INDUSTRY

IBM Middle East and Intel have unveiled a range of pioneering new solutions at the Energy Competency Centre (ECC) located at the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) Centre of Excellence for applied Research and Training (CERT) in the city of Abu Dhabi. This is the first announcement regarding the global joint initiative between Intel and IBM, empowering oil and gas companies with the means to develop and test new technology strategies to improve reservoir/facility management and production through distributed and collaborative environments. IBM and Intel expect to announce a number of similar facilities around the world this year. The ECC was inaugurated this morning under the auspices of His Excellency Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Education and attended by a number of high profile delegates including HCT’s Chancellor, Dr. Tayeb Kamali, IBM’s EMEA head of the Petroleum industry, Bob Moore, Intel’s VP and sales and marketing group director, solutions market development group, John E. Davies, IBM’s WW VP for education, Sean Rush, IBM’s general manager for its Middle East operations, Takreem El-Tohamy, as well as several other senior executives from oil and gas companies across the region. “From the oil fields to the data centres, advanced technologies have been critical to the success of the oil and gas sector. High-performance computing clusters analyse terabytes of seismic processing and reservoir simulation data. Sophisticated 3D visualization algorithms provide insights and understanding. Wireless handheld computers and laptops enable access to important data and applications from exploration and drilling sites. These technologies and others have helped the industry find and extract deposits more quickly and efficiently, while controlling costs and reducing risks,” said Dr. Tayeb Kamali, chancellor, HCT. “Today, we are extremely proud to announce that a new generation of advanced technologies will now be available through the ECC, the region’s most sophisticated testing facility.” Originally established in 2002 as a joint initiative between IBM and Intel, the ECC is the Middle East’s only centre of its kind. Over the past two years, it has been a valued resource for exploration and production companies and solution providers such as Schlumberger and Landmark, who have used the facility to further expand IT competency in the energy sector. The announcement today makes it easier for these companies to test, evaluate and take full advantage of key technology solutions that have not been available before, including deep computing visualisation, on-demand computing, grid computing, digital enablement of key assets to enable real time monitoring and alerts, and asset life cycle management. “The solutions we have unveiled today offer new ways to solve old problems and deliver revolutionary business benefits for oil and gas companies in this region. It is important, however, that these technologies are understood alongside the industry’s business and technical challenges. This is why we are collaborating with partners such as Intel to develop innovative strategies and solutions that can help these companies visualise, virtualise and integrate, allowing them to maximise the benefits of their IT investments and transform the way they carry out crucial activities,” said Bob Moore, director, chemical and petroleum industries, IBM EMEA. “We believe that the Middle East will play a very important role in the adoption of these key technologies across the world.” The ECC lab is equipped with highly sophisticated and open hardware, software and middleware technologies, with a wide range of IBM xSeries servers and Linux-based IntelliStation graphics workstations that are based on several Intel-chip platforms, including the Intel Pentium 4 processor, the Intel Xeon processor and the Intel Itanium 2 processor. “Business needs in the oil and gas sector are more demanding than ever. Aligning technology with business needs is more essential that ever. Through the Energy Competency Centre, Intel and IBM will readily demonstrate how energy companies in the region can unlock the business value of these vital technology advances. This spans from large databases and seismic calculations on Intel’s Itanium2 processor to mobile connectivity with Intel Centrino Mobile Technology or Intel’s Personal Internet Client Architecture on the oilfield,” said John E. Davies, Vice President and sales and marketing group director, solutions market development group, Intel. The new solutions unveiled include Deep Computing Visualisation, Grid Computing, digital enablement of key assets to enable real time monitoring and alerts, as well as Asset Lifecycle Management. These technologies deliver business value by accelerating collaboration and communications across and throughout the entire exploration and production value chain, in addition to providing unparalleled education resources for the oil and gas sector.