Digital Innovations in Oil and Gas with Geoffrey Cann

Motors are the quiet workhorses of industry. They drive pumps, fans, compressors, and heaters, and they consume more than sixty percent of the power in most industrial operations. When operators need to control motor speed, they historically relied on mechanical adjustments or trial-and-error testing to keep processes stable and safe. As motors get larger and drive trains more complex, traditional testing approaches no longer work. Bringing every component together for a full string test adds months of delay and millions of dollars in logistics. The industry is conservative and reference driven, which makes it hard for operators to trust new configurations without seeing them proven first. This is where simulations shine. In this episode, I speak with Anand Jha, Vice President of Global Sales for ABB System Drive – Process Industries, about simulation twins that let operators model the entire system before it's built. These "virtual plants" replicate the grid, the drives, the motors, and the compressor. With software-in-loop and hardware-in-loop tools, operators can validate performance, tune configurations, and eliminate expensive string tests. The result is faster execution, lower cost, deeper system insight, better training, and continuous improvement across the plant lifecycle. 👤 About the Guest Anand Jha is the Vice President of Global Sales for ABB System Drive – Process Industries. With over 20 years of experience in the Oil & Gas and other Process industries, Anand has held various roles from commissioning engineer to sales leader. He is also an accomplished author, having written two books. Anand holds an MBA from the University of Alberta in Canada and a B.Tech in Electronics and Instrumentation. 🌐 ABB Drives | ABB 🔗 Anand Jha on LinkedIn 📧 anand.jha@us.abb.com 🧰 Additional Tools and Resources Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185 🔗 Connect with Me Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/ X: https://x.com/geoffreycann 🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs: https://geoffreycann.com/contact/ ⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Canada's energy sector has long struggled with low productivity on the front line, as indeed the entire Canadian economy. Despite heroic efforts by tradespeople, their effectiveness is hamstrung by badly dated processes, old disconnected systems, and paper-based workflows. The problem isn't the workers. It's that they're too often sent out with the wrong drawings, the wrong tools, the wrong permits, or even to the wrong location. Multiply that by a hundreds of thousands of jobs, and you've got a national productivity drag. One company, MSCP Heat Management Solutions, set out to build a completely paperless, digitally connected operation, starting at the job site. By linking trades, materials, safety workflows, and quality processes into a seamless digital flow, MSCP has achieved something few believe is possible: cutting required manpower by 40% to 45% on major jobs. In this episode, I speak with Chris Maki, MSCP's founder and CEO, on lessons he took from Fort McMurray's distant job sites and turned them into a blueprint for frontline innovation, cross-trade productivity, and system-level change. We talk technology, training, and trust, and why it's not about buying a platform, but building a mindset. 👤 About the Guest Chris Maki is the President and CEO of MSCP Heat Management Solutions, based in Sherwood Park, Alberta. A former frontline tradesman with deep experience in Fort McMurray turnarounds and major projects, Chris launched MSCP in 2011 with a simple belief: there has to be a better way. Today, MSCP operates as a fully digital contractor, combining electrical, insulation, rope access, material handling, and fabrication into a unified and highly productive system of work. Chris is a vocal advocate for trades-focused innovation, continuous improvement, and the future of work in energy. 🔗 Website: http://www.mscpltd.ca/ 🛠 Additional Tools & Resources 🎥 Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 📚 Take my one-day digital strategy training course: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185 🌐 Connect with Me 📝 Blog series: Digital Oil and Gas 🎙 Podcast 🔗 LinkedIn 🐦 X (Twitter) 🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Book a call for your upcoming event: ⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Oil and gas companies are finally confronting the huge communications and stakeholder challenge they face with their asset owners and stakeholders. Production assets such as oil and gas wells almost always have many part owners (land owners, JV partners, interest-holders, trusts, first nations tribes). Managing these hundreds or thousands of parties across tens of thousands of wells is really demanding. These relationships are complex, sensitive and often layered with legacy ownership structures, royalty flows, regulatory demands and reputational risk. This is much more than an operational hassle. It's a brand and trust issue. When owners ask: "Where's my check?" or "What's this charge on my statement?", slow responses can damage goodwill, complicate legal compliance and create unnecessary risk. Companies try to manage but have often saddled themselves with dueling systems in the land department, operations, legal, and corporate communications. I was delighted to learn about Firm App, a clever digital solution to this chaos, that was co-founded by two brothers, Deren Boyd and Dagen Boyd, and partner Josh Wright. Firm App was initially aimed at the legal profession, who also have many parties to manage, but the stakeholder problem in oil and gas turned out to be far more pressing. Their purpose‑built platform delivers better and more responsive owner communications, stakeholder transparency and operational risk reduction. It uses AI to answer many routine enquiries freeing up scarce staff to focus on more important tickets. Owners see their relationship through a portal, and companies even save on paper and postage. 👤 About the Guests Deren Boyd is co‑founder of Firm App, an AI-based owner relations software headquartered in Norman, OK. Before Firm App, Deren served as Senior Vice President of New Markets at KPA, leading growth strategy and expansion into new industries following KPA's acquisition of iScout, an EHS management software he co-founded in 2020. Earlier in his career, Deren was Vice President of Safety and Compliance for Crescent Companies, an oilfield services firm based in Oklahoma City. A proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Deren holds a Bachelor's in Health & Sports Science and a Master's in Adult and Higher Education. Before entering the safety and software industries, he spent seven years in intercollegiate athletics at OU as Assistant Athletics Director of Development and Director of Basketball Operations. Deren lives in Norman OK with his wife, Monica, and their four children. Dagen Boyd is a co‑founder of Firm App, an AI-based owner relations software headquartered in Norman, OK. Prior to Firm App, he served as Director of Corporate Development for Crescent Services, LLC, an oilfield services company based in Oklahoma City. Applying his knowledge of oilfield operations, Dagen co-founded iScout, an EHS management software that offers safety reporting, training, asset management, and more. iScout was acquired by KPA Services in 2020. Dagen is a proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma and lives in Edmond, OK with his wife and their three children.. 🔗 Deren Boyd on LinkedIn 🔗 Dagen Boyd on LinkedIn 🔗 Josh Wright on LinkedIn 🌐 Firm App on the web 🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎙 Go backstage and check out my studio 📚 Take my digital strategy training course 🔗 Connect with Me 🧠 Resources 📖 Blog series 🎧 Podcast library 💼 LinkedIn 📢 X (formerly Twitter) 🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics—if you're looking for a speaker at your next event, contact me here to book a call for your needs. ⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Latin America is entering a period of rapid economic growth, urbanization, and industrial expansion. Unlike North America and Europe, where primary energy demand has been flat for more than a decade, the region's energy consumption is rising sharply. A young, increasingly urban population is pushing electricity and fuel demand higher, placing new pressure on infrastructure and supply. This demand surge is colliding with a second global shift: the explosive rise of AI and hyperscaler data centers. These digital megaprojects require enormous volumes of power, often sourced from natural gas, renewables, or hybrid portfolios. Latin America, with its prolific basins, high solar irradiation, hydropower potential, and significant natural gas reserves, is strategically positioned to supply this emerging demand. Yet the region remains capital constrained, and traditional financing channels have not kept up. New financial tools, such as tokenized assets, sustainable linked bonds, and AI-enabled verification, offer a path forward. These instruments can reduce sovereign risk premiums, improve transparency, and unlock large-scale investment in energy infrastructure, LNG, renewables, and data center development. My guest in this episode is Eduardo Rodriguez, founder and CEO of PoseidonX, who last joined the podcast in 2020 to discuss tokenization and information asymmetry in private markets. In this conversation, we explore how the landscape has shifted, why Latin America is becoming a focal point for global capital, and how digital finance can accelerate development across energy, infrastructure, and digital economies. 👤 About the Guest Eduardo Rodriguez is the Founder and CEO of PoseidonX, an AI-powered platform for tokenizing real-world assets and structuring digital financial instruments for global investors. A former investment advisor with TD and RBC, Eduardo has deep experience in capital markets, natural resources, and emerging market finance. He has advised governments, national oil companies, and private firms on energy reform, capital formation, and sustainable finance. 🌐 Website 📊 Presentation on Tokenized Sustainable Linked Bonds 🔗 Eduardo on LinkedIn 🎤 Previous appearance on this podcast (2020) 🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎓 Digital Strategy Course for Oil & Gas (Udemy) 📝 Blog on Substack 🎧 Podcast Archive 🔗 Connect with Me 🌐 Website 💼 LinkedIn ✖️ X (Twitter) 🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and related topics. 📞 Book a discovery call ⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Electricity powers nearly everything in oil and gas, from pumps and motors, to compressors and digital systems. But while production engineers obsess over volumes and temperatures, the quality of the electricity driving their systems is often overlooked. Most teams only discover power issues after equipment fails, leading to unplanned downtime and costly repairs. Unfortunately, traditional power quality meters and relay monitors don't catch the early warning signs. They lack resolution, require manual data pulls, and don't provide actionable insights. Worse still, the frontline technicians tasked with using these tools rarely have time to analyze the data. As the industry electrifies, and hyperscalers start co-locating AI data centers with natural gas fields, the demand for clean, reliable power is rising fast, and the risks of ignoring it are getting more expensive by the day. In this episode, I speak with Denis Kouroussis why "ghost electrical problems" aren't ghosts at all, but just data you haven't seen yet, and how his background in chip design and solid-state power is shaping the future of uptime. His company, Volta Insite, offers a different path forward. This plug-and-play system captures continuous waveform-level data and sends it to the cloud, where intelligent analytics flag problems before assets fail. It's already saving operators time, money, and headaches by pinpointing power sags, identifying failing contactors, and reducing arc flash risks. 👤 About the Guest With a background in electrical engineering Denis Kouroussis founded Volta Energy in 2009. His passion for technology and cars has led him down a path of working in semiconductors, power electronics and software development with his spare time devoted to rebuilding cars. Denis is focused on leveraging his technical know-how to solve problems and build businesses around those solutions with a firm belief that businesses exist to serve customers and that people within organizations need to be empowered to execute without obstacles in order for an organization to reach its full potential. #InsiteAI #PredictiveMaintenance #PowerQuality 🔗 LinkedIn – Denis Kouroussis 📧 hbarber@voltainsite.com 🌐 Volta Insite 🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎓 Digital Strategy Course for Oil & Gas (Udemy) 📝 Blog on Substack 🎧 Podcast Archive 🔗 Connect with Me 🌐 Website 💼 LinkedIn ✖️ X (Twitter) 🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and related topics. 📞 Book a discovery call ⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

In all my years of experience in energy, I rarely worked in pure regulatory areas, but regulations loomed large over everything I touched. The energy sector is very highly regulated, and for very good reasons. From environmental standards to carbon pricing, energy companies are held to a high standard and must demonstrate that compliance to operate locally, regionally, and globally. The regulatory landscape is highly dynamic and under constant change. New regulatory frameworks emerging from Europe and the United States will reshape how energy companies, particularly in North America, do business domestically, and abroad. Three new frameworks—the European Union's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), as well as the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—will impact North American energy companies that export to Europe. If you're an energy executive working in exportable energy, such as LNG, oil, methanol, hydrogen, or refined petroleum, you might find this post of interest. These regulations will affect operations, compliance strategy, and ultimately, financial results. Fortunately, there are digital solutions at the ready that meet both today's regulatory demands while future-proofing your business for tomorrow's more stringent requirements. ⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources: 🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: 👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185 🔗 Connect with Me: 🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/ 🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann 🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes: I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/ ⚠️ Disclaimer: The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice. 🗣️ Download the Transcript! Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? You can download the transcript for this podcast here: 👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/navigating-the-maze-of-global-energy

In the UK oil and gas sector, the record on major accidents looks encouraging. Serious incidents are very rare, and the industry appears to be operating safely. Beneath the surface, the data tell a different story. One-third of safety inspections fall below the legal standard, and more than half of process-safety professionals are expected to retire within the next decade. At the same time, ageing assets, shrinking budgets, and weaker regulatory oversight are straining existing safety systems. Operators must sustain high safety performance when experience is walking out the door, equipment is ageing, and new technologies are flooding the scene faster than they can be tested. In this episode I speak with David Jamieson of Salus Technical, on making process safety straightforward. We explore why process safety remains an invisible threat, how AI can capture the wisdom of the best engineers, and what it takes to keep legacy assets safe as they wind down. 👤 About the Guest David Jamieson is the Founder and Managing Director of Salus Technical, an Aberdeen-based company combining engineering expertise and software innovation to improve process-safety performance in high-hazard industries. After beginning his career in aerodynamics with the Red Bull Racing Formula One team, David moved into fire and explosion modelling, then spent a decade in the UK offshore sector before launching Salus Technical in 2019. 🔗 Website: https://salus-technical.com 🔗 LinkedIn: David Jamieson 🔗 LinkedIn: Salus Technical 🧰 Additional Tools & Resources 🎥 Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 🎓 Take my one-day Digital Strategy for Oil and Gas course: https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185 🌐 Connect with Me 📚 Blog Series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/ 🐦 X (Twitter): https://x.com/geoffreycann 🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Book a brief call about your upcoming event needs: 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/ ⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Unconventional oil and gas is massive. Every year, over $100 billion is poured into steel, sand, and water just in Canada and the US. Yet, most of the planning behind these extraordinary investments still runs on Excel spreadsheets. Spreadsheets were fine in the 90s, but today they struggle to handle the complex interdependencies and real-world constraints of modern tight plays. The hidden cost to the industry is huge. Expensive inefficiencies, wasted capital, and missed opportunities to improve well design and execution. Other industries abandoned spreadsheets long ago when margins got thin, but oil and gas clings to them, and keeps burning the billions. My guest in this episode is Sean Hervo, a former Shell upstream engineer, who saw firsthand how spreadsheets literally strangle unconventional well planning. He co-founded PrePad, an innovative digital solution, that replaces bulkly and clunky spreadsheets with digital simulation and optimization tools, giving operators the ability to make faster, smarter, more profitable decisions. Sean explains how the industry can finally ditch the spreadsheets and run well delivery like the modern manufacturing system it has become. 👤 About the Guest Sean Hervo is the CEO and co-founder of PrePad, a Calgary-based technology company that helps oil and gas operators optimize well planning and completions. Before starting PrePad, Sean spent more than a decade at Shell in drilling, completions, capital planning, and supply chain leadership, giving him deep insight into the challenges of unconventional resource development. Connect with Sean on LinkedIn: Sean Hervo Learn more about PrePad: https://www.prepad.io 🔗 Additional Tools & Resources Go backstage and check out my studio Take my one-day digital strategy training course 🤝 Connect with Me Resources Blog Podcast LinkedIn X 🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. ⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Oil and gas operations rely on heavy machinery and equipment that perform critical tasks, yet most of this equipment remains disconnected from the digital landscape of cloud computing, analytics, and autonomy. This lack of connectivity leaves operators with higher costs, inefficient maintenance, and limited visibility into how their assets are really performing. The traditional approach to equipment design is no longer enough. Operators face pressure to improve efficiency, reduce emissions, and cut costs, but without better data and smarter tools, these goals remain out of reach. The industry cannot afford to keep treating its infrastructure as "dumb metal." You might think that only big equipment suppliers can make smart metal, but IJACK, a Canadian equipment manufacturer, is proving otherwise. By embedding remote monitoring, cloud connectivity, and AI-driven analytics into its products, the company enables operators to troubleshoot issues without rolling a truck, optimize performance across entire fleets, and gain valuable insight from real-time data. In this episode, I speak with Dan McCarthy, President of IJACK, about how his team transformed compressors and pumps into intelligent assets, why the industry needs to embrace innovation, and how a small-town company from Saskatchewan is now serving customers around the world. 👤 About the Guest Dan McCarthy is the President of IJACK Technologies, an oil field equipment company based in Saskatchewan, Canada. With a background in mechanical engineering and a passion for designing practical solutions, Dan has led IJACK in creating scalable, digitally enabled equipment that helps oil and gas operators improve production and reduce costs. IJACK's innovations, including its RCOM remote monitoring platform, are now deployed globally in markets such as Argentina, Kazakhstan, Bahrain, and the United States. Learn more about IJACK: 🌐 IJACKWebsite 🔗 Dan McCarthy on LinkedIn ⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎧 Go backstage and check out my studio: https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/ 📘 Take my one-day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: Udemy Course 🔗 Connect with Me 📚 Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/ 🎙 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/ 🐦 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann 🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs: https://geoffreycann.com/contact/ ⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Scheduling in oil and gas has long been a weak link. Wells, rigs, frack crews, contractors, and regulators must all line up in precise sequence, but too often the "system" is stitched together with Excel spreadsheets, siloed tools, and a lot of human memory. The result is inefficiencies, costly delays, and endless arguments in daily meetings. That model is no longer good enough. The complexity of modern operations, coupled with volatile markets and new constraints (from labor shortages to tariffs to water management) is making traditional scheduling tools obsolete. Operators that rely on outdated approaches risk losing millions in wasted time and missed opportunities. Spying this problem years ago, Actenum, an AI-enabled scheduling platform that treats scheduling not as a collection of dates, but as a living model of operations, set out to correct this problem. The tool captures constraints, integrates with systems of record, forecasts production, and enables scenario planning, in real time. Companies report faster well delivery, reduced conflicts, smarter forecasting, and millions in direct savings. In this episode, I speak with Owen Plowman, Vice President of Business Development at Actenum, about how smarter scheduling is reshaping oil and gas. We cover real-world client stories, cultural shifts inside organizations, and how AI is opening new optimization opportuntities in planning, turnarounds, and offshore logistics. 👤 About the Guest Owen Plowman is Vice President of Business Development at Actenum, a software company specializing in AI-enabled scheduling solutions for the energy sector. With a background in computer science, Owen began his career in the defense sector, later joining Oracle during its rapid global expansion. Since 2006, he has focused on applying advanced scheduling technology to oil and gas, helping clients worldwide optimize drilling programs, turnarounds, and offshore operations. 👉 Connect with Owen and Actenum Request a Demo Watch Actenum DSO in Action Download a Brochure ⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources 🎙 Go backstage and check out my studio: geoffreycann.com/mystudio 📘 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas: Udemy Course 🔗 Connect with Me Resources: geoffreycann.com/resources Blog series: digitaloilgas.substack.com Podcast: geoffreycann.com/broadcast LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy X: x.com/geoffreycann 🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here: geoffreycann.com/contact ⚠️ Disclaimer The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.