There is no breakthrough without a
breakdown. -- Tony Robbins
Venture capital professionals will learn nothing from the Breakthrough series.
However, if you are looking for emerging technologies that may help your
organization, it can be helpful to see what the CVC-Corporate Venture Capital
professionals have identified as interesting startups.
This post focuses on companies that the venture capital arms of oil & gas
corporates have added to their portfolios.
TIP: Google®
"venture
capital" AND (petroleum OR oil OR gas OR hydrocarbon)
One article resulting from the search includes a table detailing recent
investments by the venture capital arms of the oil majors as of 2018. Granted,
we are half way through 2020. But grant you me, they are investments in
companies that are still in their formative stage. Some will not survive.
Others will.
We can learn from the oil majors in two ways.
-
Specific companies the majors have chosen to invest in may provide
opportunities for other companies that are looking for creative solutions to
their technical problems.
-
The companies, even those that do not survive, can suggest the long term
thinking of the oil majors that take a chance on these companies. That can
offer guidance in the strategic thinking of companies with less muscle than
that of the majors.
Here is the article, sans table. To view the table, visit the link shown at the
bottom …
///////
Oil And Gas Corporates Are Investing In Clean Tech,
Analytics, And The Internet Of Things
February 1, 2018
Oil & Gas
O&G industry investment in startups reached record levels in 2016 and 2017.
Corporate venture investments by oil and gas companies hit record highs in 2016
and 2017, after a slight dip following the 2014 crash in oil prices. These
investments have been concentrated in clean tech companies and technologies
with the potential to improve operations.
Integrated oil companies, such as Chevron and BP,
have driven CVC investment by the O&G industry over the past decade.
We used CB Insights (www.cbinsights.com)
data to analyze the investment activity of a selection of the largest and most
active companies across the O&G
value chain.
Clean Tech focuses on three areas:
Alternative Energy: wind,
solar, hydro, advanced batteries, etc;
Alternative Materials:
materials or products with the potential to replace petrochemicals;
Environmental Impact:
technologies with the potential to mitigate the environmental impact of burning
hydrocarbons— carbon capture, home energy efficiency, and vehicle efficiency.
Operational Improvement technologies offer the potential to enhance
O&G company operations. Startups in this category offer IIOT, analytics,
and reserve replacement and enhancement capabilities.
Conventional Energy companies provide processes or products that utilize
hydrocarbon generated energy.
Track more oil & gas tech startups on our platform
Startups working to improve processes across the oil & gas sector, from
exploration and production to transportation and refining. Look for Oil &
Gas Tech in the Collections tab.
Clean tech investment dropped off following the 2011
collapse of Solyndra,
whose highly public implosion contributed to a
decline in funding and public interest in renewables. Activity has bounced
back, with O&G CVC investment in clean tech increasing every year since
2014, hitting record levels in 2017.
In Q3’17, French integrated oil company Total took a $285M minority stake in
renewable asset operator Eren
Groupe (https://www.total-eren.com/en/?cli_action=1592753541.653)
at a $1.2B valuation. In Q4, BP invested in a
$200M minority stake in European solar developer Lightsource. (www.lightdource.com)
Looking forward to 2018, Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell invested $217M in solar
energy developer Silicon
Ranch (www.siliconranch.com) in a secondary market
round.
Investments in operational improvement technologies have increased since 2011,
as connected devices, analytics, and automation have advanced. In Q4’17, Maana (https://www.maana.io/) a company that provides
a platform for analyzing data generated by industrial operations, raised a $28M
C round from investors including the VC arms of Chevron, Saudi Aramco, and
Shell. Chevron and ConocoPhillips Technology Ventures participated in the
company’s Series A in 2014.
Integrated oil companies— defined as international and state-owned companies
with operations across the oil and gas value chain — are especially
incentivized to invest in technologies that could enable the eventual
replacement of hydrocarbon-generated energy and lower the cost of meeting
remaining fossil fuel demand. These firms are highly vulnerable to the energy
value chain’s environmental, political, and execution risks.
Integrated oil companies accounted for 80% of industry participants in
financings since 2008. All other players, including independent exploration
companies, oilfield service providers, and independent refiners, accounted for 20%
of industry participants over the same period.
With an estimated 1.7 trillion barrels in the ground, untold dollars of capital
investment, and investor and regulatory pressure on O&G players to
recognize the environment and financial risks posed by climate change, the
stakes are high.
Integrated oil company investment also makes sense in the context of the energy
industry’s technology development structure. Large, integrated oil producers
tend to spend less on R&D than the oilfield services companies that drive
technological execution in the industry. However, integrated
companies have an active interest in bringing technologies that lower
operating costs to market, creating incentives for VC investment.
Below, we break down the portfolio investments of the five most active integrated
oil companies that drive much of the VC activity in the O&G industry
(notably absent from this list is Exxon, which has eschewed VC investment for
R&D, particularly in biofuels).
source: https://www.cbinsights.com/research/oil-gas-corporate-venture-capital-investment/
///////
Google® Better!
Jean Steinhardt served as Librarian,
Aramco Services, Engineering Division, for 13 years. He now heads Jean
Steinhardt Consulting LLC, producing the same high quality research that he
performed for Aramco.
Follow Jean’s blog at: http://desulf.blogspot.com/ for continuing tips on effective online
research
Email Jean at research@jeansteinhardtconsulting.com with questions on research, training, or
anything else
Visit Jean’s Web site at http://www.jeansteinhardtconsulting.com/ to see examples of the services we can
provide
AI-Artificial Intelligence is impacting every technical field. How do you
monitor how AI is affecting your field?
Here’s one way …
TIP:
Google® artificial
intelligence + [insert your term here]
For example, if your focus is dibenzothiophene, try this Google® search string …
dibenzothiophene
artificial intelligence
Here are some results from the search. Try a similar search on a topic of your
choice.
///////
Selected Google® results: dibenzothiophene artificial intelligence
From Absorption
Spectra to Charge Transfer in Nanoaggregates of Oligomers with Machine Learning
LM
Roch, SK
Saikin, F
Häse, P
Friederich… - ACS …, 2020 - ACS Publications
… Massachusetts 02138, United States. Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence,
Toronto,
ON M5S 1M1, Canada. Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, Toronto,
ON M5S 3H6, Canada. Department of Computer Science …
Related
articles All
2 versions
[HTML]
Diffusion
behavior study of model diesel components in polymer membranes based on neural
network for pattern recognition
X
Liang, X Gu, C Ling, Z Yang - Journal of applied research and …, 2016
- Elsevier
… recognition is a rapidly evolving and a promising subject in artificial
intelligence sciences … to predict
the diffusion behavior of the model diesel components (dibenzothiophene(DBT)
and … desulfurization
agent and denitrification agent are based on the intelligent pattern
recognition …
Cited
by 1 Related
articles All
12 versions
Deep
hydrodesulfurization of atmospheric gas oil; Effects of operating conditions
and modelling by artificial neural network techniques
D
Berger, MV Landau, M
Herskowitz, Z Boger - Fuel, 1996 - Elsevier
… reactions of hydrogen with a complex mixture of sulfur-containing compounds,
organic sul- fides,
thiophenes and benzo- and dibenzothiophenes … THE ANN TECHNIQUE Artificial
intelligence
techniques may be applied for process modelling, and one of the more
interesting and …
Cited
by 17 Related
articles All
6 versions
Alternatives
selection for produced water management: A network-based methodology
S
Mao, Y
Deng, D
Pelusi - Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence,
2020 - Elsevier
… Song and Deng, 2019). Each time an artificial parameter is necessary
when data
values are aggregated by OWA operator (Fullér and Majlender, 2001), resulting
in subjectivity and complexity. The network-based aggregation …
Related
articles All
3 versions
[PDF]
researchgate.net
Computational
and experimental approaches for investigating membranes diffusion behavior in
model diesel fuel
Z
Yang, X Gu, C Ling, X Liang - Journal of Mathematical Chemistry, 2018 -
Springer
… Support vector machine (SVM) algorithm is a machine-learning algorithm that
works on the
principles of artificial intelligence … is conducted for the
first time to predict diffusion behavior of
the model diesel components methylnaphthalene (MNA) and dibenzothiophene
(DBT) in …
Related
articles All
2 versions
[PDF]
biorxiv.org
///////
Google® Better!
Jean Steinhardt served as Librarian,
Aramco Services, Engineering Division, for 13 years. He now heads Jean
Steinhardt Consulting LLC, producing the same high quality research that he
performed for Aramco.
Follow Jean’s blog at: http://desulf.blogspot.com/ for continuing tips on effective online
research
Email Jean at research@jeansteinhardtconsulting.com with questions on research, training, or
anything else
Visit Jean’s Web site at http://www.jeansteinhardtconsulting.com/ to see examples of the services we can
provide
“Life is really simple, but we insist on
making it complicated.” ― Confucius
Oil & Gas Journal has announced the 2020
Worldwide Refining Survey with Complexity Analysis.
The text of the email announcement appears below. But, first, what is Complexity Analysis?
TIP: Google®
complexity
analysis oil gas journal.
One result is a Wikipedia article explaining the concept. Excerpts appear below
…
///////
Nelson
complexity index
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Nelson complexity index (NCI) is a measure to compare the secondary
conversion capacity of a petroleum refinery with the primary distillation
capacity.[1]
The index provides an easy metric for quantifying and ranking the complexity of
various refineries and units.[2]
To calculate the index, it is necessary to use complexity factors, which
compare the cost of upgrading units to the cost of crude distillation unit.[3]
History
It
was developed by Wilbur L. Nelson in a series of articles that appeared in the Oil & Gas Journal[4]
from 1960 to 1961 (Mar. 14, p. 189; Sept. 26, p. 216; and June 19, p. 109). In
1976, he elaborated on the concept in another series of articles, again in the Oil & Gas Journal (Sept. 13, p. 81;
Sept. 20, p. 202; and Sept. 27, p. 83).
The NCI assigns a complexity factor to each major piece of refinery equipment
based on its complexity and cost in comparison to crude distillation, which is assigned
a complexity factor of 1.0. The complexity of each piece of refinery equipment
is then calculated by multiplying its complexity factor by its throughput ratio as a percentage of crude
distillation capacity. Adding up the complexity values assigned to each piece
of equipment, including crude distillation, determines a refinery’s complexity
on the NCI.
The NCI indicates not only the investment intensity or cost index of the
refinery but also its potential value
addition. Thus, the higher the index number, the greater the cost of the
refinery and the higher the value of its products.
In the second edition of the book Petroleum
Refinery Process Economics (2000), author Robert Maples notes that U.S.
refineries rank highest in complexity index, averaging 9.5, compared with
Europe's at 6.5. The Jamnagar refinery belonging to India-based Reliance Industries Limited is now one
of the most complex refineries in the world with a Nelson complexity index of
14.[6]
The new refinery began trial production on December 25, 2008. The former BP Texas
City, Texas refinery, newly acquired by Marathon Petroleum as their
Galveston Bay Refinery has a Nelson complexity index of 15.3 in 2013.
The Oil and Gas Journal
annually calculates and publishes a list of refineries with their associated
Nelson complexity index scores.
//////
And here is the text of the email I rec’d announcing the 2020 edition …
///////
Get the 2020 Worldwide Refining Survey with Complexity
Analysis!
Have you got the 2020 Worldwide Refining Survey
with Complexity Analysis yet?
It's based on the Oil & Gas
Journal's 2020 Worldwide Refining Survey,
and includes the calculated Nelson Refinery Index for the set's available
global refineries.
The Nelson Index is calculated for the following:
Crude
Vacuum
Coking
Isomerization
Asphalt
Sulfur
Catalytic Reforming
Catalytic Cracking
Catalytic Hydrotreating
Lubes
Hydrogen
Isooctane
...and others!
Find more of the data you're looking for on OGJ Research!
///////
Google® Better!
Jean Steinhardt served as Librarian,
Aramco Services, Engineering Division, for 13 years. He now heads Jean
Steinhardt Consulting LLC, producing the same high quality research that he
performed for Aramco.
Follow Jean’s blog at: http://desulf.blogspot.com/ for continuing tips on effective online
research
Email Jean at research@jeansteinhardtconsulting.com with questions on research, training, or
anything else
Visit Jean’s Web site at http://www.jeansteinhardtconsulting.com/ to see examples of the services we can
provide
