Explaining the reasons for emerging tech startups in the upstream oil industry and their specific challenges

In the 1990s, wWith the diminution of the role of international oil companies in technology development in the upstream oil industry, oilfield services companies are responsible for identifying and providing the technological needs of the upstream oil industry. Given the high risk and cost of developing and commercializing technologies with radical innovations, leading oilfield services companies are pursuing incremental innovations that have led to the emergence of tech startups to the upstream oil industry with the mission of carrying out often radical innovations. Nowadays, the edge of technology in many of the technological areas of the upstream oil industry is in the hand of a large number of small knowledge-based companies, most of which are often based on successful tech-startups. In the future, startups as the arm of the development of radical technologies in the upstream oil industry are highly regarded by the managers of innovative firms in the upstream oil industry. Based on this, after reviewing the trend of changes in the approaches and the role of upstream oil industry players in technology development, this paper outline the role of tech startups as innovation engines in the upstream oil industry and their specific challenges are discussed in this area.