CALGARY – While companies drilling for oil and gas have shrunk in recent years, RS Energy Group has grown dramatically by mining a different type of commodity — data – and selling it to banks and the oilpatch.
“Two thirds of our team is focused on data and technology,” Nikhanj said, adding that in a city best known for drilling engineers and geologists, he has no problem hiring computer programmers and software engineers. “We’ve been pleasantly surprised at how deep the bench is here and we’ll continue to hire and we’ll continue to build out here because the skillsets are pretty amazing.”
The company still publishes research reports but in December 2015 New York-based private equity giant Warburg Pincus bought the firm with the aim of creating an energy research platform built on the latest technologies. But, when asked how quickly oil and gas producers are adopting the software, Jarrell, Nikhanj and David Howard, the firm’s executive director and co-head of research and advisory, pause.
“We have been a little slower in the Canadian context to deploy new technologies,” EY oil and gas leader Lance Mortlock said, making Canadian oil and gas producers particularly slow adopters in a slow-adopting industry. He noted, however, that there are pressures on Canadian oil producers to adopt technology more quickly to reduce costs.
That’s it, diversify! canpoli
Any company that deals only with data will eventually have it's lunch eaten by remote workers in other countries.