Empowering Industries with Technology and Driving Innovation: OKET's Role in the Petrochemical Sector.
Following the widespread application of computers and the internet, the Internet of Things (IoT) has found extensive use across various industries. With the development of IoT, the management and technological levels in the petroleum industry have also seen continuous improvement.
As a technology service provider deeply rooted in the petroleum and petrochemical sector for over 20 years, Qingdao OKET Technology Co., Ltd. (OKET) has been at the forefront of integrating IoT and new materials into the petroleum industry. How does OKET achieve this integration, promoting industrial upgrading for petroleum and petrochemical enterprises? To explore these questions, we had the opportunity to interview Mr. Wang Yan, Chairman and General Manager of OKET.
1. Empowering Industries with Technology and Driving Innovation
China Petroleum and Petrochemical Magazine (CPPM): Hello, Mr. Wang! As a high-tech enterprise with over two decades of research and industry experience, what services does OKET provide to the petroleum and petrochemical industry?
Mr. Wang Yan: OKET provides various products and solutions to downstream and midstream petroleum and petrochemical enterprises, including refining and storage, loading and unloading, transportation, and retail. Our offerings encompass new materials, sensors, instrumentation, software platforms, and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
Over the years, OKET has adhered to the core value of being a reliable and considerate partner for customers. We combine new materials and IoT technologies to continuously deliver high-quality intelligent products, solutions, and excellent services to the industry.
CPPM: OKET has become a practitioner in combining industrial IoT with new materials for physical industry entities. Could you elaborate on this?
Mr. Wang Yan: Currently, OKET has two major business segments. One is the industrial IoT for the petroleum and petrochemical industry, including several high-tech enterprises such as OKET Instruments and OKET Software, which focus on sensors, instrumentation, and software. The other segment involves composite materials, including A&Z, a composite material production service company, inspection and testing institutions, and the HK Composites Advanced Materials Research Institute.
These two business segments represent OKET's continuous innovation, embodying industry demand exploration and technological solution implementation. This is the essence of OKET's mission: technology empowering industries and business driving innovation.
By understanding and exploring customer needs, followed by technology research and development and production transformation, OKET's products and solutions can be categorized into four major types: anticorrosive and lightweight composite materials, accurate and reliable sensor automation systems for measurement and management of quantity and quality, sensor and software systems for safety and environmental risk monitoring and control, and intelligent equipment for safety process interlocking and control.
OKET's products and solutions are further classified into three fields based on their application sectors: refueling and dispensing stations, transportation, and chemical warehousing and loading and unloading.
2. Deep Integration for Intelligent Applications
CPPM: We understand that OKET has been actively participating in setting China national and industry standards for fuel stations and has achieved outstanding market performance. Can you elaborate on how OKET combines new materials with industrial IoT to drive intelligent applications?
Mr. Wang Yan: OKET's involvement in setting China national and industry standards is indeed related to our 20 years of understanding the industry and customer business. Currently, OKET's products and solutions are applied in more than 20 countries and regions. In the domestic market, our cooperation includes large petroleum companies such as PetroChina and Sinopec, numerous hazardous chemical production and storage enterprises, and transportation companies.
For refueling stations, OKET has installed over 20,000 underground composite material storage tanks, which are currently serving refueling stations. At the same time, in terms of industrial IoT, over 30,000 fuel stations are using OKET's more than 200,000 liquid level and environmental monitoring sensors. By connecting equipment in the station, we have created an IoT application, enabling further intelligence in refueling station metering, safety, and environmental management.
In the transportation sector, OKET has introduced an intelligent hazardous chemical transportation solution. The core of this solution is cargo transportation management, achieved through real-time liquid cargo quantity monitoring with liquid level meters, monitoring of tank valves through embedded electronic sensors, combined with discharge system and water sensors for comprehensive real-time monitoring of enclosed transportation management. The system, coupled with vehicle systems and software management platforms, enhances process management, ensuring higher efficiency, safety, and environmental protection, while reducing transportation losses. Currently, this system has been applied to thousands of oil tank trucks for clients such as Shell, BP, PetroChina, and China Aviation Oil.
For chemical warehousing and loading and unloading, OKET provides source governance and essential safety solutions. Specifically, through the application of advanced composite materials combined with IoT technology, OKET empowers metering, safety, and environmental protection management in the petrochemical sector. Our products cover the VAP-O-LOC® advanced full-contact liquid sealing float, large tank radar level meters, quantitative dispatching systems, mass flowmeters, and intelligent equipment for safety interlocking and control during loading and unloading operations. These product solutions have been implemented in hundreds of chemical and storage companies.
3. Increased Investment for Industrial Upgrading
CPPM: Focusing on customer needs is the key to OKET's future growth. What efforts has the company made in this aspect?
Mr. Wang Yan: One aspect is increasing investment in technology research and development. Currently, OKET has seven R&D teams, including two software R&D teams in Shanghai and Qingdao, an AI exploration team, two hardware R&D teams, and two composite material R&D teams (one for application and the other at the Advanced Materials Research Institute).
On the other hand, to better serve customers, OKET continuously invests in exploring customer needs. For instance, besides marketing personnel, technical research and development staff also visit customers and users. We firmly believe that good technology and products must be well aligned with customer business and application scenarios to create value for customers.
CPPM: Looking ahead, what additional investments will be made to further empower various industry customers with industrial IoT technology for industrial upgrading?
Mr. Wang Yan: In addition to the mentioned technology research and development and solution implementation, as well as understanding and exploring customer needs, there are two other aspects.
Firstly, we will focus on fundamental directions, specifically, the development and manufacturing of high-quality, high-end sensors. we need to increase investment to overcome some technical challenges in sensor research and development and optimize more suitable processes for production and manufacturing.
Secondly, we need to address the issue of choosing the IoT technology route and matching stages in industrial IoT. Implementing IoT and digitization in industrial fields, especially in the petroleum and petrochemical sector, is an ongoing process. Finding the most suitable technology and providing the most appropriate technical and implementation solutions to customers at different stages requires further investment from our side.
Looking ahead, OKET will further support the retail management, transportation management, warehousing, and loading and unloading management in the petroleum and petrochemical sector. We aim to improve industry customers' management efficiency, safety, and environmental protection through our products and solutions, reduce costs and risks, and be a reliable and considerate partner to ensure customers' worry-free and entrusted operations.