Poland’s Ambassador to Qatar H E Janusz Janke.
Poland, which is emerging Europe’s biggest economy, is eyeing a partnership on digital oilfield with Qatar, the world’s largest LNG producer.
In an interview with The Peninsula during the launch of the Qatar-Poland Business Council in Doha recently, Poland’s Ambassador to Qatar H E Janusz Janke (pictured), said Poland has floated the idea of digital oilfields which include cloud computing and artificial intelligence technologies as possible new partnership between Qatar and Poland in the energy sector.
“The President of the Polish national oil and gas company has previously met with Qatar’s Minister of State for Energy Affairs, and President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, H E Saad Sherida Al Kaabi. And he mentioned this idea as a prospect for cooperation. And now, the Polish oil and gas company was sharing a general view of how we already implemented the technology in our mature oil fields, and there are great results. With the current oil prices, we now have to work to improve efficiency and restructure companies to work remotely. And to use artificial intelligence, we have to create a new digital environment. Poland is very famous for its skilled human resources especially in the IT sector. The IT industry generates about 8 percent of our GDP,” added Janke.
Globally, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the oil and gas industry, which like other sectors, have also accelerated its shift towards digital transformation. According to global market insights, the digital oilfield market has surpassed $26bn last year, and is expected to grow to $35bn by 2026. Digital oilfields, also called ‘smart fields’, are becoming more necessary as costs are forced downwards and the labour force shrinks, while demand for efficiency and production continues to rise. Market reports also highlight that the increasing deployment of enhanced oil recovery systems, followed by rising number of mature gas fields across the Middle East, will fuel the adoption of this technology.
To date, Poland is importing about 2.7 million tonnes of LNG from Qatar annually, according to a purchase agreement which will expire in 2034. Asked about plans for Poland to increase its LNG imports, on the backdrop of Qatar planning to increase its LNG production to 126 million tonnes per year by 2027 from 77 million currently, Janke said: “The ambition of the Polish government is to create a hub for trading. With the support of European Union firms, we are improving the pipelines network. Poland having an access through Baltic Sea, and having LNG terminal, we can also through Poland send some quantities to our neighbouring countries like Czech Republic, Slovakia, or Ukraine."
"And this is a great potential for such a major player like Qatar Petroleum to build on their already existing cooperation. And this is very important that Qatar has very ambitious plan to improve LNG production. And we’re encouraging our Qatari partners to see Poland as a gateway to the Central and Eastern Europe,” he added.
