Oil companies should improve their use of IT, says Bichsel

Damon Evans talks to Matthias Bichsel, former director of projects and technology at Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell about the prospects for innovation and collaboration in the oil and gas business

Matthias Bichsel, who retired from Shell earlier this year, is a strong believer in open innovation and collaboration. For Bichsel, who enjoyed a career at Shell spanning more than three decades, collaboration with companies outside the oil and gas business offers huge potential - and the energy industry is realising this. In 2009, he reorganised Shell's technical development department to 'radically open up' whom the company would collaborate with to take advantage of new opportunities, particularly within the information technology (IT) sector. Working together with the IT industry can help boost the power of technological innovation in areas where the oil and gas business has become compl