Pejman Omid-Moqadam, acting director general for information technology development, security and smart government at the ministry, said the platform is being built under a comprehensive ministry plan. He spoke ahead of the Second National Conference on Data Governance and Artificial Intelligence, which will be held Oct. 13-14 at the University of Tehran with the ministry's support.

Omid-Moqadam said the ministry has identified existing capacities and is pursuing data governance and an insight-based data economy, with cooperation already under way. He said the ministry is working with domestic specialists and one of the country's top universities.

He said the necessary structures are taking shape. Many employees have completed initial training and will soon begin work as "data supervisors," he said, with their appointment orders due to be signed and issued shortly.

Data silos a key challenge

Omid-Moqadam said a major problem for the industry is that much of its data is stored in isolated silos, with too few standards for exchanging information and making systems work together. That, he said, makes a dedicated oil industry data hub and a governance platform more urgent.

He listed other challenges, including weak centralized data policy, a proliferation of isolated systems, differences in technology generations, poor quality in some data and unclear ownership of some information.

Conference aims

Omid-Moqadam said the conference is not meant to produce a roadmap or policy document directly. Its first aim, he said, is to help industry IT specialists and academics get to know one another so they can tackle existing problems. Other goals include sharing practical experience, presenting recent research and building networks among specialists in the oil industry, other sectors and academia.

He said staff who will help draft the ministry's data catalog and artificial intelligence architecture will benefit from updating their knowledge. Selected executives from the ministry's subsidiary companies will attend a specialized session, he said, and follow-up meetings will continue within the ministry and its four main companies.

The conference is to cover operational frameworks for data governance, data architecture and quality, integration and exchange, data security and confidentiality, and the use of smart technologies in business. A dedicated oil industry session will bring together senior executives of the four main companies.

Artificial intelligence projects

Omid-Moqadam said several artificial intelligence projects have been defined and are being pursued at the ministry's subsidiaries, and he expects them to be carried out in a more coordinated way in the future. He said the ministry's approach is broad and integrated, with risk management and attention to security.

Using artificial intelligence while protecting sensitive information and critical infrastructure is a major international challenge, he said, and the ministry is drawing on successful global experience to chart its path.

Standards, training

The ministry has begun developing infrastructure and promoting a data-driven culture, he said, and is working on guidelines and standards for specialized fields to allow orderly data management, access and exchange.

He said the measures of the conference's success will include stronger links between data and AI specialists, improved data literacy among employees and a review of successful and failed projects.

Omid-Moqadam said the country's Administrative and Recruitment Organization has issued programs to raise employee skills in data and artificial intelligence. The ministry plans to update its own skills programs and carry out a comprehensive employee training plan, he said.

He said the oil industry welcomes cooperation with universities and knowledge-based companies to solve real problems.