February 20, 2019
Sensia to provide technology and services to oil and gas companies
By Channelnomics Staff
Seeing an opportunity in the oil and gas market segment, Rockwell Automation, a market leader in industrial automation and information systems, and Schlumberger , a leader in IT products for the oil and gas industry, are forming a joint venture to provide end-to-end automation and information services to companies engaged in oil and gas exploration and production.
The Lowdown: Operating as an independent company, joint venture Sensia will provide oil and gas producers with cloud-based management and analytics applications, edge computing-enabled process automation, and engineering lifecycle management services. Sensia’s mission is to provide oil and gas producers with systems, resources, and support that create efficiency gains through data-driven automation.
Sensia will leverage the industrial and manufacturing automation and management systems of Rockwell and the systems and resources produced by Schlumberger for reservoir characterization, drilling, production, and processing in the oil and gas industry. The result is what Rockwell and Schlumberger call the first end-to-end oil and gas technology solution provider.
The Details: Sensia will operate under the leadership of Allan Rentcome, who currently serves as director of global technology of Rockwell’s Systems and Solutions business unit. Headquartered in Houston and employing more than 1,000 people worldwide, Sensia will launch operations this summer and is expected to generate $400 million in sales in its first year.
Under the terms of the joint venture, Rockwell will control 53 percent of the company, while Schlumberger will retain 47 percent. Upon completion of the founding, which is pending regulatory review and approval, Rockwell will pay Schlumberger $250 million and retain operational and fiscal control of the joint venture.
The Buzz: “Oilfield operators strive to maximize the value of their investments by safely reducing the time from drilling to production, optimizing output of conventional and unconventional wells, and extending well life,” said Rockwell Automation CEO Blake Moret. “Currently, no single provider exists that offers the end-to-end solutions and technology platform that address these challenges. Sensia will be uniquely positioned to connect disparate assets and reduce manual processes with secure, scalable solutions that are integrated into one technology platform.”
“Sensia will create a leading technology provider that will further drive optimization of E&P oilfield assets,” said Schlumberger CEO Paal Kibsgaard. “This joint venture is the next step in our vision to offer our customers smart, connected devices with rich diagnostic capabilities, coupled with measurement, automation, and analytics that improve oilfield operations, facilitate business decisions, and reduce total cost of ownership throughout the life of a field.”
Channelnomics Point of View: Rockwell Automation and Schlumberger coming together to create a joint-venture solution provider echoes how Cisco Systems, VMware, and EMC partnered to create VCE in 2009 to kick off the converged data center technology segment. While not commonplace nowadays, vendors and distributors once made it their business to create go-to-market partners shaped in their image to support customers and capitalize on market opportunities.
In addition, Sensia is an example of how technology products and services are no longer confined to the technology industry. Oil and gas exploration and production are highly complex and hugely expensive. Creating efficiencies that reduce risk and costs requires automation, connected systems, and operational visibility. Rockwell and Schlumberger are showing how old-school manufacturers are becoming more like their Silicon Valley cousins.
