Aramco and Cognite establish joint venture to accelerate industrial digitalization

• New company will distribute advanced solutions across sectors
• Joint venture to serve business customers in Saudi Arabia and the MENA region

DHAHRAN/OSLO, 21 December 2020 – Saudi Aramco Development Company, a subsidiary of Aramco and Cognite AS (“Cognite”) have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture (“JV”) as part of their strategic digitalization partnership.

Aramco and Cognite will establish a new company that will focus on digitalization in Saudi Arabia and the broader Middle East and North Africa region. The JV will develop, distribute and deploy end-to-end digital and advanced solutions for customers across industries, including oil and gas, power and utilities, manufacturing and shipping.

The solutions will enable the digital transformation of companies through production and yield optimization, predictive maintenance, workforce digitalization, advanced safety measures and a reduced environmental footprint of industrial operations. The JV will leverage Cognite’s flagship industrial data platform, Cognite Data Fusion®, as its core technology and will harness state-of-the-art cloud capabilities for data hosting, analytics and artificial intelligence.

Aramco and Cognite expect the JV to be operational in 2021, following receipt of all required regulatory clearances.

Aramco Senior Vice-President of Technical Services, Ahmad Al Sa’adi, said: “Aramco has pursued an ambitious Digital Transformation Program with the goal of transforming the Company into the world's leading digitalized energy corporation, maximizing value for shareholders and spearheading digital innovation in the energy sector globally. The JV with Cognite aims to create advanced end-to-end digital software solutions in Saudi Arabia, which will maximize local content, contribute to GDP growth, create new jobs, accelerate digital talent development and sustain Aramco’s resilience.”

Øyvind Eriksen, President and CEO of Aker ASA and Chairman of Cognite’s Board of Directors said: “We are committed to making our strategic partnership with the world’s largest integrated oil and gas company a resounding success. We believe Aramco’s deep operational expertise, combined with Cognite’s track record of developing and deploying industrial software for digital frontrunners, will be a powerful catalyst for the commercial success of the joint venture and the advancement of digital transformation across heavy-asset industries.”

About Aramco

Aramco is a global integrated energy and chemicals company. We are driven by the core belief that energy is opportunity. From producing approximately one in every eight barrels of the world’s oil supply to developing new energy technologies, our global team is dedicated to creating impact in all that we do. We focus on making our resources more dependable, more sustainable and more useful. This helps promote stability and long-term growth around the world. www.aramco.com

Media Relations: international.media@aramco.com l Twitter: @Aramco

About Cognite

Cognite was established by Aker ASA, a leading industrial investment company, 4 years ago. Through Aker’s active ownership, Cognite has become a leading industrial software company with a global customer base supporting the full-scale data-driven transformation of heavy-asset industries around the world. Our core product, Cognite Data Fusion® (CDF), is an industrial data operations and contextualization platform, putting raw data into real-world industrial context, enabling rapid application & solution creation at scale. CDF powers companies with contextualized OT/IT/ET data to develop solutions that increase safety, sustainability, efficiency, and drive revenue. Visit us at www.cognite.com and follow us on Twitter @CogniteData or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cognitedata

Media relations: 
Giedre Malinauskaite, VP Marketing & Communications, Cognite l +47 471 61 641 l giedre.malinauskaite@cognite.com

Christina Chappell Glenn, Head of Investor Relations, Aker ASA l +47 905 32 774 l christina.glenn@akerasa.com

Disclaimer

The press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements relating to historical or current facts included in the press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements give the Company’s current expectations and projections relating to its capital expenditures and investments, major projects, upstream performance, including relative to peers, and growth in downstream and chemicals. These statements may include, without limitation, any statements preceded by, followed by or including words such as “target,” “believe,” “expect,” “aim,” “intend,” “may,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “plan,” “project,” “will,” “can have,” “likely,” “should,” “would,” “could”, “continue”, “forward” and other words and terms of similar meaning or the negative thereof. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors beyond the Company’s control that could cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the expected results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including the following factors: our ability to create and efficiently deploy these solutions; the market supply and demand for these services; our ability to manage this new business; our ability to conclude these plans; risks related to Government-directed projects and other Government requirements; and other risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the forward looking statements in this press release, as set forth in the Company’s latest periodic reports filed with the Tadawul. For additional information on the potential risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from the results predicted please see the Company’s latest periodic reports filed with the Tadawul. Such forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding the Company’s present and future business strategies and the environment in which it will operate in the future.

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