Special Interview:
Digital Transformation at Cosmo

Towards Vision 2030:
A new era of DX at Cosmo,
powered by data and people

Dr. Noriko Rzonca Senior Executive Officer, CDO
In charge of Corporate DX Strategy Dept.,
Corporate Communication Dept.,
and IT Initiative Dept.

Dr. John Markus Lervik Founder
Cognite AS

Cosmo’s DX amid a period of transformation

Dr. Rzonca
The environment surrounding the Cosmo Energy Group is rapidly changing. There are three social trends in our Vision 2030. First is the decreasing demand for petroleum. It is necessary to explore ways to continue operations amid declining demand and pursue next-generation energy businesses. Second is the declining birthrate and aging population, which means that there are fewer people working in the field and makes it necessary to use digital tools to increase efficiency. Third is the objective of carbon neutrality.
Dr. Lervik
There is a more balanced view in the world now on the need for energy security and ensuring access to affordable energy. We also see demographic challenges coming in as well, which leads to an increasing need for automation. These are some of the mega trends. Digital initiatives have now become a core, integrated part of both strategy and operations, and AI is further accelerating digital transformation.
Dr. Rzonca
The key to securing our profitability lies in high uptime and highly efficient operations at our refineries. To achieve this, we have introduced Cognite Data Fusion® (CDF) as a data integration and contextualization platform for petroleum refining. By consolidating data previously held by each division, we are able to visualize and predict issues, thereby improving productivity, efficiency, and safety.
Dr. Lervik
It’s exactly as you said. With the introduction of CDF, employees can achieve a more collaborative and efficient way of working. Furthermore, by integrating the entire refining value chain and modeling it in a virtual space (digital twin), it becomes possible to apply generative AI. This allows all employees—not just data scientists—to access data and automate industrial workflows using so-called AI agents.
It is crucial to focus on business value in DX initiatives across industrial plants, rather than simply focusing on maximizing the number of use cases, without any coordination between factories.
Cosmo and Cognite are working to estimate and measure overall business targets and deploy cross-functional solutions and use cases as a systematic digital program. This will lead to significantly improved return on investment, and we see companies globally looking to Cosmo and adopting the same approach.

Impacts of Cosmo’s DX

Dr. Rzonca
In 2022, we began a data integration platform construction project and started discussing data orchestration and contextualization. In the early stages, the progress made in organizing the vast amounts of data generated at refineries and their interrelationships through the use of AI was well received by refinery personnel, and the possibility of further application has grown.
We are now consolidating all operational data in CDF. As a result, employees have been able to reduce the time spent searching for files and data by 70-80%, allowing them to devote more time to advanced analysis and decision making. In addition, by consolidating photos of the refinery site in CDF, it is possible to construct a virtual reality (VR) environment, allowing operators to check site conditions and necessary data simultaneously from the control room or office.
Dr. Lervik
I believe that aligning DX initiatives with strategy and business value is of utmost importance. In addition, it is important for subject matter experts who are familiar with industrial plants to take the lead and demonstrate strong leadership, as you have, in consolidating data from different departments and systems and building a solid, future-proof foundation.
Dr. Rzonca
Exactly. Close collaboration among our IT, operations, and management teams is key to these achievements.
Our DX initiatives to date have also boosted employee confidence and motivation. Employees are becoming more proactive now that problems are visible thanks to orchestrated, contextualized data.
Dr. Lervik
It's amazing to see the energy within the Cosmo Energy team. Your company has developed a very strong culture of autonomous engagement in DX, and the speed of transformation and change goes way beyond individual use cases.
Dr. Rzonca
By building a data integration platform, we have already generated savings of around ¥1.0 billion, mainly in IT development and maintenance costs. In the future, we expect to be able to shorten equipment shutdown periods due to problems at refineries, optimize repair parts inventory, and consolidate functions. Currently, we are focusing on the maintenance area, but expanding into the operations and construction areas and further extending to the entire supply chain could lead to further cost reductions.
Dr. Lervik
Unifying data and using AI helps improve decision making for optimization across the industrial value chain. By combining data and AI with physical simulation, it is generally expected that costs can be reduced by approximately 10-15% in terms of maintenance and reliability. Furthermore, productivity can be improved, including increases in production yield.
As evidenced by this example, we must not underestimate the value of a strong corporate culture and key talent. These lead to more innovative ideas and attract skilled professionals. CEOs of large companies we work with have stated that, from a corporate sustainability perspectve, a corporate culture that attracts talent is an important intangible asset.
Dr. Rzonca
I always feel that corporate culture plays a crucial role. In fact, more talent has come to Cosmo since we began showcasing our digital initiatives.
As I mentioned earlier, our competitive advantage lies in our corporate culture, and it is our people who embody that culture and drive our projects to success.
Our company has defined five key elements (Cosmo’s 5C) for human resources in promoting DX.
Frontline employees view current challenges as opportunities (Chance) and work together as project teams to tackle them (Challenge). They communicate (Communicate) closely with each other and with the IT department, and collaborate with top management to bring about change (Change) with dedication (Commit). Both top-down and bottom-up approaches are necessary, and these are key to successful DX. Furthermore, without collaboration with partners who bring deep insight, it is impossible to move forward with a sense of speed.
One example of this is RCoE. The project team took the lead in introducing RCoE at Cosmo Oil’s Chiba Refinery in FY2024, drawing on use cases from other companies that have already introduced CDF. With the introduction of RCoE, maintenance functions have been consolidated, enabling us to strengthen preventive maintenance by comprehensively ascertaining data from other refineries while remaining at a single refinery.

Future development in the digital plant field

Dr. Rzonca
As Japan faces a shrinking workforce and aging population, it is crucial to consider how to maintain and pass on accumulated knowledge and expertise.
To achieve this, in addition to further leveraging generative AI, it is also necessary to build digital plants in the next-generation energy field. In areas such as SAF and CCS, digitization will be implemented from the plant design stage and modeling will be performed in a virtual space, resulting in significant advantages over conventional methods in terms of communication.
Dr. Lervik
From Cognite’s perspective, there are two key areas for future development. One is to utilize industrial data and AI to aim for autonomous workflows and operations. The second is integrating a larger part of the industrial value chain. We integrate not only facilities and factories but also everything from projects to operations, supported by AI.
Cognite is a leader in the field of industrial AI, offering many innovative services. However, to achieve continued innovation and improvements, partnerships with leading companies around the world, including Cosmo, are essential.
Cosmo has established itself as a strategic leader driving change in the digital plant field.
Dr. Rzonca
We aim to lead the world through digital transformation. In Cosmo’s DX 1.0, we took on many issues to build a solid foundation. Under DX 2.0, we are going to aim for the top and hope to see huge business impact over the next three years. The important thing is that each employee feels passion and confidence when it comes to DX, which is key to overcoming the challenges our business faces. We are going to show the world what we should do and commit to driving DX.