The collaboration with Gulf will bolster ENERGYai with deep industry insights. (Image source: AIQ)

Artificial intelligence provider for the energy sector, AIQ, has initiated a strategic collaboration agreement with Gulf Energy Information to integrate ENERGYai with Gulf’s vast energy sector data assets 

ENERGYai is a first-of-its-kind agentic AI solution for the energy sector, developed in partnership with ADNOC and in collaboration with G42 and Microsoft. In March 2025, AIQ announced a landmark US$340 million contract with ADNOC to deploy ENERGYai and associated AI solutions across ADNOC’s upstream value chain.

The collaboration with Gulf will bolster ENERGYai’s AI-powered agents and large language model (LLM) with deep industry insights, with Gulf providing AIQ with exclusive access to its proprietary datasets, and industry-leading documents. This will ensure ENERGYai is trained on the most relevant and high-quality information available, enhancing the solution’s ability to interpret complex energy sector challenges, optimize workflows, and generate actionable intelligence.

Commenting on the agreement with Gulf, Magzhan Kenesbai, acting managing director of AIQ said, “ENERGYai is designed to revolutionise how AI supports decision-making and automation across ADNOC’s value chain. The reliability and impact of our models is directly related to the nature and quality of the data we train them on, and with Gulf’s extensive project and industry intelligence, we are set to further reinforce ENERGYai’s capabilities.”

John T Royall, president & CEO of Gulf Energy Information said, “By combining AIQ’s AI expertise with Gulf’s trusted energy sector data, we are shaping a smarter, more informed AI ecosystem. This partnership reflects a shared vision to leverage AI for more efficient decision-making, greater sustainability, and enhanced operational intelligence in the energy industry.”

ENERGYai is a key enabler of ADNOC’s digital transformation with the solution’s AI-powered agents already trained on petabytes of operational data from ADNOC, and possessing the ability to perceive, learn, think, and act. By integrating more industry and domain-specific data, AIQ will further strengthen ENERGYai’s ability to drive intelligent automation, predictive analytics, and transformative efficiencies in the energy landscape.

The corrosion threat is intensifying in the region. (image source: Adobe Stock)

Corrosion is the bugbear of the oil and gas industry. Left unchecked, it can cause catastrophic damage to assets, resulting in downtime and financial losses, as well as posing a threat to the safety of personnel and the environment

According to a study by NACE, corrosion costs the industry around US$1.372bn every year. The prevalence of sour gas in the Middle East, the increasing use of corrosive chemicals to enhance production and the push into high pressure, high temperature environments means that the corrosion threat is only intensifying in the region.

Solutions and measures to protect against corrosion range from protective coatings and corrosion inhibitors to the selection of corrosion-resistant materials, such as special grades of stainless steel or reinforced thermoplastic pipes (RTP), and effective monitoring and maintenance programmes.

Predictive corrosion monitoring solutions facilitated by advances in AI and digital technologies can help operators proactively manage their corrosion challenges and protect their assets, allowing them to monitor and predict risk remotely and make data-driven decisions, saving time and money, while enhancing safety and ensuring the longevity of critical infrastructure.

Employing the latest corrosion protection technologies

Operators in the Middle East are utilising the latest technologies to prevent corrosion. Aramco for example is using CorrosionRadar's corrosion under insulation (CUI) monitoring solution at its Ju'aymah NFL fractionation plant to monitor its assets and provide insights into the early and predictive detection of CUI, enabling plant engineers to address CUI issues more rapidly, improve safety and reliability, optimise inspection planning, and reduce the overall costs associated with future maintenance and shutdowns. CUI, which is a particularly insidious form of corrosion as it is difficult to detect at an early stage, occurs due to moisture build up on the external surface of insulated equipment and structures, and is prevalent in the onshore and offshore oil and gas industries.

Aramco along with other operators, is also investing in non-metallics such as thermoplastic composite pipes (TCP). TCP is gaining currency in the oil and gas industry due to its corrosion resistance, spoolability and lightweight nature. In January, Strohm, a leading provider of TCP, was awarded a contract to supply 33 km of its TCP flowline for Saudi Aramco’s Fadhili gas plant in Saudi Arabia. The contract was awarded following material selection studies conducted by Saudi Aramco and its engineering partner KBR, which showed that TCP was the most suitable solution for the flowline, due to its demonstrated fluid compatibility, high qualification standards, lack of corrosion, and low carbon footprint.

Given that preventing and mitigating corrosion is a key concern for operators, new innovations and solutions are always welcomed.

See the latest issue of Oil Review Middle East for more on the latest corrosion protection innovations.

Shell will use Petrel software powered by advanced AI to deliver seismic interpretation workflows. (Image source: SLB)

SLB is partnering with Shell to deploy its Petrel subsurface software across its assets worldwide

Petrel enables geoscientists and engineers to analyse subsurface data from exploration to production, enabling them to create a shared vision of the reservoir. This empowers companies to standardise workflows across E&P and make more informed decisions with a clear understanding of both opportunities and risks.

Shell will use Petrel software powered by advanced AI to deliver seismic interpretation workflows. The deployment aims to standardise infrastructure and workflows and accelerate scalable digital solutions, helping to improve cost operating efficiencies. This collaboration will use the deployment as the foundation for integrated geoscience workflows to further advance understanding of the subsurface across the asset lifecycle.

Petrel software is compliant with the OSDU® Technical Standard – a global data standard derived from industry-led initiatives to enable subsurface data for the digital age and further enhanced by SLB’s significant code donations to the open standard.

“With a common focus on joint innovation, including seismic interpretation for both traditional E&P and energy transition workflows, the partnership will support Shell’s digital transformation journey,” said Rakesh Jaggi, president, Digital & Integration, SLB. “We are dedicated to advancing digital technology and AI for subsurface applications, offering new insights and opportunities to our customers.”

See also: https://oilreviewmiddleeast.com/technical-focus/aiq-and-slb-partner-on-subsurface-software

Corporate energy R&D is strong in the renewable energy sectors. (Image source: Adobe Stock)

A new report from the IEA highlights the pivotal role of innovation in advancing national energy and economic goals, with the range of new energy technologies offering potential for progress in energy security, affordability and sustainability

 The report – The State of Energy Innovation – provides a global review of energy technology innovation trends, covering more than 150 innovation highlights and surveying nearly 300 practitioners from 34 countries. It says that progress on innovation is more important than ever, as it will play a decisive role in determining countries’ long-term economic resilience and ability to meet energy and climate goals.

Recent years have seen a steady increase in innovation activity, the report points out. Public and corporate energy R&D spending has grown at an average annual rate of 6%, although growth may be slowing in some advanced economies. Corporate energy R&D has outpaced economic growth, particularly in the automotive and renewable energy sectors. However, R&D spending as a share of revenues in the cement and steel sectors remains 20% to 70% below that of the automotive and renewables sectors, respectively, while the aviation and shipping sectors have reduced the share of their revenue spent on R&D over the past decade.

R&D advances

In 2024, significant energy R&D advances covered solid-state that could avoid environmentally harmful refrigerants; high-confinement plasma for nuclear fusion; a prototype solid-state EV battery that could allow cars to be charged in nine minutes; and higher-speed geothermal drilling through hard rock. Among larger-scale projects, first-of-a-kind progress was reported for perovskite PV manufacturing, ammonia use as a marine fuel, underground thermal and compressed CO₂ long-duration energy storage, lithium recovery from geothermal brine, cellulosic bioethanol facilities and CCUS for cement production, among others. These projects are supported by countries including Australia, Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

Some technology areas – including battery technologies, CCUS, critical mineral sourcing, geothermal and solar PV – made significant recent advances across all main innovation phases.

“Innovation is the lifeblood of the energy sector, particularly in today’s fast-moving times with the global energy mix shifting and major trends such as electrification having far-reaching effects,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol. “A wide range of technologies now appears to be coming close to market, offering hope for improvements in energy security, affordability and sustainability over the long term. But we require investment, both public and private, to scale up innovative solutions. The payback may not always be quick, but it will be lasting.”

VC funding

Venture capital (VC) funding for energy technologies rose more than sixfold from 2015 to 2022, supporting around 1,800 energy start-ups. However, it declined by more than 20% in 2023 and 2024 amid tighter financial conditions, with AI being the only sector to see growth in VC funding.

Innovation efforts have also become increasingly global. China overtook Japan and the United States in 2021 as the leading country for energy patenting, with over 95% of its patents focused on low-emissions technologies. Since 2000, patenting globally for low-emissions technologies has grown 4.5 times as fast as it has for fossil fuels,.

Public and private financing earmarked for large-scale energy technology demonstration projects this decade has reached around US$60bn. These projects are critical for commercialising emerging technologies but face delays due to inflation and policy uncertainty. Most projects have still not reached final investment decision, and 95% of demonstration funding is concentrated in North America, Europe and China. Sectors with urgent innovation needs to validate low-emissions options – such as heavy industry and long-distance transport – account for just 17% of the total.

The report stresses the importance of maintaining momentum and addressing structural gaps in the global innovation system. It recommends targeted policies to increase public energy R&D spending, support technology developers through economic cycles and strengthen international cooperation to bring clean energy demonstration projects to market.