Not only is the UAE energy giant ADNOC urging peers to embrace artificial intelligence solutions, its also putting money and resources where its mouth is according to the state-run company’s boss.
Speaking at ADIPEC 2024 in Abu Dhabi on Monday, ADNOC’s CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber – who also officiates as the UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and COP28 President – said the energy company will deploy autonomous AI for the very first time and issued a rallying cry for the wider industry to embrace it.
ADNOC’s move will be in partnership with government-backed G42, its own energy technology venture AiQ and Microsoft. It follows a $1.5 billion investment by Microsoft into G42 with an objective of diversifying the UAE’s economy away from hydrocarbons.
It banks on a commitment to Agentic AI, which allows systems to operate autonomously and perform tasks on behalf of end-users or project operators. ADNOC is calling the drive ENERGY^AI or ‘energy to the power of AI’.
“It will not only analyse petabytes of data, but will proactively and autonomously identify operational improvements. It will perceive, think, learn and act, speed up seismic surveys from months to days and increase the accuracy of production forecasts by up to 90%. Ultimately, it will be a powerhouse for value creation, efficiency and sustainable energy production that can benefit the whole industry,” Al Jaber told ADIPEC attendees.
“We stand at the dawn of a new era of hope and possibility, defined by three megatrends: first, the rise of the global south and emerging markets. Second, the transformation of energy systems, and third, the exponential growth of AI. These three megatrends present mega opportunities that demand mega solutions,” he added.
“AI is one of those era-defining breakthroughs that is changing the pace of change itself. It is redefining the boundaries of productivity and efficiency. And it has the potential to accelerate the transformation of energy systems and to supercharge low carbon growth.
He also noted that “50% of the tasks we do today” can be solved by AI.
“For ADNOC, AI stands for ‘applied intelligence’. We chose to be one of the earliest adopters, because we saw it as a strategic imperative to drive efficiency, unlock value, enhance growth, lower emissions and future-proof our business.”
Huge Power Demands Of AI
But Al Jaber also flagged the huge power demands of AI and the datacenters underpinning it, which in his opinion gives oil majors an incentive to invest in renewables.
“Wind and solar will expand seven times. LNG will grow by 65%. Oil will continue to be used for fuel and as a building block for many essential products. And as the world becomes increasingly urban, demand for electricity will double.
“Adding to this demand is the exponential growth of AI which is creating a power surge that noone anticipated 18 months ago. That’s when ChatGPT took off. A single prompt on ChatGPT needs ten times more energy than a Google search.”
Over the next six years, datacenters are expected to more than double, requiring at least 150GW of installed capacity by 2030 and double that again by 2040. Hence, the energy industry simply needs to recognize this and get its act together, Al Jaber concluded.