Remarks by Ahmad A. Al-Sa’adi, SVP Technical Services at the inauguration of CNTXT

Your Excellency, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, welcome. 

It’s sometimes said that data is the new oil. 

CNTXT, the company we launch today, is the Kingdom’s brand new data refinery. 

It will help customers in the public and private sectors start to unlock the immense, unexploited potential of their data assets. 

As the Kingdom’s exclusive provider of Google Cloud, CNTXT offers vast, secure data management, smart analytics, app and infrastructure modernization, and easy-to-scale AI.

As the exclusive MENA-region provider of Cognite’s industrial software, CNTXT also delivers the tools to help businesses old and new become smarter, faster, more predictive and ultimately more profitable. 

At Saudi Aramco, we have direct experience of the power of this technology.

Today we use AI and advanced analytics, including Cognite products, to accurately predict the lifetime of equipment and plan our shipping schedules. 

This is just a small selection of use cases. And looking ahead, we know that a strong, cloud-based data infrastructure is integral to our net zero ambition. 

As a company we’ve said we want to achieve net zero scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions across our wholly-owned operated assets by 2050.

And this will require unprecedented levels of data processing and integration. So there could not be a better time or indeed a better context in which we launch this CNTXT with our partners at Cognite. 

Saudi Aramco and Cognite began working together in 2019. And working together, I believe we’ve built a remarkable partnership.

Cognite brings agility to the table, and world-class software talent. We offer unmatched scale and deep experience of complex engineering challenges. 

Cloud is at the heart of the CNTXT’s offerings. It’s the basic infrastructure of digital transformation, a platform for innovating rapidly and at scale. 

Cloud services demand in the Kingdom is forecasted to reach up to $10 billion by 2030. 

I’m very proud to be part of this project, and very grateful to Oyvind and his team for their friendship and collaboration. 

Ladies and gentlemen, in concluding let me say this. 

The Kingdom is rapidly emerging as the region’s technology powerhouse. 

Thank you very much.