FEATURE: OIL AND GAS greater awareness around the benefits that Vertiv can bring to these local sectors, following on from our proven success within the oil and gas field in other parts of the globe.
We look forward to similarly engaging with industry representatives within Nigeria also, being Africa’ s largest oil producer, as well as possessing substantial natural gas reserves. Nigeria’ s natural gas reserves are, in fact, estimated to be one of the largest in Africa, as outlined by global research company, Mordor Intelligence, in its report entitled Oil and Gas Industry in Nigeria Market Size & Share Analysis – Growth Trends & Forecasts( 2025 – 2030).
Gary Chomse, Regional Director,
Central-Southern Africa at Vertiv
ONE IMPORTANT KEY IS ENABLING THE TRUE CONVERGENCE OF IT AND OT SYSTEMS, TO BE ABLE TO‘ MINE’ FACTS AND DATA AS WELL AS OIL AND GAS.
in exploration and production which, together with persistent infrastructure issues and other challenges, had suppressed growth and innovation, as outlined by Nigerian credit rating agency Agusto & Co.
The implementation of effective technology infrastructure in the oil and gas field can help support strategic business and national objectives and assist in overcoming legacy infrastructure challenges.
Supporting key African markets in their digitisation journeys
Over the past few years, Vertiv has participated in several focused events across Africa to showcase our products and solutions that are suitable for the broader industrial realm. The intention was to create
Natural gas is considered a cleaner and more environmentally friendly source of energy compared to other fossil fuels, and investments in natural gas infrastructure would allow Nigeria to diversify its energy mix and meet both domestic and international demand for cleaner energy sources.
According to the Mordor Intelligence report, it appears that, considering the issues holistically and despite certain challenges, there is much to anticipate for the growth of Nigeria’ s oil and gas industry over the next few years. One important key is enabling the true convergence of IT and OT systems, to be able to‘ mine’ facts and data as well as oil and gas, and thereby drive informed planning and decision making.
The importance of integrating IT and OT systems
In a challenging global economy, it is critical for oil and gas companies to digitise their systems and processes, thereby allowing for the harnessing of data volumes from day-to-day operations. As outlined by global IT consulting company BirlaSoft, the IT-OT convergence within the oil and gas sector allows companies to harvest data within the OT layer and then‘ cross-contextualise it to build valuable insights and automated control and orchestration mechanisms’.
According to BirlaSoft:‘ IO / OT convergence in the oil and gas industry is a key step to harnessing the business benefits of Big Data. Operational technology generates a vast amount of data when IoT sensors are attached to various parts of critical machinery to record intended parameters. This data is usually in the form of time series. Analysing it with the right AI and Machine Learning( ML) techniques can help organisations anticipate potential risks or if the operations as a whole are generating a strange footprint. In other words, IT-OT convergence is the bridge to seamless, proactive, and resilient oil and gas operations.’
38 INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA www. intelligentcio. com