Petroleum engineering thrives at the intersection of cutting-edge technology and industry expertise. Here, leaders act as pioneers, wielding the latest tools to unlock new energy sources. Sophisticated data analytics, robotics, and automation empower them to push boundaries in exploration and production. This determination to innovate guarantees future energy security and minimizes environmental impact, paving the way for a sustainable future.
Ahmad Tariq Shammari stands as a living example of innovation and expertise in this thriving realm. With a career spanning over two decades, Ahmad has traversed the realms of petroleum engineering, mastering the intricacies of digital oil fields, numerical fluid flow simulation, integrated production systems modeling, and automated production engineering workflows.
Ahmad commenced his journey in 2002 at Saudi Aramco—a powerhouse in the energy sector. There, as a petroleum engineering systems analyst, he focused on the realms of digitalization, harnessing the power of AI and machine learning to revolutionize production processes. His tenure comprised spearheading the development of groundbreaking solutions, including a pioneering production monitoring platform hailed as the company’s digital field twin. Collaborating with Schlumberger, Ahmad honed his skills by managing automated workflows and consolidating data from diverse sources into a cohesive dashboard.
In 2017, Ahmad stepped into the next chapter of his career by joining Schlumberger, now known as SLB. Here, he found himself at the forefront of innovation as the company embarked on a transformative journey towards cloud-enabled technologies under the banner of Delfi. Ahmad’s expertise and leadership were quickly recognized, and within a year, he embraced the responsibility of leading the development of Pipesim—a steady-state multiphase flow simulator crucial for flow assurance and modeling production and injection systems. Integrated into the Delfi environment, Pipesim now serves as a foundation in the domain of digital field twin solutions powering operations such as ProdOps and more.
As Principal Production Engineer & Pipesim Product Champion at SLB, Ahmad continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in the energy industry. His commitment to distinction ensures that he remains a driving force in shaping the future of petroleum engineering, pushing the industry towards greater efficiency, sustainability, and resilience.
What inspired you to pursue a career in this field, and how has your passion evolved over time?
It’s undeniable that the oil and gas industry has historically carried the reputation of being environmentally unfriendly, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. However, over the past two decades, I’ve witnessed a remarkable transformation fueled by digitization and automation. These advancements have reshaped our industry and positioned it as a role model in developing technologies for Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS), leading the charge towards reduced emissions, sustainability, and energy efficiency.
The evolution of data streaming technologies, instrumentation, and connectivity has been underway for two to three decades, paralleling the digitization journey within the oil and gas sector. This digital revolution is improving environmental impact and enhancing human safety and asset integrity. My journey in this industry, spanning over 20 years, has been marked by a growing passion for learning and embracing new technologies. From the early days of my career, I’ve been deeply involved in the digitization efforts of the oil and gas sector, and my enthusiasm for concepts like the digital field twin remains undefeated to this day.
As a leader, what are the core values or principles that guide your leadership approach?
For me, I believe that being positive and not allowing negative energy or people to affect your progress is very important. Being positive will not only make you feel better but will also affect the people around you.
In addition, I believe that respect and inclusion as well as believing in diversity is essential for team spirit and productivity. Moreover, I always feel that having continuous passion towards what you do will give you great energy to excel, innovate, and accomplish your goals.
Finally, if you have subordinates, you need to learn to delegate to them as much as they can handle. Try to involve them in the decision-making, have an open discussion with them, and practice your leadership skills when it is needed. It is always better to work with your subordinates as a team of colleagues than as a manager with his or her employees.
How do you prioritize innovation and creativity within your team or organization?
Within my organization, innovation is key across all our business verticals, services, and technological endeavors. Particularly in the digital production domain within the oil and gas industry, the competition is fierce, and our clients consistently challenge us with evolving requirements. This necessitates that we, as service providers, stay at the forefront of emerging digital technologies.
In my sphere of influence, as well as within all other teams and business lines in my organization, I observe a culture where innovation and creativity are prioritized above all else. At every level of leadership within the company, there’s pervasive encouragement and motivation for new ideas. This support manifests through various channels, including internal hackathons and competitive platforms designed to foster and reward innovative thinking.
How do you foster collaboration and cross-functional teamwork in the development and implementation of solutions?
Well, I must admit that this is not easy! Sometimes, you have your own plan for the functionalities to be developed throughout the year, and then you come across requirements to support other teams with more urgent and demanding requests.
So, you must prioritize the requirements based on the business impact on your direct clients, the companywide goals, and the business objectives. On many occasions, you have to delay the delivery of a certain feature or functionality in order to support the development of another product, especially if it has a higher business impact and supports a more important client.
That said, we must all realize that collaboration and cross-team support is always positive and will potentially lead to substantial growth in most organizations.
What strategies do you employ to stay ahead of emerging trends and technologies in the transforming landscape?
In a big organization like the one I’m working on today, there are always marketing teams on different levels that are responsible for exploring the market and analyzing the trends in technologies and client requirements.
However, for the product manager role, you have to be informed and aware of what’s happening in the market. We all know the famous idiom that says, ‘Think outside of the box!’ Well, for the product manager, you need to explore, learn, and read about emerging technologies outside of your box. It’s very easy for a product manager to get sunk into the hole of his or her own product development for months and years without realizing that there is a new small competitor who has developed a new functionality or a capability that most of the clients are looking for.
For example, we are living today in the hype of connectivity, AI, IoT, and cloud-enabled services. For the product manager, it is essential that you must get outside of your comfort zone and make the required shift towards these new domains; otherwise, you will suddenly realize that you are outside of the game.
Looking ahead, what do you envision for the future, and how do you see yourself contributing to that vision?
I believe the oil and gas industry has a massive role and an essential responsibility towards reducing gas emissions by contributing to the capture, transport, and storage of CO2 as well as methane. This goal requires the collaboration of experts from different domains, such as sensing technology for gas emissions, advanced chemistry and flow assurance expertise for understanding the flow behavior of these gases, and reservoir engineering for injection and storage.
I see a future where professionals from these technologies collaborate with the help of digitization, AI, and Machine Learning to achieve the Net Zero goal by 2050. For me personally, I have a great passion towards contributing to this journey, and I aim to continue delivering, leading, and excelling in this domain for years to come.
What advice would you give to aspiring leaders who are interested in making an impact in this realm?
I would say that any leader should realize that 1 + 1 can equal 3. Any achievement will, most of the time, be bigger if more people have contributed to its success. Learn to praise your team members’ smallest accomplishments and show them that you appreciate all their contributions.
Try to be visible, but at the same time, remember that strong results speak for themselves. People will eventually discover the person who really did the job, even if he or she is silent and hidden in the dark.
Engage with colleagues from other companies through technology groups and be an active member of domain associations and non-profit organizations that arrange conferences. This will widen your perspectives and increase your connections.
