Energy Business On Upward Growth Trajectory Despite Geopolitical Challenges: Accenture MD

The Middle East region is witnessing a significant push toward downstream projects to improve refinery output and capacity, according to Paul Carthy, Managing Director, Accenture Energy Industry Group, Middle East and Turkey.

Accenture is an Ireland-based leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations.

Speaking to the Emirates News Agency, WAM, on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, ADIPEC, which opened Monday, Carthy said the UAE is "making significant progress in meeting the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 4IR. There are a lot of interns and graduates being motivated to come aboard the energy Industry and getting very interested in the petrochemicals and oil and gas industry."

"However", he continued, "there is a work to be done. There is a need to attract graduates from various universities. Accenture is working on a number of partnerships with Emirati colleges and academic institutes in order to ensure we bring in more diversity not only in terms of Emiratisation but also to ensure gender equality as well."

"At Accenture UAE, we are seeking to have a 50/50 female-male workforce by 2025 and to have a 20 percent of our leaders to be female by the same year as well."

Underlining the importance of this year’s theme of ADIPEC: ‘Oil & Gas 4.0’, Carthy said digitalisation should be strategic, and finding the right mix of technologies could help oil and gas companies unlock an additional market capitalisation.

"At Accenture we are helping capital projects hit timelines using digital [methods]. Everything we are doing now is digitised, including strategy, consulting work and even outsourcing.

"With concepts like artificial intelligence and real-time data analytics, managers are able to respond immediately to developing situations, anticipate the need for backup, reassign teams that complete their tasks early, and even prevent accidents by identifying employee fatigue.

"Beyond millions in savings from reduced downtime, the systematic combination of wireless, wearables, cloud, analytics and mobile technologies dramatically improves worker collaboration, productivity and safety."

Dismissing concerns that the 4.0 will cause machines to replace humans, Carthy said, "The ageing workforce will be there but we need to bring along millennials with the right potential. Smart plants require a smart workforce. There is an urgent need to prepare both current and future workforces for a workplace where man and machine work alongside each other."

"The new smart age is creating new roles because of the need for productivity. The new technologies are tapping thousands of job opportunities, including data scientists, maintenance engineers, etc. A lot more roles are coming for which we need more human potential. And despite the current geopolitical challenges, the business is growing.

"New roles are being created because of the need for productivity in the future. New technologies are tapping thousands of job opportunities, including data scientists and maintenance engineers. A lot more roles are coming for which we need more human potential."