Petronas: PETRONAS Establishes AI Centre of Excellence Through Collaboration with Global Partners

PETRONAS is establishing an Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence (AI CoE) here to accelerate the advancement in AI solutions that supports energy delivery, operational efficiency and sustainability, through collaboration with a network of global partners.

The first round of collaborations, involving Baker Hughes, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Microsoft, was formalised recently via three Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) 2022.

Through the AI CoE, PETRONAS will work with the partners to innovate, develop, and potentially commercialise AI solutions by leveraging each other’s technologies, expertise and experience. This is a step forward in PETRONAS’ continuous journey in advocating usage of AI to improve the efficiency, reliability, and safety of its energy value chain.

The MoUs were signed by PETRONAS Chief Digital Officer, Aadrin Azly; Baker Hughes Vice President of Asia Pacific, Graham Gillies; BCG Managing Director, Senior Partner and Head of Southeast Asia, Jaime Ruiz-Cabrero; and Microsoft Malaysia Managing Director, K. Raman. Also present was PETRONAS Senior Vice President of Project Delivery and Technology, Datuk Bacho Pilong.

Commenting on the collaboration, Aadrin said, “With the culmination of this and our other collaborations, we are excited for greater achievements in our AI journey as we join forces in understanding customers’ needs and uncovering significant outcomes across key areas such as operational resilience, human safety, and energy sustainability.

“The AI CoE will leverage diverse expertise from our internal resources and other industry players to grow an ecosystem that both accelerates value delivery and cultivates AI talent,” he added.

According to Baker Hughes Vice President of Industrial Asset Management, Judit Prieto, “The complex challenges of the energy transition require new forms of collaboration. Digital technologies will be an important part of the answer in driving efficiency, safety, and performance of industrial assets. This agreement with PETRONAS marks a step forward in our growth strategy to provide differentiated solutions for industrial assets.”

Ruiz-Cabrero said, “AI will revolutionise the energy sector in this decade, and we are excited to partner with PETRONAS to transform the energy industry and beyond. This partnership will bring together BCG Gamma’s deep AI expertise and PETRONAS’ deep experience on applying AI use cases in the energy value chain. Together we will accelerate the use of AI to unlock significant value for PETRONAS, the energy sector, and Malaysia. This is an important step for Malaysia to become established as a hub for top AI talent in the region.”

K. Raman said that as part of Microsoft’s “Bersama Malaysia” commitment to empower the nation’s inclusive digital economy, this collaboration will bring PETRONAS’ AI CoE to the next level.

He said, “Research showed that AI could potentially create up to six million new jobs in Malaysia by 2030, and this presents a need to nurture and equip Malaysian talents with future-ready AI skills. As a technology partner for the AI CoE, we believe its establishment has the power to drive innovation and accelerate value creation not only within PETRONAS but for the overall energy sector.”