The International Research and Development Petroleum Conference and Exhibition (RDPETRO), one of the largest oil and gas conferences in the world, has discussed and identified solutions to a range of industry challenges created by the rapidly evolving energy market
Opening RDPETRO 2018, Abdulaziz Alhajri, downstream director at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), said increasing global demand for high-value refined and petrochemical products is creating new growth opportunities across the value-chain, at a time when unlocking oil and gas resources becomes more challenging.
“You cannot be a world-class organization, without world-class R&D,” Alhajri said.
“An important pillar of ADNOC’s 2030 smart growth strategy, is pursuing value-adding research and development. We drive innovative technologies that enhance our performance, optimise costs, and enable us to respond reliably and competitively to growing demand for oil and gas, and refined and petrochemical products. The common perception of R&D as a cost center needs to be challenged, as the ideation and creation of novel solutions helps unlock significant value,” Alhajri added.
World-renowned business and innovation speaker Dan Cobley was the keynote speaker for the opening ceremony. His address at RDPETRO 2018 centred on how global tech leaders and start-ups drive innovation and disrupts traditional approaches to find transformative solutions to major problems, and where these are applicable in the oil and gas industry.
“From balloons in space, to beam internet signals to remote parts of the world, to contact lenses, with an embedded glucose sensor for diabetes sufferers – harnessing the power of digital is changing the world as we know it,” Cobley said. “The oil and gas industry, in particular, is tailor-made and ready for this transformation, with heavy capital investment and extended supply chains, not to mention operations that span multiple assets and regions.”
“Whether its robotics and automation or process digitization, digital enablers in oil and gas have the potential to unleash new hydrocarbon resources, deliver operational efficiencies across the value chain and increase agility and profits,” Cobley added.
RDPETRO 2018 also awarded the best and brightest oil and gas innovations. More than 500 delegates attended the RDPETRO Awards ceremony. In conference abstract categories’, Pierre-Olivier Lys from Total was victorious in the Most Innovative Abstract. The Business Relevance and Most Scientific Depth winners were Eduardo J.A. Barrela from the Instituto Superior Tecnico and Dr Hongxia Li from Khalifa University of Science and Technology respectively. Each of these abstract winners received a cash prize of US$2722.55.
In the Startups category, Alga Life from the UAE, who make an eco-friendly and biodegradable ink made from algae, won 3rd. In 2nd place was Bexel from Egypt, an automated cloud-based customised lifting solution. The grand prize winner was VUL 9, a security solutions innovator from the UAE.
