At a summit for a joint project between the three Norwegian GCE clusters last week, it was time to summarize. More than 60 companies across the clusters have been involved in the project, which has also had a strong collaboration with various research institutions. The aim has been to protect a leading global market position and increase market share and technological advantage within oil and gas and renewable energy.
“Oil and gas is by far the most important industry for the Norwegian economy. New technologies and working methods pave the way for new business opportunities and cost efficiencies. We needed a wake-up call, and this project has been a wake-up call for a lot of SMEs,” says Jan Fredrik Namtvedt, Project Manager at GCE Subsea.
Added Arnt Aske: “Nearly 70 per cent of business leaders believe digitalization will be very important five years from now. This is clearly a wrong perspective. It is happening right now! We need to accelerate our digital maturity. We need to get on the train. Now!”
AN OCEAN OF POSSIBILITIES
The digital transformation of the oil and gas industry has the potential to unlock an ocean of possibilities. The project’s focus has been on four strategic areas, closely linked to Industry 4.0, which all have potential for significant cost reductions; framework conditions, innovations along the supply chain, new production technologies, and new maintenance and operating systems.
A series of industry focus group meetings and workshops have been conducted in 2017, aiming to find ways to capitalize on the possibilities of the digital transformation and to stimulate to increased innovation, profitability and employment.
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COLLABORATION IS KING
A vital part for succeeding in the digital transformation is collaboration. Apart from fruitful collaboration across GCE NODE, GCE Subsea and GCE Blue Maritime, the project has been collaborating with the German MAI Carbon Cluster, which includes members from many business areas, including aerospace and automotive. Representatives from all these clusters met in Grimstad last week.
The meeting also included speed dating between different companies, a visit to Mechatronics Innovation Lab, and a focus on developing future collaborations and projects.
Funded by Hordaland County Council, the project has been running since November 2016 and will end in December 2017.
”We are glad to see the GCE clusters cooperate on such an important subject matter,” says Hans Inge Gloppen, Senior Advisor at Hordaland County.
