As a young engineering graduate in Algeria, I was shaped by a simple but powerful principle instilled by my parents: the status quo should never go unchallenged. While fossil energy has fueled a century of industrial and digital progress, I strongly believe its environmental impact can—and must—be mitigated through innovation. And each of us has a role to play in driving this transition and contributing to a more sustainable energy future.

That’s no small feat for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

I've spent 20+ years of my career with SLB working in MENA, and I’ve seen firsthand how complex and important decarbonization is for this part of the world. But national oil companies are now leading a responsible transition—leveraging scale, technology, and long-term investment to advance lower-carbon and more efficient operations.

Just within SLB over the past three years, we’ve seen an increasing number of customers deploying Transition Technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts across drilling, completions, and production operations.

One specific trend that’s gaining traction? Using lower-carbon materials for well construction.

Deploying low-carbon geopolymer systems in the UAE reduced CO2 emissions during surface casing cementing by nearly 85% compared to traditional cement. Zero-flaring well test and cleanup tech is helping operators in Oman avoid tens of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. Then there's at-bit steerable systems, which recently delivered a 16,500-foot lateral and 377 circulating hours in a single run and set a new benchmark for unconventional field development in the region.

But while more customers than ever before are embracing next-gen tech across production, rig power management, stimulation systems, and cuttings reinjection, what I'm most excited about is decarbonization’s future. A future driven by AI, digital platforms, fully autonomous workflows, and closed-loop field optimization.

I already see the combination of domain expertise with real-time intelligence and predictive analytics reducing emissions intensity per barrel produced. And all while continuing to deliver the energy the world needs.

That’s what makes this work so meaningful to me.

Every reduced flare, hour of rig time saved, and digital workflow deployed is a step toward a more responsible energy future. The challenge is significant, but so is the momentum. And in a region that has long helped power the world, we now have the chance to help define what lower-carbon energy production can look like at scale.

I have a feeling that the next 100 years of SLB will be even more influential than the last.