ADNOC and Group 42 launch new AI-focused company in Abu Dhabi

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has partnered with technology specialist Group 42 to establish a new joint venture company – AIQ – which will focus on developing artificial intelligence technologies in the UAE.

AIQ will develop and commercialise AI products and applications for the oil and gas industry.

AIQ has reportedly begun work on a number of key AI projects across the oil and gas value chain such as drilling performance, reservoir modelling, corrosion detection, and product quality.

Learn more about the new Artificial Intelligence joint venture company (AIQ), between #ADNOC and the Abu Dhabi-Based Group 42 pic.twitter.com/tVtwmLtmcl

— ADNOC Group (@AdnocGroup) October 7, 2020

Abdulmunim Saif Al Kindy from ADNOC has been appointed as the chairman of the board of directors for AIQ.

The other board members include group CEO of G42 Peng Xiao, Mansoor Ibrahim AlMansoori (G42), ADNOC’s group CTO Alan Nelson and Ahmed Al Kuttab (ADNOC).

“This partnership with ADNOC offers the potential to create the AI tools for the oil and gas industry of tomorrow and we look forward to leveraging our state-of-the-art cloud infrastructure and specialised team of AI experts to help develop these new cutting-edge solutions. The use of AI, combined with G42’s supercomputing capabilities, as well as ADNOC’s industrial expertise and breadth of data, will unlock efficiencies across the entire value chain, inspiring new approaches to exploration, production, transportation, processing, distributions and sales,” said Xiao.

ADNOC will hold a 60 per cent stake in the company, with Group 42 owning the rest.

The Abu-Dhabi based G42 will use its skills in AI modeling, supercomputing and teams of data scientists and software engineers, whereas ADNOC will contribute via its know-how, domain experts and vast amount of data to the new company.

“Through this new joint venture, we are able to accelerate the development of new AI solutions to optimize processes, improve planning and increase profitability for ADNOC and the wider oil and gas industry. This partnership model allows ADNOC to develop AI solutions and applications in a cost-efficient way and strengthens Abu Dhabi’s and our nation’s position as a global hub for AI and technology driven industrial growth,” said Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and ADNOC Group CEO.

ADNOC has already undertaken several initiatives as part of its digital transformation strategy. These include its AI and big data-driven “Panorama Digital Command Centre,” its smart data analytics “Thamama Subsurface Collaboration Centre,” its use of big data modeling tools for value chain optimisation, computer vision technologies, predictive maintenance machine learning technologies and use of blockchain for hydrocarbon accounting.

Group 42 meanwhile recently announced that it will establish a wholly-owned subsidiary in Israel which will facilitate G42’s access to Israeli talent pool, advanced technologies and resources.

Read: Abu Dhabi’s Group 42 becomes first UAE company to announce international office in Israel

G42, which has established a throughput testing laboratory in Abu Dhabi in 14 days, is currently leading the world’s first Phase III clinical trials for the Covid-19 inactivated vaccine.