The impact of Industry 4.0 Technologies and Characteristics on the Egyptian Oil and Gas Value Chain/ Yamen Ezzeldin Abdelaziz Elnosiry

Supervisor: Mohamed Omar Ezzat

Thesis (M.A.)—Nile University, Egypt, 2023 .

"Includes bibliographical references"

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................ x
LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................................ xi
LIST OF TABLES......................................................................................................................... xii
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................1
THE EGYPTIAN OIL AND GAS VALUE CHAIN...............................................................2
STATE OF KNOWLEDGE OF OIL AND GAS VALUE CHAIN & INDUSTRY ......................3
THE SCOPE OF THE STUDY .........................................................................................4
THESIS STRUCTURE ....................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 2 INDUSTRY 4.0 AND THE VALUE CHAIN....................................................................5
INDUSTRY 4.0.............................................................................................................5
Industry 4.0 components...................................................................................6
Design Principles for Industry 4.0 ....................................................................10
Industry 4.0 building blocks.............................................................................12
Industry 4.0 benefits........................................................................................16
VALUE CHAIN ...........................................................................................................19
Primary activities..............................................................................................19
Support activities.............................................................................................20
VALUE CHAIN AND INDUSTRY 4.0 IMPACT..............................................................21
Industry 4.0 technologies for the value chain .................................................21
Value chain components implications.............................................................22
CHAPTER 3 EGYPTIAN OIL AND GAS ECOSYSTEM....................................................................32
Oil and gas sector structure.....................................................................................32
Oil and gas value chain.............................................................................................34
Upstream value chain ......................................................................................34
Midstream value chain.....................................................................................36
Downstream value chain .................................................................................36
viii
CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHOD.....................................................................39
RESEARCH PROBLEM................................................................................................39
Problem statement..........................................................................................39
Knowledge gap.................................................................................................40
Research questions and objective ...................................................................40
Significance of the study ..................................................................................41
RESEARCH METHOD.................................................................................................41
Collection of secondary data ...........................................................................42
Collection of primary data ...............................................................................42
Sample composition and size...........................................................................42
Participant of the surveys and/or questionnaires...........................................43
Data analysis....................................................................................................43
Description of the survey tools........................................................................43
The questionnaires and the table of consistency ............................................43
CHAPTER 5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS..................................................................................46
IMPACT OF INDUSTRY 4.0 TECHNOLOGIES ON THE VALUE CHAIN .........................46
The online survey conclusion...........................................................................50
I4.0 IMPLICATIONS ASSESSMENT TOOL...................................................................50
Upstream – Company (1).................................................................................50
Midstream – Company (2) ...............................................................................57
Downstream – Company (3) ............................................................................63
Overall results..................................................................................................70
DISCUSSIONS............................................................................................................72
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS...........................................................76
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................76
LIMITATIONS ............................................................................................................77
Industry 4.0 technologies impact for the value chain .....................................77
Implication assessment tool ............................................................................77
RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE WORK.............................................................77
Industry stakeholders ......................................................................................77
Organizational alignment.................................................................................77
Collaboration and partnerships.......................................................................77
Regulatory framework .....................................................................................78
Future work......................................................................................................78
REFERENCES.............................................................................................................................79
Appendix 1: The I4.0 technologies for the value chain............................................................85
Appendix 2: Consolidated value chain impact tool .................................................................86

Abstract:
Oil and natural gas are major industries in the energy market and have a big impact on
the global economy as the world's principal fuel sources. The processes and systems
used in the production and delivery of oil and gas are highly complex, capital-intensive,
and require cutting-edge technology. Current incumbents in the oil and gas industry, on
the other hand, are under pressure to change their business practices as a result of market
trends and global conditions such as globalization and low oil prices, as well as
environmental concerns such as climate change and the depletion of fossil fuels.
Nonetheless, only a few decades after the third industrial revolution, there is a popular
sense of a new era of digitalized production in the industrial and engineering sectors,
dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution, or Industry 4.0.
Industry 4.0 represents a new stage in the organization and control of the industrial
value chain. It is simply denotes a new stage in development and control of the
industrial value chain, enabling novel ways of production, real-time optimization, and
value creation.
Along with the internal factors, external factors like market and competition
reformation and socio-technological developments are seen as dominant. Obvious
changes in the value chain activities have to take place, and thus, implications for the
value chain have to be addressed.
This type of impact can be technology-driven, while the necessary organizational
structure and strategy plan lag behind. Taking the value chain as a unit of analysis, those
institutional factors that change the process can be evaluated, enabling firms to
coordinate their efforts on organizational change and technology adoption.
The study focuses on the classification of the Egyptian oil and gas sector into upstream,
midstream, and downstream categories analyzing its current state and implication of
Industry 4.0 technologies on each of these categories value chain. It employs a mixedmethods approach, combining a systematic literature review and a survey of industry
specialist and experts to explore the current state of Industry 4.0 in order to answer the
research question
“How can adopting Industry 4.0 technologies influence the Egyptian oil and gas
industry’s entities value chain activities, and how can this influence be assessed?”
The research aims to (1) identify Industry 4.0 technologies analyzing the influence of
each on the Egyptian oil and gas value chain through a literature review and specialist
evaluation method, and (2) develop a generic impact tool applicable to evaluate the
adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies on Porter's value chain primary activities.
By combining important concepts and theories to gain insight into value chain
developments in the context of Industry 4.0, the findings provided significant
information for industry stakeholders and researchers, allowing them to make educated
decisions about technology adoption and optimizing value chain activities.

Text in English, abstracts in English.