Highlights of the Asian Downstream Summit 2018
This year’s Asian Downstream Summit (ADS) began on 31 October with a VIP Breakfast Forum hosted by oil and gas services company Baker Hughes, a GE company (BHGE) that was attended by key industry players.
ADS is the largest conference and exhibition dedicated to Asia’s refining, petrochemical and chemicals industry. Held as part of Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW), the Summit is designed to keep refiners and petrochemical companies updated with the innovations that are impacting the downstream oil and gas industry.
The breakfast forum tackled the question of “How do Data Science and AI come together to save operators time, resources and reduce complexity?” and featured a number of experts in the field. These included Ahmed Elsherbini Ibrahim, Vice President - Digital Sales APAC, BHGE; Arun Subramaniyan, Vice President - Data Science & Analytics, BHGE Digital; Kevin Chong, Business Chief Information Officer, Petronas Downstream; and Bob Gill, General Manager, ARC Advisory.
This was followed by the first Plenary Keynote session, which explored the theme of “Building the Digital Oil & Gas Enterprise” as speakers from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), PEMEX, ADNOC and others shared their insights on how digital technologies such as the Internet of Things can help operators to improve their operations.
Following the morning break, participants could choose to attend one of three streams on offer: Digital Innovations, Manufacturing & Automation; Refining & Petrochemical Technologies; and Process Optimization, Asset Management & Energy Efficiency.
ADS 2018 also hosted the awards ceremony for the inaugural Digital Transformation Awards that saw nominees send in their projects in three categories: Best Digital Transformation Programme (Operator – refinery, petrochemical, chemicals); Best Innovative Technology for Improving Operational Efficiency (Digital); and Best Innovative Technology for Improving Operational Efficiency (Other technology). The winners received their awards from Dr. Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Trade & Industry at the ceremony held on 31 October.
The future of work
On the second day of ADS 2018, Vikas Deshmukh, Vice President at Reliance Industries, kicked off the opening plenary on the “Future of work in refining and petrochemicals industry with digitalisation”. Various distinguished speakers then took turns during the day to give their take on the innovations and technologies impacting the downstream industry.
The conference ended with the fourth Plenary Keynote, which looked into the future of oil and gas. Technology providers like Wood shared best practices on implementing a digital strategy, while representatives from Shell, PETRONAS and BP, among others, participated in a panel that looked at the “future workforce in the digital age”.
By the end of the Summit, over 800 delegates and visitors had attended the packed and insightful two-day event!