Coopetition key to our sustainable survival
In many ways, we’re living in the golden age of engineering, began Sharul Rashid in his keynote address at this week’s YNOW2024 conference in Houston. A technical excellence specialist in Petronas’ project delivery team, he credits a unique environment of difficult challenges but plentiful opportunities as catalyst for his own excitement, and he encouraged the audience to think the same way.
“But the challenges nowadays are seemingly unprecedented,” he added. “And that calls for increased cooperation and collaboration even as we compete.”
One of the biggest challenges facing companies is the energy transition and the digital transformation they must undertake to become more sustainable operators. There may be no aspect of the industry these days that requires significant collaborative efforts among competitors and suppliers than the energy transition, Rashid indicated. “We need technology partners to help us in our energy transition,” he said.
Without taking steps to move processes forward toward sustainable goals, upstream oil and gas producers, such as Malaysian-based Petronas, risk losing their licenses to operate in the future, explained Rashid.
That’s why Petronas set forth an ambitious net-zero goal in 2020. The company announced then its aspirations to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. But, Rashid said, they won’t reach it alone.
Collaborative efforts
Fortunately, Petronas has several partners in their effort. Petronas and Yokogawa have been working on various partnerships for the past five years. While much of that involves Petronas’ need for digital transformation, it also involves developing autonomous operations. “For collaboration to work, we need to break through barriers and work towards a common goal,” Rashid said.
Rashid is also Petronas co-chair on the Open Process Automation (OPA) project, which was spearheaded by competitor ExxonMobil. It’s also an example of the coopetition he encouraged throughout his presentation, as OPA aims to move automation from closed to open systems, enabling interoperability based on the new O-PAS standard.
Energy transition and sustainability may be at the top of the challenges for Petronas, but there’s plenty of other things to keep the company, and other oil and gas producers, on their toes. Among the challenges nearly all players in the processing industries face are increasing global competition and pressure to contain costs. Cybersecurity threats remain one of their top concerns, while plant and personal safety are also important issues. Meanwhile, operations are increasingly distributed among aging assets. There’s a proliferation of regulations and dynamic customer requirements that are always changing.
It's enough to make any engineer’s head spin.
Core engines essential
But while the going may be getting tougher, the “core engines” of digital transformation and automation expertise remain, and Rashid said engineers should embrace them. “We should be brilliant at our core disciplines,” he said.
As an example, a core engine for measurement and automation relies on instrumentation technologies including pressure, flow, level, temperature and analysis. It also encompasses distributed control systems (DCS), programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. Industry 4.0 technologies such as digital twins have also upped the ante for engineers, he said.
Ultimately, success for Petronas and others will depend on tackling common needs in the instrumentation, automation and digital transformation disciplines. And while there are differing core areas of expertise among suppliers, end users can benefit from those suppliers working together toward the common good. It’s why co-opetition is good for everyone.
