Turkey Petroleum Refineries Inc. (Tüpraş) has signed a long-term cooperation deal with the Emerald Industrial Innovation Fund, a part of Emerald Technology Ventures, to invest in new technology companies, the refining giant confirmed in a statement Tuesday.
Being a part of the Emerald Industrial Innovation Fund as an investor with the agreement, Tüpraş aims to invest in new technology startups in the U.S. and Europe to contribute to the energy transformation, increase its competitiveness in its current activities while closely following the jobs of the future, the statement said.
Tüpraş deputy general manager for Investments and Planning, Levent Zağra, said they aim to follow operational and strategic technologies that will affect the entire energy sector.
Zağra said modern refining activities include crude oil processing that has a sort of technological maturity in one way, however, those activities also "require the use of new technologies such as data analytics, nanotechnology, robot applications, and IoT (Internet of Things)," noting that with this way, they "support energy efficiency, sustainability, work safety processes and our competitive power."
"Tüpraş, which is Europe's 7th largest refinery with 30 million tons of crude oil processing capacity, plans to increase and diversify its investments by reaching out to new technology companies," Zağra said.
He added that they want to explore the jobs of the future and find new growth areas by investing in those fields.
"Our technology, innovation and research and development (R&D) investments are always our priority agenda to prepare Tüpraş for the future," Zağra said, noting that the company, which is also part of the Koç Group Innovation Program, has been carrying out inhouse entrepreneurship program since 2017 to convert innovative ideas of the employees into commercial value.
He added that Tüpraş, the country's largest oil refinery and the company with highest net sales, has also been cooperating with local startups that are part of Turkey’s innovative ecosystem.
Emerald Managing Partner Gina Domanig said they were pleased to partner up with Tüpraş in startups and innovation.
She said Emerald has partnered with international energy companies for a long time. "With the participation of Tüpraş, we will continue to strengthen our work in the field of industrial technologies in the energy sector," she added.
Referring to change as a must for every sector in today’s world, Domanig said: "Game-changing technologies and business models are reshaping existing models. To be successful, companies of tomorrow will have to reinvent business models, adopt new technologies and operate in new ways that cross traditional organizational boundaries. Given the number of players in the sectors and the fast-moving nature of change, there are many initiatives and creative activities that need to be monitored and evaluated."
Operating in the fields of energy, water, advanced materials and industrial information technologies with offices in Zurich, Toronto and Singapore, Emerald has invested more than $660 million in asset management and more than 60 new technology companies to date.