Industry

Dany Rahal, SLB’s vice president digital for the MENA region. (Image source: SLB)

In the first part of a two-part interview with Oil Review Middle East, Dany Rahal, SLB’s vice president digital for the MENA region, discusses the factors that are critical for successful digital transformation

Dany Rahal’s 24-year career at SLB has spanned various geographies, including the Middle East, with a focus on the digital and software space. Rahal was excited to return to the Middle East in 2022 as its vice president digital for the MENA region, based in Dubai, and is committed to accelerating AI adoption in the region.

Before sharing his insights on the transformative impact of AI and digital technologies in the oil and gas sector, AI adoption in the Middle East and the next evolution of AI, Rahal is keen to set the scene by sharing his thoughts on the essential ingredients for successful digital transformation.

Essential ingredients

“Everyone is talking about digital transformation, AI and all these emerging technologies. But there are several pillars that are ingredients for success, which are relevant not only for the oil and gas industry, but for other industries as well.

“The first is executive sponsorship. It is very important today that digital is a top priority for the leadership, not only in our industry but across all industries. Driving transformation top down, and having the organisation follow the lead of the CEO, is critical.

“The second ingredient for success is embracing modern technologies, and the first thing that comes to mind is data. Data is an asset that remains untapped, in our industry as well as others. This is particularly important, when it comes to deploying AI and GenAI on top of the data. In addition to effective data management, there are many digital technologies, such as Cloud, AI and ML, edge and IoT, that are critical for organisations to adopt in order to embrace digital transformation, but all need to work together as part of the infrastructure.

“The third ingredient is partnerships. The partner ecosystem around digital is very important because it provides the necessary breadth and depth of expertise, resources and collaborative opportunities to navigate the complexities of digital transformation initiatives. At SLB, partnership is at the heart of our strategy. We have partnerships with many of the technology providers, including not only the hyperscalers but also startups, which we can help get to scale and access a bigger market. Our partnership with Nvidia, for example, allows us to acquire expertise and software for our Gen AI capabilities, including domain foundational models. We also have partnerships in the region, such as with AIQ, an ADNOC joint venture. We are expanding our partner ecosystem and bringing it to the customer as well.

“The final pillar is human capital. We get so excited about the technology – but it is the people that make it happen, so upskilling and reskilling talent is important, and bringing new talent to digital literacy. When you upskill your talent with digital, you fast track the adoption of the new technology I mentioned, which means it is no longer a threat to jobs, but rather, it becomes a tool to bring value into the workflows and the organisation. The best results we see are when we equip experts in the domain with new digital tools and get them to work closely with experts in digital technology.”

Rahal highlights here SLB’s domain data scientist programme, designed to upskill its domain experts in the latest AI technologies, where subject matter experts, including petroleum engineers, geoscientists and reservoir engineers, are put through a six-month deep learning programme giving them hands-on experience in AI and data science. The company also runs a similar programme, the AI Academy, to upskill its customers (typically energy domain professionals) and university students in data science and digital technology. With their newly acquired skills, Academy graduates help their organisations adopt AI and machine learning (ML) to enhance workflows from exploration to production. This initiative has met with considerable success in the MENA region.

“These are the ingredients I see as necessary for digital transformation success,” Rahal concludes.

Watch out for Part 2 coming soon!

Amin H. Nasser, president and CEO of Aramco giving a keynote address at CERAWeek. (Image source: Aramco)

Middle East energy titans have called for a more realistic energy approach at CERAWeek 2025 in Houston

In a keynote address, Aramco president & CEO Amin H. Nasser highlighted the risks of current energy transition planning, and stressed the urgent requirement for a new global energy model.

“The greatest transition fiction was that conventional energy could be almost entirely replaced, virtually overnight… Hydrocarbons still provide over 80% of primary energy in the US, almost 90% in China, and even in the EU it is more than 70%… New sources add to the energy mix and complement existing sources. They do not replace them... New sources cannot even meet the growth in demand, while the proven sources needed to fill the gap are demonised and discarded. It is a fast track to dystopia, not utopia.”

Investment in all sources is needed, he said, with new and alternative energy sources complementing rather than replacing conventional energy, in a model that serves the needs of developed and developing nations alike.
“The future of energy is not only about sustainability. Security and affordability must share the stage. With all energy sources working in harmony as one team, delivering real results.”

Echoing this message, His Excellency Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, ADNOC managing director and group CEO said that he was glad to address the event at a time when “energy realism is taking centre stage”, highlighting the UAE’s pragmatic approach which focuses on “market realities rather than unrealistic mandates”, and calling for “pragmatic actions and policies that are pro-growth, pro-investment, pro-energy and pro-people.”

“We need every energy option available. An ‘and-and’ approach to meet rapidly growing energy needs.

“We know that by 2035, there will be almost nine billion people on this planet. In line with this growth, oil demand will increase from 103 to at least 109 million bpd. LNG and chemicals will expand by over 40% and total electricity demand will surge from 9,000GW to 15,000GW, which is a staggering 70% increase. We will need more LNG, more low-carbon oil, more nuclear and more commercially-viable renewables to meet all this demand.”

AI energy requirements

This lesson has been thrown into sharp focus by the rise of AI and its energy requirements.

“Applications like ChatGPT use 10 times as much energy as a simple Google search and are growing exponentially," said Dr Al Jaber. "By 2030, in the US alone, data centre power demand is expected to triple, accounting for more than 10% of US electricity use.

“You cannot scale AI without access to energy. Simply put, the true cost of AI is not just in code, it’s in kilowatts. The race for AI supremacy is essentially an energy play.”

CERA Week also heard from IEA chief Dr Fatih Birol who, in an about turn from the IEA’s earlier position that there should be no new investment in oil gas and coal in order to meet climate targets, highlighted the need for new oil and gas investments to offset the decline in existing fields.

While bp CEO Murray Auchincloss expanded on the company’s strategic reset, which will see it boost oil and gas investment and cut investment in renewables in a bid to maximise returns and value for shareholders. The company plans to ramp up oil and gas investment to US$10 bn a year and grow production to 2.3–2.5mn bpd in 2030, targeting 10 new major projects to start up by end 2027, and a further 8–10 by end 2030.

The US and the Middle East will be core areas for growth, he said.

“We’re back to our roots in terms of exploration, expanding in the UAE, Iraq, Libya and Oman.”

Field trials of the OOR technology are underway in the Middle East and elsewhere. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

Precision engineering group Hunting PLC has announced it is looking to grow its presence in the Middle East with the construction of a small laboratory in the UAE to service clients in the Eastern Hemisphere

This will enable sample lead time and overall analysis time to decrease as a result of closer proximity to the customer, according to the company, which has operations in the UAE and Saudi Arabia as well as other global locations. Hunting sees the Middle East as a key area of growth, given the tender activity across the region, according to its 2024 Results statement.

Hunting’s recent announcement of the acquisition of the Organic Oil Recovery (“OOR”) enhanced oil recovery technology from its founding shareholders, for US$17.5mn, also has the potential to boost this expansion, as it will allow the company to accelerate commercialisation across North America and the rest of the world. Hunting will pay a 15% royalty to the sellers on revenue earned for a period of 15 years, post-completion.

The Organic Oil Recovery process is a proven and innovative enhanced oil recovery technology which optimises reservoir performance and recovery rates.

This breakthrough technology, which manipulates the resident down-hole ecology, offers operators an easy-to-deploy advanced tertiary oil recovery resulting in increased production and the lowering of lifting costs. It also lowers the water cut during end-of-life production, lowers hydrogen sulphide levels in production offtake and extends the life and increases the economic returns of a producing field.

Field trials of the OOR technology are currently underway with numerous blue-chip exploration and production companies across the Middle East, North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Over 340 successful applications onshore and offshore have been reported, with an overall success rate of 94%.

Hunting has secured up to US$60mn of orders from operators in the UK North Sea, with a strong pipeline of opportunities likely to be secured internationally in the coming years, as the oil and gas industry becomes aware of the production benefits of the solution.

Given the prevalence of mature fields in the Middle East, and the challenges of trapped oil, steep production declines, excessive water production and H2S which the OOR technology addresses, there would appear to be strong potential for expansion in the region.

Jim Johnson, chief executive of Hunting, said, “Following the acquisition of this exciting business, Hunting now has the ability to deploy this remarkable technology globally. The technology is currently being evaluated by many blue-chip customers, with the benefits to the operator clear. For Hunting, the business will be margin accretive and strongly position the company to reach its Hunting 2030 Strategy targets in the medium term as commercialisation accelerates.”

Dr Chiraz Ennaceur, co-founder and CEO of CorrosionRADAR. (Image source: CorrosionRadar)

When Dr. Chiraz Ennaceur – a female industrial technology entrepreneur – stood up to accept the Maintcon 2024 Women in Excellence award, she hoped it would inspire more women to consider a sector where women are unlocking new potential and leading change.

To mark International Women’s Day, Oil Review Middle East asked the co-founder and CEO of CorrosionRADAR to share her remarkable 20-year journey in engineering and industrial technology.

Oil Review Middle East: Why are industry awards important to you?

Dr. Chiraz Ennaceur: Being awarded the Maintcon 2024 Women in Excellence award was certainly a milestone in my career. Sponsored by Aramco and with over 2,000 delegates at the annual event, nominations showcased many incredible women around the world achieving amazing things in the asset maintenance and management industry – a sector where females are now increasing in numbers.

Moments like these remind us that everything’s possible. Entrepreneurs are crucial to drive innovation forward. And women (even a mum of two, like me) can achieve this too.

Oil Review Middle East: What did your education and early career look like?

Dr Chiraz Ennaceur: After completing my school education in Tunisia, I went on to achieve a civil engineering degree at Ecole National d'Ingénieurs de Gabès (ENIG). I was one of two girls in a class of 20 students. My degree cemented my love of engineering, so I completed a PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Technology of Compiègne (France). This is when I developed new technology to detect crack propagation in pressure vessels. Again, there weren’t many women in this environment back then.

I started my career in the Netherlands as a Postdoc at WZI – University of Amsterdam and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM). One achievement was developing new technology for structural health monitoring and Non-Destructive testing (NDT).

When I then became programme manager at The Welding Institute in Cambridge (UK) for the Structural Integrity Research Foundation (SIRF), I was leading a £150mn strategic research partnership, looking to innovate across many industry sectors. It was an exciting time to be at the forefront of such technological ideas. At this time, I knew I wanted to set up and run my own company. The question wasn’t if, but when.

Oil Review Middle East: How did you become a co-founder of CorrosionRADAR?

Dr. Chiraz Ennaceur: The opportunity to run my own company came in 2017, along with Dr Prafull Sharma and Dr Mehrdad Silatani, who co-founded CorrosionRADAR with me. The venture was a spinout from Cranfield University designed to take groundbreaking research into the commercial world.

Digitalisation is the future wherever you look – smart cities, health, education, and industry. It’s about having connectivity to an object and using the data to make informed decisions that have more impact. This was our fundamental mission.

At CorrosionRADAR, we’re working to digitalise corrosion under insulation (CUI) monitoring in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industry. Our focus is on helping optimise asset life and improving maintenance processes while saving money and enhancing safety.

Oil Review Middle East: What enables success as a tech entrepreneur?

Dr. Chiraz Ennaceur: Entrepreneurship takes grit. You must live and breathe your venture 24/7 and expect many ups and downs as you move forward. Essentially, you’re solving a problem people are prepared to pay for. In fact, every problem presents an opportunity. But you must be able to commercialise your idea and scale your business.

Start by creating your minimum viable product (MVP). It won’t be perfect from day one, but this is the first step. Then, find early adopters who believe in you, clients who are prepared to join you on your journey. If you’re to grow, collaboration is essential at this early stage. Surround yourself with a good team – people who know more than you. Network extensively and find strong partnerships too. Share your research with other stakeholders and avoid working in silos. In this way you can start to scale.

Finding investment is also important. You must learn how to sell your vision to potential investors and grab their attention. They need to see how their investment could fuel your expansion and develop your ideas to serve the majority profitably. We achieved our first round of funding in 2021, with a second round in July 2024. To date, we’ve raised a total of US$14mn. Our investors include Aramco Ventures, Dow, Mercia Ventures, Kanoo Ventures, and Finindus. It was great to see these industry leaders share our vision and receive their insights.

This welcome financial support is helping us scale at speed and accelerate the deployment of CUI monitoring systems worldwide. It’s also enabling the continued development of new digital products to improve safety and operations across the sector.

Oil Review Middle East: How did you apply your approach to CorrosionRADAR?

Dr. Chiraz Ennaceur: Of course, I had to practice what I preached. People had to believe in our solution and see how Industry 4.0 could transform predictive asset monitoring and maintenance. We were bringing a digital solution to a longstanding and significant challenge for oil and gas pipeline owners: corrosion under insulation (CUI). Winning several awards is a testament to our important and innovative work.

I also wanted the industry to see how CorrosionRADAR aligned with a Net Zero vision. By helping asset managers find CUI problems early, the risk to the environment falls and maintenance becomes less significant.

Oil Review Middle East: Why is it such an exciting time for industrial technology entrepreneurs, especially female ones?

Dr. Chiraz Ennaceur: As innovation accelerates – thanks to technological advances like wireless connectivity, sensor technology, and machine learning – doors are opening for more women to get involved in industrial sectors like asset integrity.

In fact, entrepreneurs have the opportunity to solve real problems using technology – whether they’re male or female.

I continue to champion technology entrepreneurs whenever possible. In 2021, I met Rishi Sunak (Former UK Prime Minister) as part of a select group of CEOs to discuss how the UK government could support innovative companies to scale. I was also involved in several Cambridge Judge Business School programmes, including the EnterpriseWISE programme.

To change the world, we need more entrepreneurs, and women can now make an impact in sectors they may not have previously considered. I believe we’re on a collective mission to ensure digitalisation transforms every commercial sector around the globe. New technologies (and an appetite to change how we do things) are fuelling an exciting revolution you could be part of.