Rio Oil & Gas 2020 Kicks Off With Discussions on Innovation and the Importance of Startups for the Oil & Gas Sector

Rio de Janeiro, December 1st – Rio Oil & Gas 2020 started this Monday (11/30) with Starting Up, debate sessions in partnership with Petrobras about the opportunities and challenges for startups in the O&G and energy industry. The Starting Up was presented by digital specialist journalist Pedro Doria and concluded by the IBP president, Clarissa Lins.

The panels brought discussions on how the O&G sector can be attractive to entrepreneurs, the opportunities for startups generated by the segment, and how the integration between the O&G chain and startups has been progressing, aimed at building ecosystems. In addition, successful startup cases were presented and shared with entrepreneurs who are just starting out, as well as lessons learned about this market.

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Juliano Dantas, executive manager of Petrobras-Cenpes, stated that whatever strategy the company adopts, it will be very important to accelerate innovation processes, and certainly, startups play a fundamental role in this context, as they work with speed and new talent and bring a new way of thinking to the traditional industry. “For this to actually happen, we need to build an ecosystem that allows new forms of contracts between major players and startups, in addition to engaging companies with this purpose of innovation,” he said.

Gustavo Araújo, CEO of Distrito, which brings together one of the startup ecosystems in Brazil, spoke about the power of open innovation. “The market is learning that staying connected and aware of what is happening around it is the engine for its own transformation. Open innovation ends up being very efficient in a world where companies have to transform rapidly,” he said. 

When analyzing the financial market, for example, before opening up to fintechs, two-thirds of the Brazilian population did not have a bank account, according to Araújo. Fintechs reduced this rate to 25%. “We can also experience an open energy in a highly regulated market. This will lead to better consumer service and lower production costs. Therefore, exercising open innovation is essential in the O&G sector, which already has a lot of technology but now needs to innovate in its business models and consumer service, following other segments,” he concluded. 

Claudia Diniz, Executive Director of MiningHub, the world’s first open innovation hub in the mining sector, explained that startups serve as a true pillar of transformation in the sector by employing new technologies for operational and administrative areas. “It is a cultural change. We take the challenges of our industry and talk to all actors, including suppliers, researchers, and startups, to quickly achieve solutions for common problems faced by mining companies. The knowledge generated, that is, the intellectual property of the projects, continues to belong to the startups, and thus we promote entrepreneurship and the continued presence of these companies in the market,” she stated.  

“I believe that we, as IBP, must encourage the creation of such hubs in the O&G sector since we are a collaboration platform,” said Clarissa Lins, IBP president. 

Wrapping up the discussion, Christian Schock, O&G Director at Siemens, brought some tips on what the company is already doing to contribute to the decarbonization of the oil and gas industry, looking to the future. “It’s important to make it clear that we will not accomplish the energy transition process overnight. If we look at history, all transitions took about 50 years, and now it will be no different, given that 80% of global energy is still based on hydrocarbons and demand will increase by 40% in the next two decades. The O&G industry has always been one of great innovation. With the decarbonization wave, it will be no different, and I believe it will be even more accelerated. Innovation is Siemens’ main focus, and that’s why we encourage startups to develop solutions for our partners,” he concluded. 

Creating Opportunities for Entrepreneurship

Moderated by Robert Nunes, General Manager of Digital Transformation at Petrobras, the panel “Creating Opportunities for Entrepreneurship in the O&G and Energy Industry” also aimed to discuss some of the challenges of the partnership between startups and companies in the industry, as well as how this collaboration has evolved over time. The discussion included Patrícia Grabowsky, Head of Innovation at Subsea 7, Pedro Leal Noce, Innovation Executive at Raízen, Fred Arruda, CEO of the Center for Advanced Studies and Systems of Recife (Cesar), and Bruno Rondani, CEO of Open 100 startups.

The afternoon also included representatives from startups already operating in the O&G sector who had a chat about inspiring cases and lessons learned. 

“Ultimately, it’s not a matter of having good technology but rather a mature market for that technology, and the mature market for technology is not like a perfect wave. It’s a turbulent and violent tsunami,” explained Duperron Ribeiro, CEO of PhDsoft Technology Inc.

Leandro Basílio, CEO of DeepSeed Solutions, emphasized the importance of staying focused, even when diversifying the portfolio. “It’s very tempting at times to diversify across many industries, with the promise of scalability, but bear in mind that, in an oil and gas business, you will only stand out if you truly become a specialist,” he advocated.

Moderated by Alex Dal Pont, Innovation Manager in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems at Petrobras, the session also featured Lelio Souza, CEO of Intelie, and José Augusto da Silva, CEO of Pipeway. 

Award Ceremony

The program also included a Startup Pitch. Evaluated by a distinguished jury, such as Amure Pinho, president of ABStartups, and Ricardo Marquini, Leader of Partnerships in R&D at Total, among others,  eight startups presented their technology and innovation projects for the O&G sector. The winners of this challenge were: Unidroid, in first place, followed by Instoor and RZX, in second and third places, respectively. The startups won a prize sponsored by Microsoft, and the best startup voted by the public received a discount voucher for courses at UnIBP, the university of the oil and gas sector. 

All content from the first day of Rio Oil & Gas will be fully available to attendees on the platform’s On Demand channel.