From the first 16-bit operating system (or more commonly known as MS-DOS 1.0) to enterprise cloud solutions and a complete technology stack that offers unparalleled integration, architectural coherence, openness and extensibility, Microsoft has been at the forefront of digital innovation, with a rooted mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. Today, Microsoft has operations in 190 countries, with more than 180,000 employees worldwide – and is committed to supporting customers embrace tech intensity in every wave of digital transformation.

The past two years have seen unprecedented change around the world, and we have witnessed organizations across industries turn to digital technology to ensure business continuity. Driven by the pandemic, the urgency to transform at scale has never been greater. For a technology provider like Microsoft, our efforts to support and co-innovate with our customers and partners has never been more critical.

Madam Emeliana Rice-Oxley’s visit to Microsoft Technology Centre, Houston in August 2019, where Microsoft experts demonstrated Azure AI capabilities in action for exploration and production. Hosted by Uwa Airhiavbere, Managing Director of Microsoft’s Worldwide Oil and Gas practice and members of Microsoft’s Azure Global Energy team, led by Dave Wisenteiner

Microsoft partners with the energy sector to accelerate digital transformation and help improve outcomes across the industry value chain, while helping them address the industry’s top priority areas. These areas include liberating geoscience data and data access, improving efficiencies across technical workflows, applications, and employee collaboration, implementing enterprise-wide knowledge management systems, enabling the application of artificial intelligence (AI) at scale for asset reliability and process optimization, and implementing digital solutions to support sustainable energy transition.

Microsoft’s strategic partnership with PETRONAS dates back to 2017 and is anchored on three core pillars: building digital foundations to empower a secure, modern, and intelligent workplace for all employees, accelerating business transformation through the adoption of a cloud-first strategy to optimize, scale and drive efficiencies, and co-innovating to accelerate progress towards PETRONAS’ energy transition and sustainability ambitions.

NexTGEN

Underpinned by a pressing call to action for improved efficiency to reduce exploration cycle time, the NexTGEN initiative is the next exciting project undertaken by PETRONAS in partnership with Microsoft. Leveraging Azure’s high-performance computing infrastructure, solutions, and optimized application services; and together with key global partners like Schlumberger, Halliburton and CGG, Microsoft will work closely with PETRONAS Exploration to deliver holistic efficiencies to the exploration life cycle, by automating technical workflows to improve cross-disciplinary collaboration and facilitate better data access.

Bersama Malaysia

On 19 April 2021, PETRONAS and Microsoft inked a Memorandum of Understanding to formalize a joint commitment to empower Malaysia’s inclusive digital economy and advance the nation’s digital transformation across public and private sectors. The collaboration focuses on key areas of digital foundation, comprising talents’ digital upskilling and infrastructure readiness. This milestone came as part of Microsoft’s “Bersama Malaysia” (Together with Malaysia) initiative, in support of the nation’s MyDigital goals to transform Malaysia into a regional leader in the digital economy. Under this initiative, Microsoft is set to establish its first data centre region in Malaysia to deliver trusted cloud services locally, and to upskill an additional one million Malaysians in helping to create economic opportunities for the people and businesses in the digital era.

From left: Senior Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali, Microsoft Malaysia Managing Director K Raman, Malaysia’s eighth Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, PETRONAS President and Group CEO Tengku Muhammad Taufik and PETRONAS Chairman Tan Sri Ahmad Nizam Salleh at the Bersama Malaysia MoU signing ceremony between PETRONAS and Microsoft

“We are thrilled to continue Microsoft’s longstanding partnership with PETRONAS as we progress into the digital economy. Today, Microsoft’s partnership with PETRONAS extends beyond the realm of digitalization. As part of Microsoft’s Bersama Malaysia pledge to skilling one million Malaysians by the end of 2023, we have embarked on another significant partnership to nurture and equip local talents with digital skills under the PETRONAS Digital Academy. We are glad to have PETRONAS on the board of our MyDigital Alliance Leadership Council too, to collaborate on cloud-first and digital-native policy recommendations – further supporting Malaysia’s inclusive economic growth,” said K Raman, Managing Director of Microsoft Malaysia.

As the industry looks ahead, sustainability and energy transition will continue to weigh as a huge responsibility on the energy industry. As a company, Microsoft is committed to becoming carbon negative by 2030, and will take responsibility for all our emissions either directly or by energy consumption. Microsoft believes that our most important contribution to carbon reduction will come not from just our own work and carbon footprint reduction alone, but also by helping our customers around the world reduce their carbon footprint through our learnings and with the power of data science, AI, and digital technology. “We look forward to collaborating closely with global energy majors such as PETRONAS, to work towards meeting today’s energy demands while innovating together to deliver societal impact towards delivering clean energy and a net-zero carbon future,” said Srikant Kadambi, Managing Director of Energy and Sustainability, Microsoft Asia.