NEWS
ADNOC AND GROUP 42 LAUNCH AI JOINT VENTURE COMPANY AIQ
T
he Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has announced the launch of AIQ, its Artificial Intelligence (AI) joint venture (JV) company with Group 42 (G42), an Abu Dhabi-based AI and cloud computing company. The completion of the formation of AIQ follows the signing of the JV agreement between ADNOC and G42 in November 2019 with ADNOC holding a 60-percent stake and G42 a 40-percent stake in AIQ. AIQ will focus on developing and commercialising AI products and applications for the oil and gas industry. The partnership brings together G42’s expertise in AI modeling, supercomputing and its world-class team of data scientists and software engineers with ADNOC’s world-class oil and gas industry know-how, domain experts and its vast amount of data. The Chairman of the AIQ Board of Directors is Abdulmunim Saif Al Kindy
TEZOS BLOCKCHAIN RECEIVES SHARIAH CERTIFICATION
Tezos Gulf was established to foster ecosystem development in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for the Tezos network, an open-source public blockchain for assets and applications. In accordance with that mission, Tezos Gulf has announced the assignment of Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB) as its Sharia Advisor. Shariyah Review Bureau has reviewed the Tezos blockchain’s governance mechanism, Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, 6
CXO INSIGHT ME
OCTOBER 2020
(ADNOC), with Peng Xiao (G42) Mansoor Ibrahim AlMansoori (G42), Ahmed Al Kuttab (ADNOC) and Alan Nelson (ADNOC) being appointed as Board members. ADNOC’s partnership with G42 represents one of several digital transformation initiatives to embed cutting-edge technology across its entire value chain. Other digital initiatives include its AI and big data-driven “Panorama Digital Command Center,” its smart data analytics “Thamama Subsurface Collaboration Center,” its use of big data modelling tools for value chain optimisation, computer vision technologies, predictive maintenance machine learning technologies and use of blockchain for hydrocarbon accounting. Dr. Alan Nelson, ADNOC Group Chief Technology Officer, said, “We are excited about the launch of our AI joint venture with G42 as it enables us to accelerate ADNOC’s adoption of advanced technologies and further digitalise our value chain to enhance efficiencies, performance and agility. The joint venture is testament to ADNOC’s drive to partner with local technology players to help grow the UAE’s innovation ecosystem and to drive long-term and sustainable value for the nation.”
Peng Xiao, Group CEO, G42, said, “This partnership with ADNOC offers the potential to create the AI tools for the oil and gas industry of tomorrow and we look forward to leveraging our state-of-the-art cloud infrastructure and specialised team of AI experts to help develop these new cuttingedge solutions. The use of AI, combined with G42’s supercomputing capabilities, as well as ADNOC’s industrial expertise and breadth of data, will unlock efficiencies across the entire value chain, inspiring new approaches to exploration, production, transportation, processing, distributions and sales.” AIQ has started work on a number of key AI projects across the oil and gas value chain such as drilling performance, reservoir modelling, corrosion detection, and product quality. The scope of projects will be expanded to other areas as the JV progresses.
and formal verification techniques and issued a Sharia certificate marking the platform’s compliance with Sharia principles. Tezos’ platform is backed by a global community of validators, researchers and builders. It is considered one of the first pure proof-of-stake blockchains. The Tezos blockchain has been utilised by numerous issuers of digital securities but mostly on the conventional side of the financial market. “The engagement marks Tezos first step in promoting our open-source protocol to Islamic financial institutions in the GCC and South-Asia pacific region,” said Waleed Rassuli, Head of Tezos Gulf. “We see potential for Islamic financial institutions seeking to explore blockchainbased options for digital securities issuers and who also wish to issue securities on a platform that is compatible with the Sharia compliance ecosystem. We hope our blockchain will foster a vibrant version of the digital asset-class which will move the Islamic industry forward.”
The Sharia certification was conducted by Shariyah Review Bureau, a global leader in providing product Sharia certification, investment advice in light of Sharia standards and Sharia audit services. As a trusted partner, Shariyah Review Bureau is recognised by major national and international financial institutions which it has been serving for over 15 years. Shariyah Review Bureau provides endto-end Sharia advisory solutions to banks, insurance firms and asset managers around the world. Over the last few years, it has been actively advising and certifying entities and their offerings in the blockchain and fintech sector. SRB’s services are centrally deployed, and offer Sharia supervision, functionality, and quick turnaround in product certification. This has become an attractive option for fintech establishments. In addition to reducing Sharia scholarly overheads, this approach helps clients centralise their firm’s Sharia certification and Sharia audit administrative and operational tasks.
