The Importance of the GE Predix Pilot for RasGas and GCC

Despite the well-documented benefits of the Industrial Internet of Things, for many GCC countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman) there is an overwhelming concern over the early adoption of technology that often stifles technological innovation. Like the GCC, many organizations in other parts of the globe are also reluctant to take action unless an industry peer takes an initial step toward adoption. In the majority if instances, owner-operators will want to know what other industrial companies are doing before they make investments in new technology - essentially making them "fast followers." For the GCC -RasGas has made the critical first step on the IoT Journey. Please see the Gulf Times article here. Cloud-based industry solutions are not new for enterprise applications, but industrial solutions such industrial predictive analytics is relatively new.

RasGas, a safe and reliable supplier of LNG based in Qatar, begins its journey to the “effective integration” of big data and advanced analytics in the cloud, that will support process optimization across RasGas operations. RasGas has become the first global LNG customer to leverage the GE Predix Cloud. This LNG-focused solution is projected to extend the life of RasGas assets. According to RasGas, GE Predix will lower operating costs through greater efficiencies and optimize product chain across RasGas assets. The collaboration between RasGas and GE also fosters a culture of localized innovation by bringing automated systems to cloud platforms. This will undoubtedly strengthen the skills of Qatari technical professionals. GE’s global workforce will support the Qatari professionals through knowledge sharing sessions and ongoing service.

The Gulf Coast Countries have some of the most advanced IT-OT (Operational technology) organizations and cyber security programs and may be more active than many industrial cyber security programs in other parts of the world. The maturity of the GCC IT-OT cybersecurity practices might just be underpinning the use of GE Predix from the cloud. Early users of Predix are running the solution from Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers.

In ARC's description of IoT, all the needed technologies are available and require no substantial technological breakthroughs. New well thought out reference architectures have been created, each with compelling use cases including techniques for adding IoT’s “digital umbilical cord” to a enhance the capability of existing industrial control systems. Companies are benefiting by improving asset performance and enabling workers both inside and outside the perimeter of the company. Congratulations to GE Digital and RasGas in achieving this important digital transformation and early adoption of technology for the oil & gas industry. This will undoubtedly pave the way for other GCC industrial manufacturers.