Oando eyes AI technology adoption in oil drilling

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00:00Wale Tunubu, the CEO of Wando, has hinted on the possibility of deploying artificial

00:04intelligence in its next drilling campaign.

00:07In a chat with CNBC Africa's Kenneth Igboma on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum,

00:12he stressed that the oil firm is looking to adopt cleaner energy in its Just Transition

00:17drive while also working towards producing 5,000 electric buses for public transportation

00:23in Lagos.

00:24Take a look.

00:25Well, for us, it's a big game-changer.

00:30For example, in a drilling operation, we have to make very, very serious decisions which

00:35have a large, high impact on cost.

00:38And being able to throw in all the potential answers to our questions based on old experiences

00:43means that we can, thousands of, well, not thousands of years, hundreds of years of experience

00:49in seismic technology and drilling will be satisfied by having a whole sequence of possibilities

00:57which can be taken through artificial intelligence.

01:00So it's something we're looking forward to deploying in our next drilling campaign.

01:03Yeah, because now, when you're looking at what's playing out here, we're in the Trump

01:062.0 era.

01:07We're seeing quite a lot of talking about geopolitics and what's happening there.

01:10And many people are concerned about supply chains as well.

01:13You know, how is this going to be impacted?

01:14I'd like to hear your thoughts on that.

01:16Well, it's clear that Trump is certainly having an influence on the world.

01:20With the America First notion, you're finding global trade now being restricted to regional

01:29trade, wherein everybody's protecting their own corner.

01:32And I think that in Africa, we've done the right thing by getting the African Free Trade

01:36Zone Act off the table and actually working towards it.

01:42So there's been a lot of talk in the conference regarding our free trade zone initiatives,

01:48getting the continent closer, and there's been a lot of interaction between the regions,

01:52the countries, and the industries as a whole as to how we can collaborate more as one common

01:57market and then face the world as a common competitor.

02:01Yeah, because we've spoken to quite a number of private sector players here trying to find

02:05out what the African corporate agenda is here.

02:09And I'd like to know what it is for Rwanda coming to the conversations here at Davos.

02:14And definitely, I can imagine you've had meetings already.

02:16I'm trying to imagine what that is for Rwanda in terms of your agenda here.

02:19Well, I have an Rwanda-first agenda, I must say, Nigeria next.

02:24And here, traditionally, I've always had the opportunity of meeting the 25 top CEOs in

02:32the oil and gas industry.

02:33We have an oil and gas community.

02:35We have a dinner.

02:36We also have a very intense session where everybody gets to exchange ideas, and it's

02:40an invaluable opportunity I get to work with and exchange ideas with the most impressive

02:48personalities in the oil industry.

02:51In addition to that, we deal with financiers, and I've spent quite a bit of time talking

02:54to global financiers as to what we can do.

02:58As a company, we have over a billion barrels of reserves.

03:01We have 300,000 barrels a day of processing capacity for oil, over 2 billion cubic feet

03:06a day for gas capacity.

03:08And our challenge is to ensure we can secure the working capital to extract these resources.

03:13Effectively, the net present value of the oil we have in our facilities is well over

03:1810 billion US dollars.

03:20So being able to extract that and accelerate the pace of extraction creates a tremendous

03:26amount of value for the company.

03:27So the conference is very, very important to me.

03:29Because I was going to get into that more specifically, because that acquisition has

03:32happened, and you're definitely going through the integration phase right now.

03:36You're meeting investors, talking about how to sweat these assets to get the best out

03:39of them.

03:40What is the feedback that you've been getting from the conversation?

03:43Extremely positive.

03:44I mean, you know, I think it's clear to everybody that the onshore assets in Nigeria are best

03:51in the hands of the local players.

03:52I think the level of technology that was required to drill them is something that's commonplace.

03:59Nigerians have the skill, have the capacity, and we can also secure the funding.

04:03And the next step, really, is to exploit those resources.

04:07And we can do that by being closer to the communities, having a better handle on security,

04:12also having a better handle at dealing with the regulations and our regulators.

04:16Because at the end of the day, it's regulation really needs to be collaborative, because

04:22you're trying to secure the best for a nation.

04:25And where we have a country like Nigeria in a current state of economic challenges, we

04:31need to improve our exports, improve our balance of trade, ensure we can secure as much foreign

04:37exchange as we can to reduce the exchange rate and help us diversify the economy.

04:43And the fastest way to do it is the oil industry, because the facilities exist, the market exists,

04:51and the reserves are great.

04:53We've been blessed as a country with reserves.

04:55Yeah, because WEF also is big on safeguarding the planet, and with that there's a lot of

04:59talk about decarbonization targets for companies like yours.

05:03I'm trying to imagine the next phase for one, in terms of how you're looking to explore

05:09more greener technology in the work that you're doing.

05:12Well, I mean, first things first, I mean, I know that WEF is big on decarbonization.

05:17The whole world recognizes that global warming needs to be arrested.

05:21But it's also important to note where we are.

05:23Africa is 3% of global emissions, and it's 20% of population.

05:27So Africa is actually a victim of global warming.

05:30And I think that a just transition, the arguments for decarbonization are as important as the

05:36arguments for a just transition.

05:38And that transition has to recognize the fact that Africa has 45% of the people have no

05:43access to electricity or energy products.

05:46So our first step really must be to use what we have to get what we have, what we need,

05:50which means that we need to use our gas as part of the energy mix to service the needs

05:57of our continent.

05:59And that we need to do as a transitional fuel whilst we work with an energy mix, which brings

06:05me to the issue of cleaner technologies.

06:07So we are already working very hard to ensure that for every modicum of carbon we put into

06:15the economy, into the world and the environment, we're also taking that out by ensuring that

06:20we have carbon capture techniques, as well as ensuring that our clean energy offering

06:28as part of our products and services is high.

06:31So we're focusing a lot on e-vehicles, using gas as a transitional fuel to create electricity,

06:38to generate the power to power buses.

06:42Buses are, transport is 10% of global emissions.

06:46So if we tackle public transport, we would be able to reduce emissions by 5% almost immediately.

06:53And the first step we're doing now is also working on a public system of being able to

06:58transit the bus system in Nigeria from diesel or petrol to electric vehicles, starting with

07:05a project which we're working on with the Lagos State Government as a pilot case, where

07:09we expect to see up to 5,000 buses, e-buses being deployed in our streets.

07:14My name is Charles Wallace-Inouye, CEO of Owando.

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