Saudi Arabia’s Aramco has agreed to form a new joint venture (JV) with Aker subsidiary Cognite to accelerate digitalisation across industries.
The new JV will primarily focus on delivering end-to-end digital and advanced solutions for business customers across oil and gas, power, utilities, manufacturing and shipping industries in Saudi Arabia and the MENA region.
Aramco Technical Services senior vice-president Ahmad Al Sa’adi said: “Aramco has pursued an ambitious Digital Transformation Program with the goal of transforming the company into the world’s leading digitalised energy corporation, maximising value for shareholders and spearheading digital innovation in the energy sector globally.
“The JV with Cognite aims to create advanced end-to-end digital software solutions in Saudi Arabia, which will maximise local content, contribute to GDP growth, create new jobs, accelerate digital talent development and sustain Aramco’s resilience.”
The new JV will utilise industrial data platform Cognite Data Fusion and Cloud-based capabilities to enable the digital transformation of companies.
The solutions will support production and yield optimisation, predictive maintenance, workforce digitalisation, as well as help in reducing the environmental footprint of industrial operations.
Aker president and CEO and Cognite board of directors chairman Øyvind Eriksen said: “We believe Aramco’s deep operational expertise, combined with Cognite’s track record of developing and deploying industrial software for digital frontrunners, will be a powerful catalyst for the commercial success of the joint venture and the advancement of digital transformation across heavy-asset industries.”
The JV is expected to become operational next year, subject to regulatory clearances. As agreed, Aramco and Cognite will respectively hold 51% and 49% stakes in the company.
