A Dr. Adel Al-Abbasi Oil, Gas & Energy Technology Consultant

Advisory

Advisory Services

Six areas of work, drawn from three decades of building and running them inside a national oil company.

Advisory work is taken on a small number of engagements at a time, working directly with the executive or asset team accountable for the decision. Engagements are scoped to a defined question and a defined deliverable.

01

Technology & R&D Strategy

Where technology investment should go, in what order, and how its value will be demonstrated.

Covers research portfolio design, cluster-based value measurement, funding and governance models, and the roadmap that sequences capability against operational need. Built from having originated and run the R&T function for a national oil company.

Typical deliverables

  • Technology and research roadmap with sequenced priorities
  • Portfolio value model and governance structure
  • Funding case suitable for board review
02

Digital Field & Integrated Operations

Digital oil field programmes that change how decisions are made, not just how data is displayed.

Design of integrated field architecture on the KwIDF pattern - man-to-man and man-to-machine collaboration modelled alongside the technology, with decision rights and workflow specified before systems are procured.

Typical deliverables

  • Integrated field architecture and collaboration model
  • Decision-rights and workflow design
  • Implementation sequencing and readiness assessment
03

Reservoir Management & Subsurface

Simulation-led reservoir management, from function design through to technical review.

Grounded in a PhD in reservoir simulation and the initiation of the reservoir management function at KOC. Covers establishing the discipline, reviewing simulation practice, and connecting subsurface models to development decisions.

Typical deliverables

  • Reservoir management function design and staffing model
  • Independent technical review of simulation practice
  • Integration of subsurface models into development planning
04

Energy Transition & Alternative Energy

Transition roadmaps and new-energy investment structures for hydrocarbon-based organisations.

Drawn from leading KPC's alternative energy agenda and its ten-year roadmap, and from the restructuring work behind new-energy international investment.

Typical deliverables

  • Alternative energy roadmap over a defined horizon
  • Corporate structuring for new-energy investment
  • Project origination and screening framework
05

Organisation Design & Capability

E&P organisation models, graduate pipelines and centres of excellence.

Includes the E&P re-organisation model adopted by KOC as its future structure, and graduate programme design intended to seed a sector Centre of Excellence.

Typical deliverables

  • Organisation model aligned to asset accountability
  • Graduate and technical development programme design
  • Centre of Excellence concept and staged build plan
06

Research Partnerships & Joint Ventures

Structuring and running research relationships with universities and R&D centres.

Based on planning and implementing JV and consortium relationships with major universities and research centres exceeding $100 million in combined budget.

Typical deliverables

  • Partner identification and structuring
  • JV and consortium agreement framework
  • Governance and value-capture model

Method

How priorities get set

Underneath the six services sits one method: technology priorities are sequenced against operational need, funded at portfolio level, and defended on capability rather than on individual project success.

The R&T roadmap

A technology roadmap for an oil and gas industry is not a technology forecast. It is a sequencing decision: which capabilities the operating business will need, in what order, and what has to be built or bought to have them ready in time.

The roadmap developed and implemented for Kuwait's oil and gas industry worked from operational need backwards, which is what allowed it to be carried through to implementation rather than filed as strategy.

Cluster-based value measurement

Research portfolios that justify themselves project by project do not survive budget scrutiny, because individual research projects fail by design.

The cluster concept groups projects around an operational capability the business has already committed to needing, and assesses value at that level. Failure inside a cluster becomes an expected cost rather than an embarrassment, and the portfolio stays tethered to operational reality.

Transition roadmaps and new-energy structuring

The alternative energy roadmap authored for KPC covered a ten-year horizon and was accompanied by major solar projects taken from origination into the portfolio. The KPC NET programme then required corporate restructuring before international new-energy investment could be made workable.

That ordering - structure before target-setting - is the determining lesson for any hydrocarbon-based organisation building a transition portfolio. Which entity holds the asset, what return threshold applies, and who is measured on the outcome are the questions that decide whether a roadmap survives its first bad quarter.

The book this builds toward

How engagements run

Advisory retainer

Ongoing counsel to an executive sponsor - typically a set number of days per month against live decisions.

Defined study

A scoped question with a written deliverable and a fixed timeline. Roadmaps, reviews and architecture work usually run this way.

Programme leadership

Hands-on leadership of a defined programme through a critical phase, with handover to the internal team built into the scope.

Discussing an engagement

Describe the decision you are facing and I will reply with a view on whether I am the right person for it.

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