IBP wraps up first Innovation Workshop with focus on competitive and sustainable operations
Competitiveness, innovation and a sustainable future. In a bid to reconcile these three pillars, the Brazilian Institute for Oil, Gas and Biofuels (IBP) last week held the first edition of its Innovation Workshop, with discussions about the creative environment in the oil and gas industry and relevant Research, Development and Innovation (RD&I) topics.
The four-day conference and course featured speakers such as ONIP Superintendent Carlos Camerini, C3 Intellectual Capital Institute Managing Director Doneivan Ferreira, and Shell Innovation Consultant Peter Lednor.
One of the main topics of discussion was the need to rebuild the CT-Petro fund for science and technology, which has been weakened by changes in pre-salt royalties distribution rules.
The case was made that innovation is more than just words; when well applied, the value of investing in innovation is demonstrated in numbers. Though accounting for only 1.7% of the industry, innovative companies employ 13.2% more people and have a 25.9% share of revenues, according to the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA). “Companies that capture the full potential of big data can improve their operating margins by up to 60% in the coming years,” says Doneivan.
Local content under debate
The way forward for local content policy in an environment looking to innovate was another topic discussed throughout the event. The main conclusion is that methods for setting and evaluating local content objectives are lacking. “Local content policy can influence the activities of development agencies and attract investment, for example. However, appropriate mechanisms for evaluation are lacking”, says Carlos Camerini.
Sharing his views, Raimar van den Bylaardt, Head of Knowledge Management at IBP, says local content policy needs to be viewed from a broader perspective. “It is essential to develop local content in a way that reduces cost and risk, while improving competitiveness and sustainable manufacturing”, he says.