The oil and gas industry stands on the brink of a revolutionary shift, where the age-old pursuit of maximizing production harmonizes with the urgent need for sustainability. As the world grapples with the dual challenges of meeting energy demands and mitigating environmental impact, innovative technologies are emerging as beacons of hope. One of the pivotal figures driving this transformation is Principal Production Engineer Ahmad Shammari, a visionary leader whose expertise bridges the gap between traditional practices and modern solutions. With a profound understanding of both engineering principles and cutting-edge digital technologies, Ahmad embodies the spirit of innovation that is essential for tackling the challenges of today’s energy landscape.
A Voyage of Innovation and Impact
Ahmad Shammari was born in Syria and relocated to Saudi Arabia at the age of 10. He completed his undergraduate studies in mechanical engineering in 2002 at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. Initially, Ahmad did not anticipate joining Saudi Aramco due to his non-Saudi citizenship. However, he was fortunate to secure a contractor position there, which he held for five years before transitioning to a full-time role.
In 2007, Ahmad embarked on a part-time master’s program in petroleum engineering at the same university. During this time, he also independently learned programming languages through online platforms. This self-taught initiative culminated in the creation of a software program that earned him two patents.
In 2017, Ahmad joined Schlumberger, now known as SLB, which provided him with the opportunity to relocate to Norway with his family. This significant life change has proven to be immensely rewarding for both him and his loved ones over the past six years.
Igniting Innovation for a Greener Energy Future
Ahmad Shammari initially pursued a degree in mechanical engineering, driven by his passion for machines, power plants, manufacturing, and energy generation. However, upon graduation, he found himself drawn into the petroleum industry when he joined Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest national oil and gas company. In his role, he was part of a team that supported oil and gas production engineering software. Although Ahmad’s initial knowledge of the petroleum sector was limited, he quickly adapted through company-provided basic training courses and self-directed learning.
Earning a master’s degree in petroleum engineering significantly deepened Ahmad’s understanding of the industry, with a particular focus on production engineering. He recognized that the oil and gas industry serves as a fundamental foundation for economies worldwide. Despite its historical reputation for contributing to environmental pollution and increasing CO2 emissions, Ahmad witnessed a transformation within the industry over the past two decades. It evolved from a manual, dangerous, and environmentally unfriendly sector into a digitized business that incorporates state-of-the-art technologies in automation, remote sensing, control, and machine learning, all while implementing measures to reduce pollution and emissions.
From the early stages of his career, Ahmad’s passion for leading in the oil and gas industry, with an emphasis on digitization, automation, and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), has continued to grow.
Building Expertise in Production Engineering
Ahmad Shammari, who has worked at Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest national oil and gas company, has been afforded numerous opportunities to engage in a variety of projects since the beginning of his career. The extensive technical knowledge, domain expertise, and project management skills he acquired at Saudi Aramco are unmatched, thanks to the company’s operation of the largest oil and gas fields globally, including mature fields that have been producing for decades. This environment exposes engineers to a diverse range of production challenges while providing insights into the latest techniques for enhancing production in these fields.
In the early stages of his career at Saudi Aramco, Ahmad was primarily responsible for supporting production engineering software, including installation, basic support, and ensuring the software’s continuous availability. However, he soon realized that he could contribute more significantly. He initiated a program to provide in-house training on the various production engineering software he supported. Eventually, he developed a technical course in production optimization, complete with hands-on training in the software. This course continues to be taught by other instructors within the company.
Over the years, these training courses helped Ahmad build a strong network of professional connections, allowing him to meet many engineers within the company. As a result, numerous engineers began reaching out to his team for technical consultation and advice on utilizing the software effectively and optimizing production. Eventually, Ahmad’s team was recognized as a focal point for production engineering technical support, consultation, and software training, further solidifying their role in the organization.
Ahmad Shammari is honored to have been awarded four patents in the fields of production modeling and reservoir monitoring. Two of these patents list him as the primary inventor, while the other two resulted from collaborative efforts. The innovative workflows he developed over a decade ago at Saudi Aramco are still in use within the company today. These patents have significantly reduced the time required for constructing and calibrating well performance models. Furthermore, the enhanced quality of these models is now utilized across various production monitoring platforms in nearly all of Saudi Arabia’s oil fields.
Leading the Charge in Flow Assurance Innovation
Upon commencing the second chapter of his career with SLB in Norway, Ahmad’s strong and deep understanding of production engineering and flow assurance technologies were quickly observed. This knowledge, along with his evident leadership skills qualified him, in 2019, to start managing the development of one the standard production and flow assurance software in the oil and gas industry today: Pipesim, a multiphase flow simulator for wells and pipeline networks. His role encompasses managing every aspect of the software, from the initial idea through its release and subsequent stages.
In his capacity as Product Champion, Ahmad is tasked with collecting and prioritizing customer needs, crafting a clear product vision, and establishing strategic objectives. Collaboration with engineering, sales, marketing, and support teams is essential for him to achieve revenue targets and ensure customer satisfaction. He also manages development activities, ensuring they align with the company’s strategic goals throughout the product’s lifecycle.
Pipesim distinguishes itself in the industry due to its extensive domain expertise and sophisticated scientific algorithms developed over four decades. Ahmad takes pride in the software’s cutting-edge user interface, which is regularly updated and refined to provide an unparalleled user experience. Pipesim excels at simulating multiphase flow, which is critical for accurately predicting the behavior of oil, gas, and water mixtures in pipelines and wells. This capability is vital for designing and optimizing production systems to maintain stable and efficient operations.
Pipesim has undergone continuous improvement for over 40 years, integrating the latest scientific advancements and industry technologies. This ongoing development ensures that the software remains at the forefront of flow assurance solutions, reflecting Ahmad’s commitment to delivering high-quality products that meet the evolving needs of customers in the industry.
Transforming Challenges into Solutions with Pipesim
Production optimization encompasses a wide array of topics that production engineers frequently encounter. Focusing on Pipesim, the software includes a powerful production network optimizer designed to enhance production efficiency by automatically adjusting surface choke openings, gas lift injection rates, or pumping power across all wells, while ensuring compliance with the constraints of the production asset.
One notable challenge that Pipesim addressed involved a gas field in Ukraine, in which Pipesim was used to verify production regimes or operating envelopes for wells with liquid loading issues. This enabled the company’s engineers to reduce unplanned downtime due to liquid loading by choosing the right production regimes. Furthermore, Pipesim enabled the client to generate field simulations with 1,800+ wells in minutes instead of days thanks to a single interface for both wells and pipeline networks simulation, superior modeling capabilities with its parallel solver, automated correlation matching, and ability to visualize the results both in the conventional way and on the GIS network view, enabling easy identification of current and future bottlenecks. The results were a 10% incremental production increase through a downtime reduction for the wells and debottlenecking gathering networks, a more stable operating envelope for 55 wells with liquid loading issues to avoid deferred production, and extra capacity of 22,000 m³/d through improved artificial lift methods simulation.
Revolutionizing Integrated Asset Modeling
Ahmad recognizes that integrated asset modeling has long been a complex challenge for many professionals in the petroleum industry, primarily due to the silos that exist between different teams, which impede the maintenance of these integrated models. Over the years, he has observed numerous integrated models created for specific studies. Once the objectives of these studies are met, the models are often archived and stored on a PC or server, quickly becoming obsolete as the data they were built upon ages.
Ahmad emphasizes that the true potential of integrated models remains unrealized without digital workflows that can continuously and intelligently update them and align them with real-time field data. He believes that companies need to transform their work environment by establishing multidisciplinary teams that collaborate under one asset. According to Ahmad, without this mode of operation, integrated modeling will never achieve complete success.
Ahmad Shammari understands that navigating the complexities of the digital oil and gas sector presents significant challenges, particularly in his role as a Product Champion. This position requires considerable dedication to lead software development while actively engaging in technical discussions with development teams, clients, and senior management. Simultaneously, he must closely monitor industry advancements, particularly those made by competitors.
To remain well-informed about emerging technologies and software capabilities, Ahmad utilizes a variety of resources, including LinkedIn, corporate websites, and technical publications. His participation in conferences and exhibitions is also vital for staying updated on the latest trends in the digital oil and gas landscape. Through these efforts, Ahmad ensures that he is equipped to navigate the rapidly evolving industry effectively.
Fostering a Sense of Engagement
Ahmad Shammari believes that effective and ongoing communication is a key element in fostering a sense of engagement and belonging among employees within a company. He observes that when a culture of open, comfortable, and bidirectional communication is established, it often leads to a positive work environment where everyone feels valued and heard. This approach not only enhances employee satisfaction but also encourages the sharing of ideas, contributing to the overall health and success of the organization.
He also feels fortunate to live in an era where learning and training opportunities are abundant, often available at no cost. Ahmad emphasizes that the key to acquiring new skills lies in an individual’s willingness, dedication, and patience. With the digital revolution, almost everything is accessible online, including resources relevant to the oil and gas industry and other scientific or engineering sectors. He highlights that digitization is crucial and that it is essential to complement academic qualifications with digital competencies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data science.
For new engineers seeking field experience, Ahmad stresses that possessing soft skills is just as important as technical qualifications. He believes that effective communication, social intelligence, respect, patience, and punctuality are vital for success in any domain.
Crafting Tomorrow’s Innovations for a Brighter Future
Ahmad Shammari believes that the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) is set to revolutionize production optimization in the oil and gas industry. He envisions a future where robotic agents are deployed at each well, continuously analyzing real-time data to provide intelligent recommendations to engineers. Once these recommendations are approved, the agents could autonomously adjust surface or down-hole valve settings, pump speeds, and even assist in designing new intervention jobs, such as fracking, stimulation, or sidetracking. Ahmad asserts that this integration of AI has the potential to significantly enhance efficiency and decision-making within the industry.
Furthermore, he emphasizes that the oil and gas industry plays a crucial role in optimizing operations, reducing carbon footprints, and minimizing energy consumption, which will be essential for creating a cleaner environment. Ahmad is confident that petroleum professionals are well-positioned to lead technological advancements in Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) and will be instrumental in achieving the ambitious goal of net zero emissions by 2050.