Digital Innovations in Oil and Gas with Geoffrey Cann

Upstream oil and gas companies continue to be very reliant on spreadsheets, legacy systems, and manual workflows to manage thousands of wells, compliance filings, and capital decisions. It's labor-intensive, error-prone, and slow. In light of global energy transition moves, operators are now facing ongoing margin pressure, a supply glut, tighter emissions regulations, and a shrinking pool of skilled labor.

Digital solutions to soften the impacts of these pressures too often end up in "pilot hell", with limited results, stalled momentum, and no path to scale. Core systems like SCADA and ERP can't be easily adapted, and the early stage AI tools are often dismissed as too risky, inaccurate, or incompatible with real-world operations. Capital markets frown on any moves that sacrifice short term ROI for the possibility of better results later.

New agentic AI tools look perfectly placed to address these constraints, but getting started is daunting.

In this episode, I speak with AI strategy advisor Jeff McKee who outlines how a handful of upstream operators are now using agentic AI (modular software agents), that augment field teams and automate critical tasks across production, compliance, and finance. Already live across 1,500 wells, these tools have delivered a 3–10% uplift in production, 5–15% profit lift, and >90% reduction in compliance workload. Jeff explains how companies can start small, define just a few key KPIs, and stand up agents in under two months, all without touching core systems. From Sarbanes-Oxley readiness to workover economics, it's a roadmap for scaling AI one agent at a time.

👤 About the Guest

Jeff McKee is the founder of Jeff McKee Consulting and an AI strategy advisor to $100M–$1B+ companies. A former Microsoft leader, he created the PIVOT AI™ framework to help executive teams identify high-impact AI use cases and deliver results fast. In oil and gas, he partners with Mango Bites (Pixie AI) to enable production optimization, profitability, and compliance across upstream field operations.

🌐 Website: jeffmckeeconsulting.com

💼 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jeff-mckee

📧 Email: [email protected]

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio:
👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/
🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:
👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/
🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/
📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

The energy industry is rapidly adopting artificial intelligence. Its promises of improved productivity, safety, and operational insight are too good to ignore. But these tools are only as good as the data that feeds them. And therein lies the problem: data across the sector is often incomplete, inconsistent, and scattered.

This historic lack of discipline around data now has consequences. Poor data quality when used in AI undermines any project leveraging AI, exposing companies to greater audit risk, slowing down decision-making, and derailing expensive digital programs. Worse, AI tools amplify these flaws, making unreliable data more visible than ever. In one instance, a company's emissions breach turned out to be a data error that triggered fines, audits, and reputational damage.

Companies struggle to respond, given the scale of the challenge. Getting control of enterprise data often feels like boiling the ocean, compounded by organizational practices that empower every business unit to do things their own way.

In this week's podcast, I speak with Waseem Sinjakli, who knows this challenge well. As the founder and Managing Director of EPM, a Calgary-based consultancy, he's led enterprise-wide transformation programs that put data governance at the center of AI readiness. In this episode, Waseem shares what good governance really looks like, the cultural barriers companies must overcome, and how to turn data from a liability into a high-value asset.

👤 About the Guest

Waseem Sinjakli is the Founder and Managing Director of EPM, a Calgary-based professional services firm focused on complex digital transformations in the energy sector. Building on his lengthy career with leading organizations in professional services, Waseem brings deep expertise in project delivery, change management, and digital enablement. EPM specializes in transformation programs tied to regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, cost optimization, and AI-driven insights.

🔗 LinkedIn: Waseem Sinjakli

🌐 Website: EPM

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio:
👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/
🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:
👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/
🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/
📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Have you ever given thought to the possibility that the suppliers of your core business technology, brands like Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP, might simply turn you off with no warning?

It sounds fanciful, absurd, a black swan event so far beyond any reasonable risk matrix as to be unworthy of consideration.

Yet it happened this year, 2025, to a major oil company in the world's most populous country.

What was once unimaginable is now here, and with it, lessons for every oil and gas organization, indeed every company, about the new risks in the digital landscape.

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio:
👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/
🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:
👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/
🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/
📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Most large enterprises rely on a handful of expansive technology platform solutions to run their business, and the most prominent and widely deployed in oil and gas is SAP. As I've outlined in my books, enterprise solutions such as SAP are also migrating to digital technologies, which triggers a major question: what is the optimal upgrade path for an SAP customer, or any enterprise technology, to adopt?

Broadly speaking, there are two strategies to this vexxing question: a brownfield migration or "lift and shift" and a greenfield re-implementation or "start afresh". The problem is that brownfield upgrades rarely deliver any ROI while greenfield is seen as too risky, costly, or complex to execut, especially at the global scale one encounters among the oil and gas majors.

Is there a third path, where organizations can preserve their historical data, stay compliant, and still deliver tangible business outcomes?

In this episode I speak with Don Mahoney,  Global Head of Products and Innovation at SNP Group about a new approach, coined 'bluefield'. Bluefield lets companies dial in just the right amount of transformation, one that preserves key data, avoids excessive risk, and achieves a positive ROI. I'm very interested in how Bluefield works, how it supports AI training strategies, when to use it, and why it's becoming an attractive model for SAP S/4HANA transitions, and indeed all major platform solution transformations. 

👤 About the Guest

Don Mahoney is the Global Head of Products and Innovation at SNP Group, where he leads strategy for the company's transformative deployment technologies, including its flagship Bluefield methodology. Don brings over 30 years of experience across process industries, enterprise software, and solution management. He previously held senior roles at SAP, overseeing strategic accounts like ExxonMobil and leading SAP's global chemical industry business unit.

🔗 LinkedIn: Don Mahoney

🌐 Website: SNP Group

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio:
👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/
🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:
👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/
🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/
📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Motors are the quiet workhorses of industry. They drive pumps, fans, compressors, and heaters, and they consume more than sixty percent of the power in most industrial operations. When operators need to control motor speed, they historically relied on mechanical adjustments or trial-and-error testing to keep processes stable and safe.

As motors get larger and drive trains more complex, traditional testing approaches no longer work. Bringing every component together for a full string test adds months of delay and millions of dollars in logistics. The industry is conservative and reference driven, which makes it hard for operators to trust new configurations without seeing them proven first.

This is where simulations shine.

In this episode, I speak with Anand Jha, Vice President of Global Sales for ABB System Drive – Process Industries, about simulation twins that let operators model the entire system before it's built. These "virtual plants" replicate the grid, the drives, the motors, and the compressor.

With software-in-loop and hardware-in-loop tools, operators can validate performance, tune configurations, and eliminate expensive string tests. The result is faster execution, lower cost, deeper system insight, better training, and continuous improvement across the plant lifecycle.

👤 About the Guest

Anand Jha is the Vice President of Global Sales for ABB System Drive – Process Industries.  With over 20 years of experience in the Oil & Gas and other Process industries, Anand has held various roles from commissioning engineer to sales leader. He is also an accomplished author, having written two books. Anand holds an MBA from the University of Alberta in Canada and a B.Tech in Electronics and Instrumentation.

🌐 ABB Drives | ABB  🔗 Anand Jha on LinkedIn 📧 [email protected] 🧰 Additional Tools and Resources

• Go backstage and check out my studio:
  https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/
• Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:
  https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me

• Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/
• Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/
• X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs:
https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Canada's energy sector has long struggled with low productivity on the front line, as indeed the entire Canadian economy. Despite heroic efforts by tradespeople, their effectiveness is hamstrung by badly dated processes, old disconnected systems, and paper-based workflows.

The problem isn't the workers. It's that they're too often sent out with the wrong drawings, the wrong tools, the wrong permits, or even to the wrong location. Multiply that by a hundreds of thousands of jobs, and you've got a national productivity drag.

One company, MSCP Heat Management Solutions, set out to build a completely paperless, digitally connected operation, starting at the job site. By linking trades, materials, safety workflows, and quality processes into a seamless digital flow, MSCP has achieved something few believe is possible: cutting required manpower by 40% to 45% on major jobs.

In this episode, I speak with Chris Maki, MSCP's founder and CEO, on lessons he took from Fort McMurray's distant job sites and turned them into a blueprint for frontline innovation, cross-trade productivity, and system-level change. We talk technology, training, and trust, and why it's not about buying a platform, but building a mindset.

👤 About the Guest

Chris Maki is the President and CEO of MSCP Heat Management Solutions, based in Sherwood Park, Alberta. A former frontline tradesman with deep experience in Fort McMurray turnarounds and major projects, Chris launched MSCP in 2011 with a simple belief: there has to be a better way. Today, MSCP operates as a fully digital contractor, combining electrical, insulation, rope access, material handling, and fabrication into a unified and highly productive system of work. Chris is a vocal advocate for trades-focused innovation, continuous improvement, and the future of work in energy.

🔗 Website: http://www.mscpltd.ca/

🛠 Additional Tools & Resources

🎥 Go backstage and check out my studio:

https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/

📚 Take my one-day digital strategy training course:

https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🌐 Connect with Me

📝 Blog series: Digital Oil and Gas

🎙 Podcast

🔗 LinkedIn

🐦 X (Twitter)

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Book a call for your upcoming event:

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Oil and gas companies are finally confronting the huge communications and stakeholder challenge they face with their asset owners and stakeholders.

Production assets such as oil and gas wells almost always have many part owners (land owners, JV partners, interest-holders, trusts, first nations tribes). Managing these hundreds or thousands of parties across tens of thousands of wells is really demanding. These relationships are complex, sensitive and often layered with legacy ownership structures, royalty flows, regulatory demands and reputational risk.

This is much more than an operational hassle. It's a brand and trust issue. When owners ask: "Where's my check?" or "What's this charge on my statement?", slow responses can damage goodwill, complicate legal compliance and create unnecessary risk. Companies try to manage but have often saddled themselves with dueling systems in the land department, operations, legal, and corporate communications. 

I was delighted to learn about Firm App, a clever digital solution to this chaos, that was co-founded by two brothers, Deren Boyd and Dagen Boyd, and partner Josh Wright. Firm App was initially aimed at the legal profession, who also have many parties to manage, but the stakeholder problem in oil and gas turned out to be far more pressing. 

Their purpose‑built platform delivers better and more responsive owner communications, stakeholder transparency and operational risk reduction. It uses AI to answer many routine enquiries freeing up scarce staff to focus on more important tickets. Owners see their relationship through a portal, and  companies even save on paper and postage.

👤 About the Guests

Deren Boyd is co‑founder of Firm App, an AI-based owner relations software headquartered in Norman, OK. Before Firm App, Deren served as Senior Vice President of New Markets at KPA, leading growth strategy and expansion into new industries following KPA's acquisition of iScout, an EHS management software he co-founded in 2020.

Earlier in his career, Deren was Vice President of Safety and Compliance for Crescent Companies, an oilfield services firm based in Oklahoma City.

A proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Deren holds a Bachelor's in Health & Sports Science and a Master's in Adult and Higher Education. Before entering the safety and software industries, he spent seven years in intercollegiate athletics at OU as Assistant Athletics Director of Development and Director of Basketball Operations.

Deren lives in Norman OK with his wife, Monica, and their four children.

Dagen Boyd is a co‑founder of Firm App, an AI-based owner relations software headquartered in Norman, OK. Prior to Firm App, he served as Director of Corporate Development for Crescent Services, LLC, an oilfield services company based in Oklahoma City. Applying his knowledge of oilfield operations, Dagen co-founded iScout, an EHS management software that offers safety reporting, training, asset management, and more. iScout was acquired by KPA Services in 2020. Dagen is a proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma and lives in Edmond, OK with his wife and their three children..

• 🔗 Deren Boyd on LinkedIn
• 🔗 Dagen Boyd on LinkedIn
• 🔗 Josh Wright on LinkedIn
• 🌐 Firm App on the web

🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources

• 🎙 Go backstage and check out my studio
• 📚 Take my digital strategy training course

🔗 Connect with Me

• 🧠 Resources
• 📖 Blog series
• 🎧 Podcast library
• 💼 LinkedIn
• 📢 X (formerly Twitter)

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I speak regularly on these and other topics—if you're looking for a speaker at your next event, contact me here to book a call for your needs.

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Latin America is entering a period of rapid economic growth, urbanization, and industrial expansion. Unlike North America and Europe, where primary energy demand has been flat for more than a decade, the region's energy consumption is rising sharply. A young, increasingly urban population is pushing electricity and fuel demand higher, placing new pressure on infrastructure and supply.

This demand surge is colliding with a second global shift: the explosive rise of AI and hyperscaler data centers. These digital megaprojects require enormous volumes of power, often sourced from natural gas, renewables, or hybrid portfolios. Latin America, with its prolific basins, high solar irradiation, hydropower potential, and significant natural gas reserves, is strategically positioned to supply this emerging demand. Yet the region remains capital constrained, and traditional financing channels have not kept up.

New financial tools, such as tokenized assets, sustainable linked bonds, and AI-enabled verification, offer a path forward. These instruments can reduce sovereign risk premiums, improve transparency, and unlock large-scale investment in energy infrastructure, LNG, renewables, and data center development.

My guest in this episode is Eduardo Rodriguez, founder and CEO of PoseidonX, who last joined the podcast in 2020 to discuss tokenization and information asymmetry in private markets. In this conversation, we explore how the landscape has shifted, why Latin America is becoming a focal point for global capital, and how digital finance can accelerate development across energy, infrastructure, and digital economies.

👤 About the Guest

Eduardo Rodriguez is the Founder and CEO of PoseidonX, an AI-powered platform for tokenizing real-world assets and structuring digital financial instruments for global investors. A former investment advisor with TD and RBC, Eduardo has deep experience in capital markets, natural resources, and emerging market finance. He has advised governments, national oil companies, and private firms on energy reform, capital formation, and sustainable finance.

• 🌐 Website
• 📊 Presentation on Tokenized Sustainable Linked Bonds
• 🔗 Eduardo on LinkedIn
• 🎤 Previous appearance on this podcast (2020)

🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources

• 🎓 Digital Strategy Course for Oil & Gas (Udemy)

• 📝 Blog on Substack

• 🎧 Podcast Archive

🔗 Connect with Me

• 🌐 Website

• 💼 LinkedIn

• ✖️ X (Twitter)

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I speak regularly on these and related topics.

📞 Book a discovery call

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

Electricity powers nearly everything in oil and gas, from pumps and motors, to compressors and digital systems. But while production engineers obsess over volumes and temperatures, the quality of the electricity driving their systems is often overlooked. Most teams only discover power issues after equipment fails, leading to unplanned downtime and costly repairs.

Unfortunately, traditional power quality meters and relay monitors don't catch the early warning signs. They lack resolution, require manual data pulls, and don't provide actionable insights. Worse still, the frontline technicians tasked with using these tools rarely have time to analyze the data. As the industry electrifies, and hyperscalers start co-locating AI data centers with natural gas fields, the demand for clean, reliable power is rising fast, and the risks of ignoring it are getting more expensive by the day.

In this episode, I speak with Denis Kouroussis why "ghost electrical problems" aren't ghosts at all, but just data you haven't seen yet, and how his background in chip design and solid-state power is shaping the future of uptime. His company, Volta Insite, offers a different path forward. This plug-and-play system captures continuous waveform-level data and sends it to the cloud, where intelligent analytics flag problems before assets fail. It's already saving operators time, money, and headaches by pinpointing power sags, identifying failing contactors, and reducing arc flash risks.

👤 About the Guest

With a background in electrical engineering Denis Kouroussis founded Volta Energy in 2009. His passion for technology and cars has led him down a path of working in semiconductors, power electronics and software development with his spare time devoted to rebuilding cars. Denis is focused on leveraging his technical know-how to solve problems and build businesses around those solutions with a firm belief that businesses exist to serve customers and that people within organizations need to be empowered to execute without obstacles in order for an organization to reach its full potential.

#InsiteAI #PredictiveMaintenance #PowerQuality

🔗 LinkedIn – Denis Kouroussis

📧 [email protected]

🌐 Volta Insite

🛠️ Additional Tools & Resources

• 🎓 Digital Strategy Course for Oil & Gas (Udemy)

• 📝 Blog on Substack

• 🎧 Podcast Archive

🔗 Connect with Me

• 🌐 Website

• 💼 LinkedIn

• ✖️ X (Twitter)

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes

I speak regularly on these and related topics.

📞 Book a discovery call

⚠️ Disclaimer

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

In all my years of experience in energy, I rarely worked in pure regulatory areas, but regulations loomed large over everything I touched. The energy sector is very highly regulated, and for very good reasons. From environmental standards to carbon pricing, energy companies are held to a high standard and must demonstrate that compliance to operate locally, regionally, and globally.

The regulatory landscape is highly dynamic and under constant change. New regulatory frameworks emerging from Europe and the United States will reshape how energy companies, particularly in North America, do business domestically, and abroad.

Three new frameworks—the European Union's Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), as well as the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—will impact North American energy companies that export to Europe.

If you're an energy executive working in exportable energy, such as LNG, oil, methanol, hydrogen, or refined petroleum, you might find this post of interest. These regulations will affect operations, compliance strategy, and ultimately, financial results.

Fortunately, there are digital solutions at the ready that meet both today's regulatory demands while future-proofing your business for tomorrow's more stringent requirements.

⚒️ Additional Tools & Resources:

🎬 Go backstage and check out my studio:
👉 https://geoffreycann.com/mystudio/
🎓 Take my one day digital strategy training course for oil and gas:
👉 https://www.udemy.com/course/digital-oil-and-gas/?referralCode=0161D4D49AB75735A185

🔗 Connect with Me:

🖥️ Blog series: https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/
🎧 Podcast: https://geoffreycann.com/broadcast/
📇 Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/advocate-digital-innovation-for-energy/

🤬 X: https://x.com/geoffreycann

🎤 Contact for Lectures and Keynotes:

I speak regularly on these and other topics. Contact me to book a brief call about your upcoming event needs. Click here 👉 https://geoffreycann.com/contact/

⚠️ Disclaimer:

The views expressed in this podcast are my own and do not constitute professional advice.

🗣️ Download the Transcript!

Want the actual script that this podcast is based on? You can download the transcript for this podcast here:

👉 https://digitaloilgas.substack.com/p/navigating-the-maze-of-global-energy