Jaxon Caines, technology reporter, Hart Energy: I am Jaxon Caines, reporter with Hart Energy, and we are here at Gastech 2024. I'm with Yorinde Lokin[-Knegtering], growth manager at Kongsberg Digital, and we're going to talk about some of the newest advancements in technologies within the oil and gas industry.

So to start things off, what are some of the biggest advancements that you've seen or the biggest trends you've seen, rather in artificial intelligence and machine learning and things like that within the oil and gas industry?

Yorinde Lokin-Knegtering, growth manager, Kongsberg Digital: Well, thanks. It's a great question, and before I even dive in there, thank you for having me here today. It's a great honor. What are some of those biggest trends that we're seeing in terms of AI? I think first of all, companies started crumbling for what AI could mean to them when it came out. Not first, but when really it started picking up last year, what we're seeing within the oil and gas industry that there's obviously companies that are really leading the charge here, but then there's also companies that are starting to now get their hands on AI. In terms of biggest trends, companies … are starting to look at what can we actually apply AI for to make it practical.

…So some of our customers are really looking at what use cases can we apply AI to instead of, what is the technology, what can it do for us? How can we make it valuable for us in our real life business scenario? What companies are doing is looking at activities that happen on a frequent basis to see if they can make AI work for those use cases to drive values, to really automate work that needs to be done on a day-to-day basis. And that's one of the biggest trends that I'm seeing, really getting it from that technical level into what does it really mean for us on a detail level day-to-day.

JC: At Kongberg Digital, you guys focus a lot on things like digital twins and simulation technologies. Can you speak on how those sort of help the oil and gas industry as a whole increase in operational efficiencies and things like that?

YLK: Yeah, absolutely. So within the oil and gas industry, we always need to keep in mind that there's different segments within the industry. And digital twin technology is very broad, but what a digital twin means for us is a virtual replica of heavy assets within the industry. So you could think of refineries, you could think of upstream assets, you could think of midstream assets or facilities. And what digital twins can do for those facilities is really look into things like operations and maintenance processes. How can we improve those? How can we make them more efficient, but not only for a specific team, but across the organization. So in terms of end-to-end workflows, that's where digital twins can really add value, making those processes more efficient by de-siloing data between teams.

JC: What are some of the advantages that you're excited to see about in terms of digital twin technologies?

YLK: So initially, bigger oil and gas companies, so Shell is, for instance, a big client of ours, and then Chevron is a big client. They started to look into digital twin technologies around 2018, 2019. And what we're seeing right now today is that also smaller companies are really starting to see the benefits of digital twins. So instead of companies that are enterprise-wide with multiple assets in their portfolios, we're seeing companies that are signing up that have maybe four upstream assets in their portfolios, and they're really starting to invest and think about digital twins and how they can apply it into their space.

What I'm excited about is, for instance, AI, we talked about that a little bit earlier. How can that help spur the value that these companies are getting from digital twins. And on top of just the digital twin themselves, we're seeing companies getting AI as part of our digital twin platform to support them as a copilot in their day-to-day work. We're seeing companies that are getting a lot of value from just changing the ways they work, right? Because digital is just digital. It stands on its own, but how can you change the way of working end-to-end with a digital twin?

JC: How does Kongsberg’s artificial intelligence and digital solutions help you guys as customers on a day-to-day basis?

YLK: Well, with everything we do, we try to help companies make better, faster, higher quality decisions based on real time data and information that they have at hand. We have a digital twin solution that can help with that, but we also have physics-based simulators that can simulate problems and then gives users that need to make that critical decision the input to make the right decision very fast. By getting access or getting your hands on the data at the right time at the right place, that's how we help companies really drive their operational efficiency, make those right decisions to drive value.

JC: And personally just for you, what are some trends that you hope to see in terms of artificial intelligence, digital twin technologies within the oil and gas industry?

YLK: Some of the things that I'm really hoping to see is obviously more companies to really sign up because our ambition is to ultimately [connect] value chain end-to-end. So we started within an upstream environment, went into a downstream environment. But digital twin technology is valid for upstream, midstream, downstream chemicals. It can cover the entire value chain. That's where we want to get as a company, and we can do that, the technology can do it, but we need customers that help us to get ready. Another thing is that, of course, these big companies that we talked about that have signed up, but then smaller companies, can we get those on board? Can we really come down to value with them? Can we really build the business case for them to make a digital twin that maybe sounded very far ahead in the future for them in the past? Something that can be concrete and that we can start on.

I think another really important point is that with digital twin technology, there's a huge difference and impact that we can have on daily work processes. I'm super excited because we've started a digital performance model within this company that we're working on with our clients. And for us, that means that we help clients look at what are the daily activities that happen very frequently. So think about filter change outs, think about valve positioning, things that you do on a very regular basis that you really want to do right every single time you execute them, regardless who does them. That's something that digital twin technology can absolutely help with. Standardizing those processes, making them more efficient. We work with customers to filter out what those use cases are, automate them end-to-end, and then that will be the future foundation for AI technologies and whatever the technology world is going to surprise us with in the future.

JC: Okay. Well, Yorinde, it was a pleasure talking to you.

YLK: I agree. Thank you very much.

JC: And that's a wrap on this interview. To find out more about Kongsberg Digital, go to www.hartenergy.com.

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