SARAWAK SHELL BERHAD wins dual honours for engineering data automation and cloud innovation

The company’s initiative demonstrates that it is leveraging digital innovation to modernise upstream operations.

Sarawak Shell Berhad (SSB) secured top honours in the Information Management - Oil & Gas and Cloud - Oil & Gas categories at the Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards 2026, recognising the company’s leadership in deploying advanced digital solutions that strengthen operational efficiency, data intelligence, and sustainable energy transition efforts.

In the Information Management - Oil & Gas category, the company was recognised for developing DELTA and DocuBot, two automation tools that address a longstanding industry challenge in engineering data management. For decades, critical engineering and asset information in the oil and gas sector has been stored in scanned drawings and legacy documents that contain unstructured data. These drawings are essential to maintaining asset integrity and operational safety, yet extracting information from them traditionally required time-consuming manual processes.

Manual extraction of asset tags from these documents was not only labour-intensive but also prone to errors, making it difficult to maintain accurate records or support advanced digital initiatives such as digital twin technology.

To overcome this limitation, SSB’s team developed DELTA and DocuBot, purpose-built automation tools designed to extract asset tags from complex engineering drawings. The technology is capable of processing both scanned and softcopy documents, including diagrams with intricate layouts, multi-line labels, and hand-drawn annotations.

By leveraging automation-first design and advanced regular expression logic, the system converts scattered engineering tags embedded within legacy drawings into structured data that can be integrated into Shell’s Engineering Data Warehouse. This structured intelligence allows engineers and operations teams to access accurate asset information more quickly and reliably, supporting improved maintenance planning, operational oversight, and compliance requirements.

The automation tools reduced processing time by 95%, enabling the team to process approximately 29,000 drawings in record time whilst avoiding the need for additional full-time hires. Beyond operational efficiency, the initiative also accelerates Shell’s readiness for digital twin deployment by ensuring historical engineering data can be integrated into digital asset models. By bridging decades of fragmented documentation, the solution transforms legacy data into a valuable digital resource that supports safer and more efficient operations.

SSB’s second award in the Cloud - Oil & Gas category recognises the successful deployment of its Cloud@Shell platform, a secure cloud infrastructure designed to support digital innovation and energy transition initiatives across Shell Malaysia Upstream.

SSB collaborated with a leading cloud service provider to establish Cloud@Shell, a platform designed with governance, cybersecurity, and compliance at its core. The system combines Shell’s internal expertise in architecture standards, networking, and regulatory compliance with scalable cloud infrastructure capabilities. The result is a compliant-by-design environment that allows teams to deploy digital applications quickly whilst maintaining strict security and data management controls.

The Cloud@Shell platform went live in August 2025, marking a key milestone in Shell Malaysia Upstream’s digital transformation journey. Following the launch, the organisation migrated approximately 35 terabytes of data from legacy physical storage systems to an Online File Service hosted within the new cloud environment. The migration was completed in October 2025, enabling improved accessibility, scalability, and lifecycle management of operational data.

The transition delivered substantial operational benefits, including a 69% reduction in overall operational costs. The platform also strengthened compliance with data residency regulations and improved governance through automated policy enforcement and repeatable deployment guardrails. These features allow new digital workloads to be onboarded quickly without requiring extensive re-engineering, making the platform scalable across future projects.

In addition to cost and efficiency gains, the adoption of a pay-as-you-go cloud model has contributed to lower energy consumption by reducing reliance on traditional data centre infrastructure. This supports Shell’s broader decarbonisation strategy and sustainability targets whilst enabling the deployment of advanced analytics and AI-driven applications.

The Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards, presented by Asian Business Review, recognises exceptional companies at the forefront of technological innovation and digital transformation, playing a pivotal role in driving Malaysia's rapidly growing economy to greater heights.

The Malaysia Technology Excellence Awards is presented by Asian Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2027 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding contributions in pursuit of technological innovation, please contact Danica Avila (+65) 3158 1386 or [email protected].