Reuters Events Downstream’s Post

Transcript

Hello, Vicky. How are you doing today? Great. Donna, how are you? Good to hear you. Thank you so much for for joining us today. We're very excited as I was telling you earlier on when we spoke, I'm excited to to have you and we're all excited to have you at Downstream 2024 for our audience and our community. Do you mind sharing a little bit about your role in in the industry? Sure. Yeah. I've been in the in the petrochemical polymer industry for a long time, but my current role is one of Vice President Research and Technology. And with that we I have a very good team that supports me in setting the path for the future in terms of the kind of things we do that are more sustainable, enduring and what is good for the industry and our customers and the communities and employees. So our job is to really. My job is really to oversee the research operations where we do look to the future and start to develop products and ideas that will meet the challenges for the times to come. And I'm especially proud of our team, which is well endowed with extremely bright people looking to the future and setting the pathway for that, so that that it's an easy job. If you ask me, it's leading a team of brilliant people doing brilliant. Thinks it's a matter of guiding, providing leadership and support. Wonderful. Very humble. Venky. That sounds like a very important role, specifically you know, looking forward to the future and of the industry, I'd say more so as you said to the challenges that we see coming. You know, to deal with the tap, whatever we have to tackle with is is not easy, right? In your in in your opinion, what are some of these challenges? What are the most important challenges that you think the industry has to face? Sure. I think the challenges, if you want to think of them as such, are real opportunities for a team like what we have at Chevron Phillips, because we tend to think of these as as opportunities for us to do work today setting us ourselves up for the future. So what do we see coming in and mega trends is that. Plastics, the industry we are in, Petro chemicals and polymers. Have generally not been understood well by the community at large. The amount of virtue that the product and the industry provides is. It's enormous, but all people think about when they think about followers and plastics are the waste management side of it, the visibility of plastic waste lingering in oceans and. Rates and making a there's a whole lot of attention and focus to that. So the challenge is really to say see this as an opportunity of how we could address plastic waste, but keep the virtue and the and and the goodness of what plastics, how it makes people's life better. You know, if you look at the diversity of the applications we have, I think McKinsey data study where out of the 14 applications, 13 of them. Plastics wins in terms of providing the UH the, the functionality as versus a lower carbon footprint. So our challenge is really to get the messaging and the actions correct so that the perspective and the perception is is sort of tuned towards making lives better without increasing the carbon footprint. So the other challenge of course that goes with it besides circularity of making plastics more circular is is how do we lower the emissions. And that's a that's a very real issue and I don't think any of us are ignoring it. As technologies evolve and as economics become more meaningful, the decarbonization effects are going to be a big part of our industry and a challenge. It's really, as I said, we look at it as an opportunity because we do get to deploy the best technologies to lower emissions as a company. I'm delighted to say we're embarking at a number of those efforts in a meaningful way and measurable way. So to me, beside those the the challenges of AI and. Just digital side of how things are progressing, you almost need to transform your business and that's as good in the sense that it takes the human error and human performance to a next level. And I think we are focused on that well. So I think I would put it as threesome, the circularity and the waste management. One on decarbonization and which could only be good as we approach. The net zero sort of targets and the the last part is looking at how could we make our life better with digital tools and technologies that help us move the ball in terms of being a contemporary as well as relevant and take the human performance errors and such out of. Give you a long answer but I hope it fits the bill. That yeah no it's it's it's perfect. Thank you so much. I think I was I was just saying that these things are are really you know complex but it's so good to hear that they said at the forefront of of of leaders in the industry like you that are trying to embrace the positive changes and and really make the most out of what's available to to deal with challenges going forward. I think you know circularity as I said is more important than ever the adoption of new technologies. And and an AI all these things are super relevant but they require a a complex sort of coordination between different industry members and and I think you know that's it's it's it's good to sit at the forefront of that. What will you be speaking on a downstream 2024, is that related to some of these challenges? Yeah, suddenly expect to talk about. The challenges and opportunities that as an industry we have and how CPM is. Navigating its way through with a with a. Sort of a road map on each of these different dimensions of. Megatrends that we we believe is the right thing to do so. Wonderful. I guess in general what makes you most excited about about participating in the event in June downstream 2024? What are the things that? Make you feel excited to attend. No, I'm glad you all said Donna. I think we all, if you think about it, it's by discussions, dialogue, we find the common thread of where the where as an industry we approach these challenges and and make opportunities out of them. So for me the exciting part is being able to talk about these in a forum where you get to see some common threads around these, there's some convergence around the. Hot processes, perspectives and ideas of the industry needs to work on together. Collaboration is gonna be key to success in these Big lift items, right none of us independently could make. The impact to the environment and or the circularity by doing it ourselves it's it's going to be as a collaborative it's sort of a industry consortiums and. Discussions and seminars and. These forums that help keep the issues in forefront and it drives it forward as there is enough inertia and momentum that comes out of these discussions are very energizing. They are very relevant to what we need to do. So for me that's the exciting part is where there is a. A place to air out all of what's going on and what we're doing about it. And that's that's how I see it so. Looking forward to it. Wonderful. We we also look forward to see you there and hear your wonderful insight. It sounds like you have a lot to share and you know I think everybody who will be in the audience is definitely privileged to have the chance to to hear those thoughts and you know, participate in the discussion as well. Well, yeah, that's it from from me for today. Venky, thank you so much for your time and yeah, looking forward to to keep the collaboration going. Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity. Thanks for everything. Take care. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Thanks.