Technology

The new system involves the creation of a subsea, end-to-end jumper connection solution without flange. (Image source: Strohm)

A new collaboration is set to progress more integrated and efficient technologies for pipelines

Thermoplastic composite pipe (TCP) manufacturer Strohm, and provider of subsea connection systems UNITECH Offshore are coming together to develop and commercialise an integrated system for the transportation of fluids and gases.

It involves the creation of a subsea, end-to-end jumper connection solution without flange which reduces the risk of leaks and simplifies installation. UNITECH’s connector will be integrated with Strohm’s TCP end-fitting, creating a flange-less interface. By combining Strohm’s expertise in flexible TCP Jumpers with UNITECH state of the art subsea connector technology, the two companies aim to provide a comprehensive product offering to meet the diverse needs of the energy sector.

TCP is gaining currency in the oil and gas industry due to its corrosion resistance, spoolability and lightweight nature. Strohm’s TCP is collapse resistant to 3,000-m. water depth, and resistant to fatigue-based failures, making it suitable for subsea applications from jumpers to flowlines and risers, including sweet and sour hydrocarbons, water, and gas service. The solution is fully non-metallic and corrosion resistant.

UNITECH Offshore UH-500 Series connectors are designed for pressures up to 15k psi and can be used for a range of subsea applications including gas lift, acid injection, scale squeeze, methanol / MEG injection and electrical connections.

Strohm’s CEO Martin van Onna commented, “This partnership reinforces our commitment to providing customers with comprehensive and sustainable transportation solutions. By joining forces with UNITECH Offshore, we develop an integrated system that not only simplifies installation, but also ensures long-lasting flange-less performance in the most challenging conditions.”

Frode Hellesøe, CEO of UNITECH Offshore, added, “This collaboration underscores our commitment to advancing subsea connectivity with engineered simplicity. By integrating our robust, installation-friendly UH-500 Series connector with Strohm’s thermoplastic composite pipe, we are providing a seamless, flange-less system that further enhances installation efficiency while ensuring reliable, high-pressure performance across a wide range of subsea applications.”

It is hoped the collaboration could points the way for future strategic collaborations in the Kingdom's energy sector. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

Saudi deep tech and AI pioneer nybl has announced a technology collaboration with US-based global energy company NOV, to enhance AI offerings to the oil & gas industry and advance upstream production technologies

nybl’s technology focuses on delivering real-time failure prediction, prescription, prevention and optimisation, increasing efficiency and reducing costs for critical industries. The collaboration will integrate nybl’s AI and analytics with NOV's Max Production suite within the Max Platform, providing real-time operational insights to optimise efficiency, predict equipment failures, and maximise production for oil and gas operators.

nybl founder & CEO Noor Alnahhas said “Energy drives every aspect of our lives, and by integrating nybl’s AI into NOV’s Max™ Production software suite, we are advancing the oil and gas industry with enhanced upstream production solutions. This collaboration is a testament to nybl’s vision of developing world-class technology in Saudi Arabia and exporting it globally. By bringing Saudi-born innovation to the US market, we are not only expanding nybl’s global footprint but also contributing to the Kingdom’s economic diversification and technological leadership in alignment with Saudi Vision 2030.”

Forward-thinking collaboration

Matt Gipson, senior vice president of NOV's Artificial Lift business unit added, "Working with nybl represents a forward-thinking collaboration that demonstrates the value of international collaboration in the tech domain. By integrating nybl technology with NOV’s Max Production software suite, we are empowering operators to optimise well production and equipment performance, resulting in greater returns throughout the life of their assets. Together, NOV and nybl are poised to set a new standard for innovation in upstream production optimisation technologies.”

According to the two companies, the alliance brings together the best of AI and platform solutions, and points the way for future strategic collaborations in the Kingdom's energy sector.

The collaboration was announced at the LEAP25 technology event in Riyadh, which reinforced Saudi Arabia’s position as a global hub for AI, cloud computing, and digital infrastructure investments, securing total investments exceeding US$14.9bn. At the event, Aramco's executive vice president of technology & innovation, Ahmad Al-Khowatier, spoke about the "limiteless opportunity" presented by the rapid developemnt of AI and big data, and how Aramco is driving AI adoption on an industrial scale. 

Companies should be aware of the pitfalls in implementing AI. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

Heiko Claussen, co-chief technology officer, Aspen Technology has some advice for asset-intensive organisations in the Middle East looking to leverage the benefits of industrial AI

The adoption of industrial AI in the Middle East is driven by its immense potential to enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, and contribute to environmental sustainability. The main challenge is not convincing innovators to adopt this technology, but rather in the implementation processes. The following best practices can help them avoid common pitfalls, resulting in a smooth transition.

1. Prioritising the customer

One of the most critical aspects of industrial AI implementation is understanding that all innovation should ultimately benefit the customer. Instead of developing new AI technologies without a clear outcome in mind, organisations should focus on what matters most to their customers to create solutions that have direct, tangible benefits.

This customer-centric approach means examining customer pain points and then using AI to solve those issues. For instance, in asset-intensive industries, predictive maintenance is a game-changer. AI can predict equipment failures well in advance, reducing costly downtimes and enhancing reliability. By focusing on the customer’s needs, you ensure that your AI initiatives are relevant and impactful.

2. Embracing the innovation funnel

One common mistake innovators make is betting everything on a single, high-risk idea. An innovation funnel allows organisations to evaluate multiple AI ideas at different stages of development. Instead of committing significant resources to a single initiative, you can track the progress of various projects, update risk assessments, and re-evaluate plans as necessary. This helps avoid the "all or nothing" approach, ensuring your company remains agile and can pivot if needed.

The funnel also helps identify when to stop projects that aren’t delivering expected value. Not every idea will be a success, but having a process in place for evaluating them ensures that you make informed decisions.

3. Beware of the "Valley of Death"

A significant challenge in innovation is navigating the "valley of death" - the gap between a research proof of concept and successful commercialisation. Many great ideas fall into this void due to a lack of stakeholder involvement or unclear ownership.

To avoid this, involve all relevant stakeholders from the beginning. This includes technical teams like R&D as well as departments like cybersecurity, product management and leadership. Everyone must agree on priorities, and there should be clear ownership in each stakeholder group.

By ensuring that everyone is on board early, you create a collaborative environment that is more conducive to success.

4. Appoint clear owners for each stage of the process

Another critical best practice is ensuring that each stakeholder group has a clear owner responsible for moving the project forward. Whether it’s technical details, business strategies, or compliance concerns, each part of the AI implementation process requires dedicated leadership.

Ownership is very important here. Organisations need owners who feel responsible not just for their piece of the puzzle but for the entire project. These owners should manage the day-to-day aspects of the project and act as champions for the initiative within their teams.

5. Balancing AI innovation with practical application

It’s easy to get excited about cutting-edge AI, but not every new development is suitable for your use case. Every algorithm has their advantages and disadvantages, and overcomplicating the process with the latest algorithms can often backfire. In many cases, simpler models that are more data efficient, explainable, extrapolate better to new regimes and provide robust results without the risk of overfitting or other complications.

The key is to focus on practical applications of AI that solve real problems within your organisation. Sometimes, sticking with well-established methods and technologies is more effective and scalable.

6. Combining AI with human expertise

Although AI can process vast amounts of data and generate valuable insights, human expertise is crucial for interpreting those insights and making strategic decisions. AI is a powerful tool, but it is not a replacement for human judgment and in many applications, it is key that operators stay in control.

Organisations implementing Industrial AI should have the right mix of technical experts, industry veterans, and operations professionals to oversee the AI initiatives. This collaborative approach ensures that AI outputs are not only accurate but also practical and aligned with broader business goals.

Engaging external experts with experience in Industrial AI implementations can significantly enhance an organisation’s ability to deploy AI effectively. They can bring valuable insights into best practices, identify the most promising applications, and help guide the scaling of AI initiatives across the company.

Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, EVP technology & innovation addresses the LEAP conference. (Image source: Aramco)

Aramco’s executive vice president of technology & innovation, Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, spoke at the LEAP 2025 tech event in Riyadh about the “limitless opportunity” presented by the rapid development of AI and big data

Al-Khowaiter highlighted the positive impact of AI solutions on sustainability, safety and reliability, adding that the real challenge is scaling AI applications across industrial sized operations to maximise value, requiring three main enablers: huge amounts of real-world data; computing power; and talent, ie subject matter experts.

“These three factors are helping Aramco get ahead, and stay ahead,” he remarked.

Three key enablers

“We have more than 90 years of propriety data from our extensive geological, seismic and process surveys and every day we collect information from 10 billion data points across our facilities, which goes straight to our engineering solutions centre…And when it comes to computing power, we have investing heavily recently.

“We recently increased our data storage capacity to 1,500 petabytes and we doubled our data centre power. We operate a diverse set of supercomputers, including Dammam 7, one of the fastest in the region and a number of NVIDIA Superpods. Last year we announced our partnership with Groq to deliver the first AI inferencing centre in the region.

“Last year we also announced the launch of aramcoMETABRAIN, the world’s first industrial Large Language Model. Today it is serving our business with a 70 billion parameter model and I’m excited to say we have a one trillion parameter model in development.

“And as DeepSeek showed, building capable AI models isn’t limited to global tech companies. It is within reach of enterprises, even start-ups, to design AI suited to their own businesses. We have believed this from the beginning, developing our own models with our own data.

“Which is why it gives me great pleasure to introduce our latest innovation, Plant METABRAIN, a time series transformer model, utilising large time series data sets. Using these data sets we’re able to model the process, the real time processes that underly our operations and we are able to provide actionable insight to operators, engineers and scientists.

“By working in real time, and with minimal user input, it will also anticipate demand, optimise operations, predict product quality and maximise production.

“This frees our experts up to focus on more value-added tasks, rather than being busy with troubleshooting or developing models from the ground up.”

Al-Khowaiter outlined measures Aramco is taking to develop its “human intelligence” to maximise this data and infrastructure, training more than 6,000 AI developers across the company
and working with world leading institutions to educated its employees.

“We’re also using the engineers, scientists and operators we already have to work with those AI developers to train new models, making them more robust and more reliable,” he said.

Turning to the energy demand posed by AI, he commented that Aramco’s investments in lower carbon technology such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and renewables can help to lower the carbon footprint of this growth in demand.

Concluding, he said “Aramco is not only using our unique size and scale to maximise the use of AI on an industrial scale, but our decades worth of data and most importantly, our subject matter experts, the talent of people. That keeps the human experience and human ingenuity at the heart of all we do and will let us leap into a new world of industrial excellence.”

Collaboration for AI-enabled industrial smartphones

Also at LEAP, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Aramco Digital, the digital and technology subsidiary of Aramco announced their collaboration to develop the world’s first AI-enabled industrial 5G smartphones with native support for the 450MHz spectrum. Support for 450 MHz spectrum allows 5G IoT devices, edge computing and end-users to connect to a new generation of AI-enabled industrial applications, initially focusing on advanced industrial solutions for Aramco. Qualcomm Technologies and Aramco Digital previously announced the deployment of Aramco’s first generative AI industrial IoT solutions, which are improving operational safety, efficiency, and sustainability at Aramco sites. The new industrial smartphones will give Aramco users another way to connect to these advanced industrial applications.