Introduction

For African National Oil Companies (NOCs) navigating the intertwined challenges of underinvestment, aging infrastructure and policy changes, a focus on boosting production wherever possible typically comes out on top. This emphasis becomes even more apparent when considering output levels against potential for growth over the past few years. For example, OPEC+ trimmed both Nigeria and Angola’s targets in 2023 due to poor performance. But this era is also forcing operators to adopt a revitalised approach to improve margins and prioritise efficiencies, with a laser focus on increasing profits.

Unsurprisingly then, African NOCs are also increasingly scrutinising their digital investments, focusing on the cost-benefit ratio and the real value delivered by new technologies. Some of those who have already made the digital leap have had their journey derailed by technology vendors who didn’t put their customers first.


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Tailored digital solutions

It’s all too easy to provide an off the shelf programme that doesn’t consider existing work processes and pass it onto your client, but it will rarely lead to success. In fact, it more often than not leads to a costly solution left to collect digital dust, by no fault of the person who bought it.

NOCs, like their privately owned counterparts, require a tailored solution from start to finish. At AIS, we firmly believe in the power of collaboration, working together with our clients to proactively identify opportunities where digital solutions, like our digital twin, can make the most impact, and supporting our clients to get the most out of their asset management.

At the heart of this is a thorough consultation process that allows us to understand the nuances of an individual or team dynamic to ensure that programmes can be tailored from ideation through to integration. Alongside this, to ensure maximum value even after the digital twin is delivered, our programmes include thorough education and coaching of internal teams on the changes required to get best use out of their new investment.

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Avoiding common pitfalls

NOCs can also get better value moving forward by consolidating data management systems to avoid silos and duplication of tools and software. With a host of available solutions and platforms to choose from, it’s easy to fall victim to installing a suite of digital tools which promise shiny results but don’t work well together and instead create more silos than a paper-based predecessor.

The concept of "vendor lock-in" — where customers cannot extract their data from a single supplier — can be overcome by advocating for open platforms that allow greater flexibility in managing and utilising data across various systems.

Our R2S digital twin application is one such platform, reducing risk for the NOC from the get-go, ensuring that data can be easily accessed and connected to a whole host of existing systems, ensuring full flexibility and scalability for employees to use data as required.

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The next step

By making strategic and informed digital investments, supported by vendors who champion a joint explorative approach and solutions tailored to specific needs, NOCs in Africa can tackle their challenges head-on to boost production levels and in-turn actualise their true potential.

Find out more about how NOCs can sustain their progress by empowering a digital-first workforce and fostering local talent in the final blog in this series.

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