The future of the oil and gas industry is not as bleak as many are predicting it to be, with technology set to play a major role in how the industry is set to evolve, said Abdul Nasser Al Mughairbi, group SVP of digital at Adnoc. Speaking in a conference session at the 38th Gitex Technology Week exhibition, he noted that the speed of technology development has never been faster or its potential impact as powerful. "We don't see oil as ending anytime soon; we might not use it as an energy source much in the future, but oil and gas will continue to play an indispensable role in fuelling global energy demand," he said. He added: "Big data is going to be the foundation of all our future digital transformation strategies. Our studies show that 80 per cent of oil and gas data will be unstructured by 2020. We see opportunities created by new technologies everywhere, ranging from optimising our production capacity to enhancing our drilling performance."