Insights with Shigeyoshi Uehara, CEO, KBC - A Yokogawa Company

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[Stefan, VP, Euro Petroleum Consultants]
Good morning, my name is Stefan Chapman. I'm Vice President at Euro Petroleum Consultants and today I'm very honoured to be joined by Shigeyoshi Uehara, who is the CEO of KBC - A Yokogawa Company.

We're here to discuss the decarbonization of the downstream industry and to gain some insight on the work KBC has been doing in helping the industry in its journey to a more sustainable future. Shige, good morning and thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.

[Shigeyoshi Uehara, CEO, KBC]
Thank you.

With decarbonisation very much at the forefront of the industry discussions, could I begin by asking you to tell us about KBC's commitment to decarbonisation.

First, I’ll briefly introduce myself. My name is Shigeyoshi Uehara, but Shige is fine, I came from Yokogawa and I’m now leading KBC from 2001. KBC is a global energy consulting and technology company since 1979 and Yokogawa bought it in 2016 to realise their contribution to the society.

KBC’s parent company, Yokogawa, values sustainability and their contribution to the society as the founder’s commitment.

They set up three goals: net-zero emissions, circular economy and well-being toward 2050. And KBC is taking a very important role, which is the realisation of decarbonization.

KBC’s new message :“Bringing Decarbonization to Life” is aligning our values to the key goals of our clients. Based on our activity in the past, we have avoided 400 million tonnes of CO2 emission already. We will continue this activity by expanding the solution to the area of scope 3. In order to realise it, we have hired Mr. Duncan Mitchell as the Head of Global Decarbonization Business.

As we know, this energy transition and, the decarbonization as a whole of the downstream industry, presents a number of challenges. How is KBC helping the energy industry in addressing the decarbonization challenge? If you can tell us a little bit more about that.

Of course. We work with organisations globally along the hydrocarbons, petrochemical and chemical value chain, who are seeking a step change in performance, addressing both today’s challenges to those of tomorrow, such as the transition to net-zero.

Our offer has four typical dimensions: one, is the Deep Subject Matter Experience. We have a lot of engineers that know plants and how to optimise and reduce emissions.

The second one, is a wide Technology Portfolio such as first principles thermodynamic modelling to underpin the development of digital twins, digital energy and emission management and optimization and many others.

And the third one is Consultant Expertise to drive improvement and sustainment. Without understanding and taking account of the people dimension, technology value is not really realised.

Our parent company, Yokogawa, has deep, huge experience, in industrial automation including Products Development, Project Execution and Service for long term sustainable production and improvement.

Thank you very much. As you said, KBC are very much active around the globe in the energy sector. Could you tell us what types of projects you are currently working on and from your perspective, what are the key challenges facing our industry?

The biggest challenge which we are discussing already is there's no silver bullet at this moment and there is no one solution that solves everything. Not all steps are known at this moment.

However, we can or maybe we need, to start from process and asset optimization and energy efficiency improvement which is related to the Scope 1-2. And KBC has a long track record in the area.

Regarding the big picture for Scope 3, KBC is working with clients to develop the high-level strategy and convert them into actionable plan.

And actually, going into more details, we have 4 challenges: one, decarbonization is very complicated and many options are there. Therefore, we need to have our powerful trusted toolkit: to analyse the options, to ensure a robust solution and to decide what are significant investments.

The second challenge is to have a clear plan. We believe that companies need to have the clear dynamic roadmap to understand the options and the key decision points on the journey.

The third one is the need to think out-of-the-box. This is actually related to our recent project. It is unlikely that any asset will be able to achieve the ultimate goal of net-zero on its own. We are actively working on a project in Japan, as well as in the Netherlands, to explore the potential for emission reduction across the industry.

And the last challenge is ensuring a resilient operation, continuing to capture the margin and efficiencies on the existing operation while developing the plans for the future. It's a continuous PDCA cycle. Therefore, our client needs a trusted and long-term relationship partner for the journey toward 2030 or 2050.

Thank you very much, Shige for that insight, sharing all that experience KBC has. It was a real pleasure for me to be able to discuss with you on these key topics, key industry trends and to see how KBC is helping the industry to a more sustainable future. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Stefan. As my last comment. Again, we are proud that KBC has already avoided over 400 million tonnes CO2. We bring the expertise and the technology to provide independent and pragmatic solutions for the future as well as supporting our clients’ operations today. We will bring decarbonization to yours and everybody's life, thank you very much.

We want to take this opportunity to thank KBC for its continued support and participation at our Energy & Sustainability Forum events.
Next stop? San Francisco!

For more info, visit: europetro.com/esfnorthamerica.