Executive Tackles Disruptions in Energy Transition

Executive Tackles Disruptions in Energy Transition
Oil and gas executives discuss possible disruptions the industry faces during the Houston Energy Breakfast.

When it comes to planning a smart strategy forward, there’s three key elements that will enable energy transition.

Jim Claunch, vice president for business efficiency at Equinor ASA, shared what he believed are game changers during the Houston Energy Breakfast September 21.

Data: “What’s interesting is Silicon Valley people who have entered the board of directors for oil and gas companies are blown away that we only use about 3 to 5 percent of our data,” Claunch said. “If you think of Big Oil and broad energy, it’s going to be driven by data. We’re going to have so much data in real time, telling us what we’re going to do with our gas, where we’re going to move it, etc. Data’s going to drive everything just like it does in everyone’s personal lives.”

New ways of working and collaborating: Claunch told attendees that his 17-year-old child can convey four paragraphs of conversation with a picture and six emojis. Though he was being light-hearted, he was serious in his beliefs that this generation – and those after – would be the people who will help the industry transform the way it works.

“My job isn’t to be an expert and learn how to communicate with a picture and six emojis. It’s to allow that to occur,” he said. “If you think about how we solve problems today like production efficiency, it used to be we would get four production engineers in a room and say, ‘figure it out.’ Today, to solve that problem, we have production engineers, data scientists, software engineers, IT architecture people… what’s interesting is some of these new competencies that are coming in – they’re different. And it’s our job to accept them. We must learn how to relate to them. We must learn how to be leaders and create a culture where they feel just as much a part of the team that wins the production efficiency game as a production engineer.”

Bold leadership: “I’m not talking about task managers … what’s so great about the digital transformation is it still goes back to connecting with people,” said Claunch. “Talk to people and ask them what they feel and what they think. Don’t assume they understand their new value proposition. The train wrecks we’ve had were when we thought the value was so obvious, we didn’t tell them. They thought their job was done, but in reality we thought they were worth way more, but failed to tell them.”

“As we go forward, part of the bold leadership challenge in the overall transition to energy means that we’re going to have to think through what the new value chain looks like, who we partner with and how we work together differently. That is one of the most difficult decisions that boards and executives are going to face in Big Oil.”



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