Equinor and Shell Combine Digital Forces
Equinor has revealed that it will partner with Royal Dutch Shell to develop the next generation of Shell Inventory Optimiser, a solution which leverages analytics on historical data to optimise operational spare part inventory levels.
Microsoft will be supporting the companies with the co-development of the tool, which runs on Microsoft Azure. Equinor noted that the goal is for energy companies to have better control over available equipment and to optimize stock levels.
The partnership follows a digital collaboration agreement signed by Equinor and Shell back in March, which outlined a deal to work together on digital projects in areas of mutual benefit, and in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, including competition and anti-trust laws.
The co-development project will be run through a joint engineering team with digital and discipline specialists from Equinor, Shell and Microsoft all contributing.
“We see many mutual benefits as both companies have applied cloud-based digital solutions as an approach to our industry’s digital transformation,” Oddvar Vermedal, the vice president of emerging digital technology for Equinor’s Digital Centre of Excellence, said in a company statement.
“Such collaborations are increasingly important to improve safety, increase value creation, reduce emissions and develop low carbon solutions by applying digital technologies. The first step with the initiative will be to safeguard our operations by rightsizing the inventory level,” Mr Vermedal added.
“This will reduce the inventory inflow and establish optimised level of inventory stocks in Equinor. The next step in the co-development will focus on reducing carbon footprint in our supply chain. Therefore, this collaboration is an important step in our digital transformation journey”.
Dan Jeavons, the general manager of data science at Shell, said, “the collaboration to co-develop the next stage of Shell Inventory Optimiser with Equinor is an important milestone for both our companies”.
“It speaks to the digital cultural and technical strengths we share, and our history of successful collaborations in the supply chain domain and the value we can achieve working in partnership. I look forward to further collaboration with Equinor in the supply-chain and decarbonisation domain, with the continued support of our mutual partner Microsoft,” he added.
Source: Rigzone