In this article, we share how, alongside the supply chain and logistics team at one of the world’s most iconic LNG plants, we helped “get ahead of the heat” of managing demand during a complex turnaround. By providing supply chain experts with access to powerful GenAI models, combined with context, data, and insight, they were able to unlock more value through increased cost avoidance opportunities without risking production. From this experience, we explain why we believe the oil and gas supply chain and logistics functions have a significant opportunity to shift from ‘fire fighting’ to ‘fire prevention.’ Embracing this opportunity confidently can transform supply chain and logistics into a data-driven cost avoidance machine, directly connected to projects and maintenance. This transformation is only possible by decoupling data from applications, breaking down silos, and connecting demand with fulfillment as seamlessly as possible, with experts always at the command center.

When executed properly, and in collaboration with strategic partners, this AI-powered supply chain can lead the organisation in demonstrating practical productivity gains. However, trust in data, partners, and context is crucial, as hallucination in safety-critical operations like oil and gas is simply not an option.

The Journey Begins

Our journey with AI began in 2016, inspired by DeepMind AlphaGo‘s success, which demonstrated AI’s potential to surpass even the best human minds. Watching AlphaGo master the complexities of Go reminded us of the challenges in the oil and gas supply chain—a deceptively simple yet unpredictable orchestration requiring deep expertise for flawless execution. AlphaGo inspired us to imagine how AI could support and empower operational experts, not compete against them, and to think in new, innovative ways, just like the famous Move 37—a move no human would have made.

We started with ‘Logistics Summary,’ a simple AI application that helped increase High Cost Rental (HCR) compliance to 99% by notifying experts when an HCR was at risk of not being mobilised on time due to vessel delays or unorganised transport.

Over time, we added to this capability, but there remained a barrier: insight needed to be translated by subject matter experts into action across multiple functions. With the rapid advancement of Generative AI, we have finally breached this barrier, directly connecting supply chain to projects for a self-service supply chain that “gets technology out of the way.” By reducing process friction, capturing context, and linking to demand, Generative AI enables the supply chain function itself, controlled by its experts, to respond more quickly and flexibly, creating a truly adaptive and resilient supply chain.

Today, VOR AI provides real-time, context-aware answers to questions like, “Where is my shipment?” and “Will it arrive on time?” in seconds through tools like Microsoft Teams. This eliminates the need for phone calls and emails, freeing supply chain and logistics teams from repetitive information-hunting tasks. VOR AI has evolved beyond merely providing information—it is now an active partner for both supply chain and operations and maintenance experts, executing workflows, managing tasks, and driving actions to “Get Ahead of the Heat.”

Key Areas of Focus – How to Apply AI for Maximum Impact

Start Simple with Medium-to-High-Value, Repeatable Workflows

By working with operational experts, we identified pain points that required cognitive effort or involved repetitive tasks that could be automated, such as identifying cost leakage, managing container statuses, or sending on-site risk notifications. VOR AI, supervised by operational experts, can now autonomously execute these workflows, enabling experts to focus on strategic decisions and taking meaningful action.

Separating Quality Data from Applications

By moving away from fragmented spreadsheets and adopting an integrated ecosystem approach with key suppliers, operators can interact directly with supply chain data, leading to faster adaptation and informed decision-making. This approach enables consistent access to quality data, ensuring that issues like underperforming suppliers are identified and addressed early, regardless of the system or interface used.

4PT Ecosystem – An Agent-Led API Integration

The benefits of using natural language boil down to making workflow automation easier, a critical friction point with complex technologies that require a masters degree to use. Instead of breaking processes into complex steps requiring technical expertise, agentic-led systems allow nontechnical experts to automate, test and control workflows quickly, using plain language. This broadens access to AI and integrates their expertise seamlessly to allow for solving repeatitive tasks that add little value but take up a lot of time. By taking this approach further and opening these workflows up to the ecosystem, we believe Agent-led API automation will accelerate data integration, reduce manual tasks, and consolidate context, boosting efficiency, data quality, and reliability in supply chain operations.

Customer-Driven Rapid Iteration

During this turnaround, continuous bi-weekly feedback was crucial to align VOR AI capabilities with the real operational needs on the ground. This transparent feedback helped VOR AI evolve quickly, both from measuring value and from getting the improvements in model capabilities into the hands of operational experts. This resulted in providing accurate insights on where issues were going to be and an opportunity to ask why to the right person while demystifying AI for the organisation as they experienced its value firsthand.

Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?

Timing is everything, and deploying AI that works and is actually useful, at pace, in organisations where safety is the top priority is near impossible without getting the basics right. There is no short circuit for this. It requires doing the heavy lifting and putting in the hard yards. With teams and partners committed, suppliers on board, data and applications decoupled and data quality standards upheld, the foundation for rapidly proving value cases is set, justify bringing the context and information that was once scattered across multiple systems, suppliers and desktops directly under your teams command and control.

Today, VOR AI, integrated with platforms like Microsoft Teams, provides direct answers to questions like, ‘Where is PO12345?’, eliminating the need for multiple searches, emails, or calls. It consolidates data from different systems of record into simple, plain language—whether in Spanish, Australian, or Kazakh—fostering trust and precision across operations, procurement, and maintenance. VOR AI not only answers questions but also helps supply chain and logistics operational experts take proactive intervention and actions to now ask ‘How can we improve?’.

By shifting from reactive to strategic, AI is transforming supply chain execution today, opening it the hard work of bringing together a dependable, resilient ecosystem to the wider organisation and elevating the supply chain function to a visible and critical role in projects and production. This drives accountability across global functions and fosters collaboration with data as the conduit for progress. This is where we are heading—putting supply chain at the center of the organisation to enhance productivity and outcomes while reducing costs and emissions.

And we are calling this Uplift.

VOR Uplift – Unlocking Supply Chain

VOR Uplift is our low-code and no-code tooling framework that leverages the latest reasoning and planning capabilities from reasoning LLM models to help operational experts execute and refine workflows autonomously.

By giving a natural-language prompt, supply chain experts can initiate workflows with high-level plans of tasks, requirements, and conditions. Uplift breaks these into executable subtasks, using the VOR data model to consolidate data and insight from multiple systems, providing context and real-time progress updates. Operational experts remain in control throughout the process, with full visibility into how tasks are being completed, including data sources, suppliers, and insights used to verify outputs. With this context and data secured, organisational data lakes can be continuously improved and leveraged by models across the organisation, where a virtuous circle of continuous improvement is unlocked.

Data quality and context are crucial. Without these basics, LLM technologies can produce unreliable, but convincing “hallucination” results, making trust—vital for operational experts in safety-critical industries like oil and gas—hard to establish. In these high-stakes environments, trust is built through consistent, rigorous effort, the ‘hard yards’.

How Did We Get Here?

In the oil and gas industry, reputation is everything. Our expertise, built through years of hands-on experience, ensures quality, safety, and reliability in our AI technology. Our platform, forged in the heat of the worlds most iconic energy projects, is uniquely tailored to the complex needs of upstream extraction and downstream logistics. By putting this powerful capability directly into the hands of oil and gas people, they can unlock insight by being closer to asset demand and reciprocate by integrating assets (through digital twin) with the complexities of safe, predictable fullfillment.

Alignment, Transparency and Control

Successful technology adoption needs SME, organisational and partner alignment across the ecosystem to simplify interactions and meet real needs, quickly. By tapping into established tools like Microsoft Teams we remove barriers to adoption and increase engagement between internal functional teams, letting experts engage with one another naturally and ensuring functional leaders retain complete control of the process.

Innovation Partnerships for Seamless Ecosystem Integration

Partnership with customers supported by proven industry leaders such as IBM drive innovation. These collaborations help technology companies such as Streamba focus on integrating the capabilities of AI models to meet the accelerating global supply chain needs and manage the change management processes required. Our experience shows that a collaborative, secure, ecosystem driven approach where data flows between applications and external systems through APIs, delivers on the promise that real-time access to data and reducing operational silos brings – a measurable opportunity to improve.

Closing Thoughts

The use cases are clear – reducing response times, minimising cost leakages, decreasing errors, capturing context, unlocking trapped value, consolidating and simplifying contracting. The early signals we see from our experience during this turnaround lend credibility to suggest AI in important industries such as energy will not only change the industry itself, but the industries they serve. With energy at the forefront of powering the AI boom, we are laser focused on ensuring it creates opportunities for oil and gas people to play their ‘Move 78‘.

In today’s fast-evolving business landscape, flexibility and efficiency in supply chain management are not merely advantageous—they are vital. At Streamba, we recognise that an adaptive supply chain can mark the difference between thriving and just surviving. Working alongside our 4PT marketplace model, as outlined in this previous post, here’s how we ensure our clients are always equipped to handle the dynamic demands of the market.

1. Real-Time Data Integration and Visibility

At the core of an adaptive supply chain is the capacity to make informed decisions swiftly. Streamba harnesses cutting-edge technology to integrate real-time data across all stages of the supply chain. Our platform gathers and analyses data from production, logistics, and market trends, enabling our clients to anticipate changes and react promptly. This real-time data integration ensures that our clients can adapt their strategies to mitigate risks and capitalise on emerging opportunities.

2. Predictive Analytics

Streamba’s proactive approach allows our clients to adjust their inventory levels, optimise their production schedules, and manage their resources more effectively, ensuring that they are always prepared for the unexpected. The strategy influencing our current and future development activities is to leverage artificial intelligence to provide predictive analytics that empower businesses to accurately forecast future demands and challenges. These AI algorithms analyse historical data and current market conditions to predict supply chain disruptions before they occur. 

3. Collaborative Ecosystems

We believe in the power of collaboration. Streamba’s platform facilitates a seamless flow of information between suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors, creating a cohesive ecosystem. This collaboration enhances transparency and coordination, enabling all parties to synchronise their operations. By working closely with our ecosystem partners, we extend these capabilities, ensuring that deployments are smooth and that every member of the supply chain can respond swiftly to any changes in demand or supply.

4. Tailored Solutions

No two businesses are the same, and an adaptive supply chain must reflect the unique needs of each organisation. Streamba offers solutions that can be focused and tuned to meet the specific requirements of different industries and companies. Whether it’s managing logistics costs, improving asset performance, or ensuring compliance with health and safety regulations, our platform can address the particular challenges and objectives of each client.

5. Continuous Learning and Adaptation

Streamba’s vision is for our solutions to not just to adapt to current conditions but to continually learn and improve. Our systems are being trained through machine learning to refine their algorithms based on new data, experiences, and outcomes. This continuous learning process will ensure that our supply chain solutions become more efficient and effective over time, providing our clients with a sustainable competitive advantage.

Conclusion

In a world where change is the only constant, an adaptive supply chain is your best ally. At Streamba, we are committed to providing our clients with the most advanced, flexible, and efficient supply chain solutions. With our state-of-the-art technology and strategic partnerships, we ensure that your supply chain is not just responsive but also a step ahead.

Transition from Generic to Bespoke Solutions

The evolution of supply chain management from traditional methods to the first digital platforms in the early 2000’s marked a significant shift, yet these early digital solutions were encumbered by one-size-fits-all models, failing to serve any particular industry comprehensively. Initially built on outdated infrastructures such as on-prem, single-server setups with SQL databases and monolithic codebases, these platforms were slow to adapt and costly to customise.

Identifying a Problem & Solution in the Market

Streamba identified the shortcomings of generic solutions, particularly in the intricate oil & gas sector. Starting in the 2010’s, capitalising on emerging cloud-native infrastructures and API-based microservice architectures, Streamba’s visionary strategy honed in on oil & gas—an industry rife with unique challenges such as a specialised lexicon, complex regulatory environments, and complicated global supply chains demanding high specificity. The reliance on unstructured data sources, like spreadsheets exchanged via email, further exemplified the need for specialised solutions.

To address these challenges Streamba combines technology with deep domain expertise through:

The Road Ahead

Looking to the future, Streamba is continuously innovating; refining these technologies to further automate intricate business processes, further developing technologies that assist operators in real-time. This forward-thinking innovation emphasises Streamba’s commitment to not just participating in the market but leading it through technological differentiation.

Conclusion

As Streamba continues to refine and expand its technological offerings, it distinguishes itself in a marketplace saturated with generic solutions. Its focused approach on oil & gas, combined with cutting-edge technological advancements, positions Streamba as a frontrunner in specialised supply chain management solutions.

Transformation Through a Digital Marketplace

The oil and gas industry, traditionally driven by large-scale capital investments and long-term contracts, is undergoing a rapid transformation as it adopts digital technologies. With the proven capabilities and impactful applications of these technologies, companies are increasingly seeking digital solutions to enhance production performance, reduce costs, and manage HSE risk to maximise shareholder value. 

The Challenge: Complexity in Technology Adoption

Oil and gas companies face unique challenges when it comes to adopting new technologies. The complexity of operations, coupled with stringent regulatory requirements and the need for significant capital investment, often makes it difficult to integrate and scale new solutions. The traditional approach to technology adoption typically involves multiple contracts, long procurement cycles, and significant operational disruption.

These challenges, combined with the rapid proliferation of solutions deployed across the industry, lead to slower growth and lower returns on investment. To address these issues, a new model is needed—one that simplifies technology adoption, reduces risk, and accelerates sustainable growth.

Streamba’s Fourth Party Technology (4PT) Model

The 4PT commercial model, inspired by Fourth Party Logistics (4PL) terminology, is designed to address these challenges. As an integrated SaaS marketplace, it provides a single platform where oil and gas companies can access a wide range of technologies and associated services across the supply chain, all under one contract. This model not only simplifies the procurement process but also allows companies to scale their technology adoption more efficiently.

Key benefits of the 4PT model include:

How the 4PT Model Enhances Shareholder Value

With the rapid adoption of emerging technologies such as AI and the ever-increasing number of digital solutions being deployed in the industry, the need for a model that rationalises and simplifies the digital ecosystem is more pressing than ever. By simplifying technology adoption (increasing production performance), simplifying contracting (reducing costs), and enabling scalability (applying value more rapidly across the business), the 4PT model helps oil and gas companies achieve better financial performance and so ultimately translates to increased shareholder value.

Conclusion: The Future of Technology Commercialisation in Oil and Gas

As the oil and gas industry continues to evolve, the demand for digital solutions that drive value creation will continue to surge. Streamba’s Fourth Party Technology model is at the forefront of this transformation, simplifying the technology adoption process and enabling companies to scale operations efficiently. 

For shareholders, the benefits are clear: higher returns, reduced risk, and an incentivised, more sustainable supply chain. As the industry continues to navigate a complex and rapidly changing landscape, the 4PT model offers a powerful tool for unlocking new opportunities and driving long-term value.

We welcome your insights and invite you to join our community for regular updates on how the 4PT model continues to evolve and succeed.

Introduction: In the first of a series, we explore the key characteristics of Oil and Gas Supply Chains and introduce Streamba’s industry-specific technical, functional and commercial solutions, which we will further explore over the coming weeks.

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The Case for Specialised Supply Chains

Global supply chains have evolved at an unprecedented rate since the pandemic, attacks on critical shipping routes and rising conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. These external influences have forced a rethink to the philosophy of “just-in-time” supply – increasing focus on production resilience. A plethora of digital solutions have sprung up to solve these challenges, some designed to address general supply chain issues common to all industries, others built to service a specific vertical.

Industry Challenges: The energy sector has unique supply chain challenges with respect to complexity and demand – sourcing expensive items, often bespoke to projects, and transporting these en masse to some of the most remote locations on the planet, and it isn’t forecast to get any easier: capital expenditures are expected forecast to rise from £4 trillion in 2012 to over £9 trillion by 2025. In some cases, entire supply chains are being established to service new markets, like Guyana.

The energy sector is distinct from other industries, and generalised solutions rarely prove sufficient in the long term. The specialised equipment, often hazardous to handle, requires a specialised vocabulary that underscores the intricacies and technicalities of the industry.

The Urgency of the Current Moment: In recent years, shareholder pressures have intensified, largely due to stagnant share prices over the last two decades. This financial scrutiny has propelled a shift in focus towards non-primary areas such as supply chains, pushing companies to transform these from static, high-inertia systems to dynamic models that can adapt to rapidly changing, industry-specific business imperatives.

Generic supply chain models simply fall short in addressing these complex needs effectively. As the pressures increase, so too does the need for specialised, industry-focused supply chain solutions, particularly in the Oil and Gas industry.

Embracing the Deep – Streamba’s Specialised Approach to Oil and Gas Supply Chains

Streamba’s Deep and Narrow Strategy: At Streamba, we have deliberately chosen a “deep and narrow” vertical SaaS approach over a “shallow and wide” horizontal one. By focusing our efforts on the Oil and Gas sector, we tailor our supply chain strategies to meet the nuanced requirements of this industry, thereby enhancing responsiveness, efficiency, and ultimately, value delivery in a constantly transforming landscape.

Getting Technology Out of the Way – Consolidation: Simplification through consolidation is increasingly crucial as companies narrow their focus to deploy technologies aligned with industry needs that can flex to adapt to changing conditions. This requires a strategic approach to data management, where the separation of data and applications ensures that an ecosystem of competing technologies can interoperate and share information seamlessly. This approach ensures that data is stored in secure, context-aware data lakes.

Value now and in the Future: Streamba’s Solutions are proven with the world’s biggest Oil and Gas companies to deliver value to control your Supply Chain and Logistics operations, reducing cost, protecting asset performance and maintaining HSE standards. This has been delivered through a technology stack that has proven its performance, reliability and security in a challenging environment. From this strong backbone, we are building out commercial, product and technical capabilities, to deliver the change that the industry is demanding. This includes the following topics, which we will cover in subsequent articles:

– Adaptive Supply Chain, creating improved production performance (revenue) through dynamic suppliers.

– A Fourth Party Technology commercial model, facilitating contract rationalisation, with reduced administrative cost, and a more dynamic supplier base.

– Our deep Contextual Data Models, are designed to integrate seamlessly with the unique terminology and standards of each energy major’s internal lexicon and processes, enhancing the rapid deployment of AI models.

Conclusion: The need for industry-specific solutions in supply chain management has never been more critical, especially in sectors as complex and demanding as Oil and Gas. At Streamba, we are committed to delivering targeted technical, functional and commercial solutions that meet these challenges head-on.

Stay tuned for our future blogs, where we will explore some of the solutions currently benefiting our clients and share insights into future developments in these areas.