accelerating its adoption of private 5G networks. Some time ago, I helped an oil field logistics company respond to customer feedback that its services were “in the Stone Age”. Its systems were entirely manual, inaccurate, slow, and error prone. Virtually ever…

"We really kind of focus on the data and analytics side, really helping identify challenges where innovative data solutions, machine learning and AI technologies can be leveraged to drive more data driven insights." In this episode, I’m in conversation with Clark Lai, the CEO of Motiv Innovation Group. Clark’s team helps businesses apply data analy…

"There's been a real reluctance on the part of operators to jump back in to some of these higher-cost opportunities. That's further constraining exploration and development of supply." In this episode, I’m in conversation with Howard Crosby, the Founder and CEO of LGX Energy Corporation. Howard and a partner acquired an oil company in Indiana and t…

Halloween. A gory and ghastly night of ghouls, ghosts, and goblins. And as with previous years marking All Souls, I reflect on the latest digital demons molesting the oil and gas industry, how best to exorcise them, and how to speedily return them to the land of the undead. When you open the front door to this season’s mob of treat-hunting ghouls, …

A pioneering application of artificial intelligence at Woodside Energy is finally ready for wider deployment in oil and gas. I learned about this use case back in 2016, at APPEA’s annual conference in Perth, where Woodside’s data science team presented their work. Surprisingly, few companies bothered to replicate this innovation, even though it was…

"Aviation fuel because it is a big amount of emissions, roughly 2% in actual measurement, but about three and a half percent in terms of impact. It's not likely to change because you need high density fuels, so batteries aren't going to work for long haul flights. And 90% of aviation is long haul flights." In this episode, I’m in conversation with …

If you want to be a successful digital leader, you need to be able to sell your ideas to a reluctant oil and gas buyer. Selling is so innately human we don’t even know when we’re selling or being sold. Have you ever been to a restaurant and found yourself ordering something you would usually not ever have at home, like some decadent dessert? The en…

"Turnover and mergers are one of the biggest disruptions in companies. So when you have that factored in, if you have someone who leaves the company, then everything that they've ever done, that human brain of knowledge as well and experience within that company is gone." In this episode, I’m in conversation with Wendy Hamelin, the CEO of Astraea E…

"Those who are working in any energy sector right now are best place to be working in that sector in another 10 years, even if it's going to be on a different technology." In this episode, I’m in conversation with Corinna Frye, who is the National Head of Renewable Energy and Clean Technology, with LVI Associates. As a recruiter focused on the ener…

Canada’s largest private oil company, and operator of the largest oil refinery, is carrying out a strategic review, which includes the possible sale of the company. Why would they do this? I grew up in Saint John, and had the privilege to work at this company for a few years. My extended family members who still live and work in the area, have reac…

In case you missed it, WPC24 took place recently in Calgary, Alberta, for the second time in its history. WPC itself was established way back in the 1930s as a forum for the global industry to discuss common themes on a triennial basis. As a global event, it attracts an audience from around the planet.. The voices discussing the global energy indus…

Markets are starting to show interest in commodity products that are produced more responsibly, notably natural gas. The key is to be able to prove it, and that requires some changes. Customers and markets are starting to demand evidence that energy products such as natural gas are making a positive contribution to buyers’ emission reduction goals.…

Companies working in the energy sector are now prosecuting their own self-defined pathways to achieve carbon zero or carbon neutral business profiles. Digital innovations play a key role. As part of the World Petroleum Congress, September 17-21, 2023 in Calgary, I was on a panel discussion to discuss digital transformation on the route to Net Zero.…

The energy worker of the future will require a different set of personal attributes than those normally selected for today. Energy companies may well find these attributes in short supply. One of my more interesting roles is the occasional advisory work for educational institutions on the skills requirements for the energy worker of the future. Sin…

"Emissions combine all of the activities a company has. It's the tailpipe of the company, but it entails all of the activities that company undertakes." In this episode, I’m in conversation with Oleksiy Golovchenko who is a Senior specialist, EHS Data and Analytics with Ovintiv, a large North American oil and gas producer. Oleksiy has been part of …

For all the talk about energy transition, many aspects about transition remain unexplained. I’m in the midst of a home renovation. The renovation should allow the house last another 20-30 years with minimal upkeep, and may well be our final home as we embrace the ideal to age-in-place. The renovations are extensive—walls are being opened up for the…

"I'm also a very strong advocate personally of a sort of an all in approach, meaning we aren't going to solve this with one magic silver bullet, right? If that doesn't exist, we need to develop these things over time." This is part two of a two part podcast recording with Tom Sharp, the Director of Permitting Intelligence with Arbo, and Justin Carl…

"There's a lot of different things that are plaguing infrastructure developers or have been for a long time, and they're all sort of coming to a head now." This is part one of a two part podcast recording with Tom Sharp, the Director of Permitting Intelligence with Arbo, and Justin Carlson, founder and Chief Commercial Officer of East Daley Analyti…

"We're creating a significant drawdown on the reservoir so we're able to get every last molecule of what's unrecoverable today that sits in the reservoir." In this episode, I’m in conversation with Herman Artinian who is the CEO of Upwing Energy, a company that has developed a compressor for downhole gas wells. One problem with gas wells is that th…

If there is one industry that evolves very slowly, it would have to be the liquefied natural gas industry, and yet, digital is even making an impact here. As a digital nerd, I was alert to any digital developments at LNG 2023, but I was also curious what I had written back in 2016. At the time my weekly article series was called Fuel Up LNG, and ch…

My first exposure to the circular economy did not inspire confidence. My Mom, my brother and I were in the attic of my uncle’s home rummaging through an old trunk overloaded with castoff clothing that my cousins had outgrown. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but we were clearly poor, and with 6 kids, there simply wasn’t enough money to buy new c…

With Apple’s new Vision Pro hitting the news, and changing the perception of computing to include a spatial dimension, it’s worth reflecting on where and how this clever new technology could be used in oil and gas. Apple’s latest product, spatial computing, is long on nifty and clever, but short on a must have new feature worth paying the price of …

"You better better know how to go with the flow." In this episode, I’m in conversation with Rodrigo Liang, the co-founder and CEO of SambaNova Systems. Generative AI solutions have taken the world by storm and will speed up industry by 10x. "What’s necessary for us to train these models, we need very, very large data sets. And well guess what? Thes…

Russia’s recent claims about hacking a Canadian gas pipeline must be taken with deadly seriousness, and not just by pipeline companies, but Canadians at large. A document leak allegedly caused by a 21 year old cyber transport professional working inside the US security services contained a story that a shadowy Russian cyber team had successfully ha…

The energy industry is very accustomed to seeking permission to do things. It is the norm in industrialized societies to set out the acceptable parameters for investment actions that can impact others, and to have project proponents follow a set of established regulatory processes. These processes take time, but they could be trusted to yield a pre…

Russian cyber hackers claimed to have penetrated the operations of a Canadian gas pipeline and caused some disruption. For those of us living some distance from the equator, mostly northerners, but also a few hardy souls in the south, interruptions in energy supply are rare, short lived, weather related, and almost always about electrical power. My…

“Wow!”, exclaimed Kelly, the site supervisor at the large petrochemical plant. “Are you telling me that I can take my iPhone onto the site? It’s safe now? What can I do with it?" Yes, Kelly, you can, IF you have the right phone AND the right case. As they are in our personal lives, smart phones are indispensable Swiss Army Knives of digital utility…

"The people that design software, are unfortunately often a long ways away from the people that are out in the field using it." In this episode, I’m in conversation with Shaun Syvertsen, the CEO of ConvergentIS. He has built a company around the opportunity to make a widely used technology (SAP) super easy to use–so easy in fact that users don’t ne…

As far back as 2004, I explored the possibility of deploying cellular phones within an oil refining complex. The idea of persistent and safe communications with supervisors and lead hands by phone or text message during the work day was intuitively attractive, and we imagineered many a positive use case. This was in the era of the BlackBerry mobile…

Heavy industry has long known that intoxication and some kinds of work simply don’t mix. Digital technologies are helping overcome the risk of hard-to-detect intoxicants on the job site. Worker safety is a VERY BIG DEAL in oil and gas. Moving equipment, pressurized vessels, high voltage, dangerous gases, hot surfaces, sharp objects, dark and wet co…

A quick trial of ChatGPT reveals its considerable strengths and its worrisome weaknesses in generating energy talking points. One of my many contacts asked me a rather simple question earlier this week: Why does Greenpeace not like LNG? My contact is from Germany, and presumably has lots of family members and friends there who have been living thro…

"Hydraulic fracture is not just about breaking new rock, it's about fundamentally rejuvenating the existing natural fractures and bedding planes that are in the rock fabric itself." In this episode, I’m in conversation with Andrew McMurray, the CEO and Co-Founder of ShearFrac. Andrew and his team are using cloud capabilities from AWS to deliver com…

I’ve written hundreds of articles and podcast episodes about the liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry, and I’m still learning stuff I didn’t know. At an LNG conference recently, I heard speakers share perspectives on a range of topics that warranted a reminder of the nuances of this fascinating industry. LNG is a wondrous fuel with loads of potenti…

In this episode, I’m in conversation with Mike Procee, who at the time of recording was the Manager of Enterprise Innovation, Enablement, and Culture at TC Energy, a large oil and gas utility. Mike’s background in entrepreneurship and engineering came together at TC who wanted to accelerate their ability to deal with energy transition and digitaliz…

A large integrated oil and gas company has invited me to address their global center for data excellence. That such an organizational creation is necessary is both telling for some and enlightening for others. Data has been central to my work on digital innovations in oil and gas from the very beginning because digital innovation is almost always a…

“It's extremely frustrating to have to make decisions on our multibillion dollar assets, with only a piece of paper in your hand, and a radio on the other side of your hip.” In this episode, I’m in conversation with Andrea Hine, who is a Product Owner within the Connected Worker Program at Suncor Energy. Working with Otterbox, Andrea and her team h…

As we work through energy transition, market forces are poised to create asset discontinuities. They are already wreaking havoc with the oil supply chain. Today’s news from the shipping industry brings energy transition into sharp relief. An industry monitor noted a collapse in the order books for very large crude carriers (VLCCs, ships that carry …

A banking collapse was not likely on the long list of worries that plague the digital entrepreneur. What are the kinds of risks that digital startups face in oil and gas? March 15 stands in infamy as the day that Julius Caesar was stabbed to death at a meeting of the Roman Senate. The conspirators, led by Brutus and Cassius, were ratted out by a se…