Collaboration between Israel’s vibrant innovation ecosystem and the global energy industry catalyzes strategic growth on both sides. Take for example the recent visit to Israel by Halliburton’s innovation delegation that left Israel a week ago.
Israel’s innovation ecosystem has always been on Halliburton’s radar, but immediately after the delegation’s intensive visit to Israel, during which members had the opportunity to closely examine Israeli startups and technologies, Halliburton’s innovation team named Israel as one of its main sources of innovative technologies.
Sustainability, increasing energy efficiencies, cost reduction, were the main points of focus of Halliburton’s innovation delegation. To that end, while in Israel, the delegation had the opportunity to explore dozens of Israeli startups that specialize in data analytics, AI, robotics, automation, IoT, chemistry, and materials solutions. The Halliburton team met with startups from these fields and leading researchers from Israeli academia, all presenting relevant tech solutions.
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The visit to Israel started at the Weizmann Institute of Science, which is considered to be one of the leading global institutes for science and boasts several Nobel Prize winners among its researchers. The highly developed TTO (Technology Transfer Office) hosts revolutionary inventions, such as Copaxone, a drug that dramatically improves the life quality of those suffering from Multi Sclerosis, and the RSA encryption algorithm (for which the developers won the Turing Award, among many others).
After the successful meeting with representatives from Israel’s academia, the delegation arrived at the Energy 2023 Conference, which was organized by Energean, the FTSE 250-listed East Mediterranean natural gas company, and Halliburton.
The next few days were dedicated to face-to-face meetings with innovators and Technion researchers, which resulted in a high rate of scheduled follow-up meetings. All meetings were initiated and arranged by the ISROG team, which has close and ongoing relations with members of the Israeli innovation ecosystem.
Halliburton executives were impressed by the large potential they found in Israel for energy and tech innovation. Already familiar with the Israeli spirit the Halliburton teams are confident that there is much to gain from adopting technologies developed in Israel.
Israel is a dynamic location for tech innovation and is proud of its “start-up nation” status. Embracing its entrepreneurial spirit, the country has become a global leader in tech innovation over the last few decades. Tel Aviv alone is home to the 5th highest number of unicorns globally, and across the country, there are thousands of Israeli entrepreneurs, hi-tech start-ups, and researchers all contributing to the country’s leading suite of hi-tech exports. Israel’s tech sector accounts for more than half of the country’s total exports, and the country continues to lead the world in investment in R&D as a proportion of GDP.[1]
Regarding the number of technology startups, Israel is second only to California’s Silicon Valley, with Israeli startups having raised over US$25 billion in 2022 alone.
The country’s R&D excellence comes from a combination of top-tier human resources, a “can-do” culture of thinking “out of the box,” and a natural tendency to take the initiative and accept risk, all backed up by excellent business, policy and technological infrastructure.
The meetings that the Halliburton innovation delegation attended in Israel during their visit were just the tip of the iceberg regarding innovative solutions that the Israeli ecosystem can offer to the energy industry. We are looking forward to continuing to work with Halliburton and are certain that Halliburton will find many more advanced technologies in Israel that facilitate, work to reduce costs, and dramatically reduce environmental impact toward the company’s net-zero future.
[1] Israel Innovation Authority, Part A: Israeli High-Tech 2022 Situation Report