Symeon Kassianides: The reality is that hydrocarbons are not going away

As someone at the helm of a software company that specialises in providing innovative solutions to the oil & gas and petrochemical industries, Symeon Kassianides, Chairman and CEO of Hyperion Systems Engineering Group’s headquarters is well placed to explain why the hoped-for goal of decarbonisation is not being achieved.

“There are desires, expectations and reality,” Kassianides said, “And the reality is that hydrocarbons are not going away.”

In a recent interview with GOLD magazine, he also discussed the various ups and downs of an entrepreneur’s life and the parallels between art, music and technology.

On the staircase to the rooftop of Hyperion Systems Engineering Group’s headquarters is a permanent fixture that seems almost defiantly anachronistic: a red jukebox. Downstairs, several old Cyta telephone booths await repurposing into realms of silence where employees can make phone calls.

The software company, which specialises in providing innovative solutions to the oil & gas and petrochemical industries, appears to represent a cluster of juxtapositions, a description that could apply to those industries themselves, caught as they are between the pull of high oil & gas revenues – and the countries needing cheap electricity – and the global political push to phase out fossil fuels. From behind his desk, the company’s CEO and Chairman Symeon Kassianides cuts to the chase. “There are desires, expectations and reality,” he says. “And the reality is that hydrocarbons are not going away.”

How Hyperion began

In 1991, Symeon Kassianides was full of options. Having just obtained his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London, following a Bachelor’s degree from MIT in the same field, he had job offers from the UK and the US in abundance.

One came from Aspen Technologies, Inc., a NASDAQ-listed bigwig in the software-for-process-industries sector, which was willing to back the commercialisation of his research – it described a training simulator for the process industries, which was a rarity back then. But instead of hopping onto the fast track for corporate success, Kassianides chose a rather more romantic path – one that had the touch of youthful naïveté – to commercialise his research, starting from Cyprus.

He reflects, “It was a combination of duty and family and a desire to see if something different could happen in this place.” The job offers from abroad would cushion his entrepreneurial leap in case things went belly-up, a real possibility in Cyprus at the time when raising venture capital was a foreign concept and commercial banks were the only financing option available. “Looking back,” he admits, “it was an impossibility because we were trying to convince the local banks to give us money for something they didn’t understand, for a market they had no control over or any knowledge of.”

It took him a gruelling 18 months to raise the money and would have taken even longer had it not been for a serendipitous twist of fate. Besides Aspen Tech’s willingness to back him and his alma maters lending a hand, the European Investment Bank had released funds to stimulate startups and new companies. The funds were controlled by the then government-owned Cyprus Development Bank, which agreed to finance, so long as the EIB provided a 100% guarantee – it did.

Hyperion soon took off, becoming a global entity with three companies under one roof offering consulting, advisory and software engineering solutions. It was involved in over 500 projects in more than 50 countries, and its client list reads like a who’s who of global energy: Saudi Aramco, Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Lukoil, Lafarge and a host of other state-owned and private giants. From Cyprus, the Group expanded into Greece, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, India, the UK and the US, with active operations in markets as far-flung as Brazil, Japan, China and Singapore. There were a few bumps in the road but having one foot in oil & gas and the other in petrochemicals – two industries with inverse economic cycles – allowed Hyperion to ride the market’s ups and downs.

And then came the pandemic.

Facing up to global challenges

In April 2020, as government lockdowns swept across the globe to contain COVID-19, oil demand plummeted at an unprecedented rate. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies slashed oil production by a staggering 9.7 million barrels per day during March and April. Massive layoffs followed and refineries and plants were shut, some temporarily, others for good. Kassianides remembers that some companies wouldn’t even answer the phone anymore. By the end of that chaotic year, in North America alone, over 100 oil & gas firms had filed for bankruptcy, including 46 exploration and production firms and 61 oil-field service companies – representing some US$100 billion of debt.

For Kassianides, the life of an entrepreneur has always been an uneasy juxtaposition: moments of excitement mingled with others of disappointment and grief. “Typically, what is important is recognition and achieving milestones. Surviving a crisis is a big one,” he says. “What we’ve learned in terms of survival and resilience and dealing with difficult times is that this is not for everybody. I mean, if you don’t have the strength of organisation and character to deal with troubled times, you should not pursue this path.”

For Kassianides, the right question to ask during a storm is where you will end up after it passes, and to find out, you must survive. Hyperion took drastic measures, he says, which did not please everyone – they included reducing the workforce, selling parts of the business and shutting down offices globally. Today, it operates with a leaner team of 45 local employees, while total global manpower, including contractors, is 150-160. “Last year, we fully turned into the black and I think we’re now back into growth mode with good profitability. So, hopefully, we have weathered the storm and we’ll just wait for the next one to come,” he says and laughs, as one of those who relish a challenge.

Creating problem-solving software

One of the most innovative products in Hyperion’s arsenal is HYPPOS, short for the less snappy Hyperion’s Predictive Production Online Software. It is a toolkit aimed at factories that make industrial polymers, giving them online decision support tools that track important information to save energy and reduce waste. It also helps improve product quality. The toolkit was upgraded with AI to solve a well-defined problem in polymers: Melt Flow Rate (MFR), which measures how easily melted plastic flows through a machine. If the material is too thick, it can clog the system; if the flow is improper, the final product may be compromised, leading to increased waste. Traditionally, MFR measurement required sending samples to specialised labs, a slow process that delayed production. HYPPOS sidesteps these delays by providing real-time data, predictive alerts and actionable insights to ensure that quality meets standards.

The latest iteration of the technology came in 2021 when HELLENiQ Energy piloted HYPPOS in a polypropylene plant in Greece. Before that, the technology was fine-tuned through multiple projects in the Middle East, which used specific hardware to control quality. The plant in Greece did not have this hardware, posing a costly challenge with no obvious solution. With support from the Cyprus Institute and funding from the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF), Hyperion worked on the problem from several angles, applying the principles of process systems, engineering and data analytics within an AI/ML framework to create a software-based sensor that replicated the hardware’s capabilities. “We enabled them to infer the necessary values from the plant’s operational environment,” Kassianides says, “allowing them to run at higher production rates.”

The juxtaposition between science and art

As a high schooler in the late ’70s, Kassianides ditched his classical guitar for an electric one and, as teenage logic dictated, quickly joined a rock band. Soon, he was playing covers of Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC and the like, and continued to do so in the US as a student. “I thought I could do both – study and play in a band,” he recalls, “but after a few weeks, the others started talking about more gigs. I’m old enough now to laugh about it, but when I mentioned university, they said, ‘If we don’t make it, then you can always go back to university.’ I told them, ‘My dad will kill me,’ so that was the end of that!”

These days, Kassianides’ Spotify playlist is more eclectic, with jazz and classical music finding their place alongside rock. “I don’t play as much as I’d like to anymore,” he admits, “but when I do, it’s part of my thinking process. It helps me focus, concentrate or decompress.” He also has an affinity for collecting art, a passion inherited from his mother, who founded the Gloria Gallery in Nicosia nearly five decades ago. “One of the things that has enabled Hyperion to survive through the years,” he says,” is being flexible, trying to think outside the box and anticipating things. To give your own expression in a solution is something that differentiates you, makes you more resilient and gives you a special character in the marketplace. The same principles apply to music and art.”

Would it be fair to say that this creative expression was partly responsible for solving the HYPPOS challenge?

“At a little stretch,” he replies, with a smile.

Why there is never enough energy

Despite the global fanfare surrounding the Paris Agreement and the goal to reach climate neutrality by 2050, recent numbers reveal a backward trend. According to Our World is Data, between 2015 (when the Paris Agreement was adopted) and 2023, fossil fuel electricity generation had dipped from 67% to 61%, yet overall electricity output rose by 23%. Consequently, despite a 44% increase in energy from renewables (and nuclear), fossil-fuel generation still grew by 12%. What happened? One explanation is that emerging and developing economies have the same appetite for energy as their developed counterparts but lack the resources to go green. Instead, they rely on fossil fuels. Is it fair to ask them otherwise? “One thing is certain, and all the studies and experience have shown it: there is never enough energy,” Kassianides says.

He shares an interesting case from Africa, where a system linking solar panels to a satellite on a rental model revitalised a swathe of villages: from simple things like having lights at night to having online banking accounts and online trading. “Even a small step in providing energy creates a significant impact on livelihoods. Once people have that, they want more,” he adds. When asked if politicians engaged in catastrophising have hindered efforts to meet the 2050 goal, Kassianides offers a measured response. “If something sells, a lot of people jump on the bandwagon. And how do you attract attention? By being populist and making it even worse.” For him, green efforts are not taking root because they are a product of unrealistic expectations.

“I’ll try to be as politically correct as possible,” he says. “I think the targets were set by people who didn’t understand the industry. It’s a nice objective; everybody wants to be carbon-free. But can you pay the cost?” Indeed, 2021 estimates by McKinsey & Company suggested that the cost to decarbonise Europe’s industries would be roughly €28 trillion. “Then you start bringing in industry people,” he goes on. “Just look at the reports of ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Total or any of the hydrocarbon companies. They were saying from the very beginning that the dependence on hydrocarbons will remain. So, we have these goals and targets but the people who are investing the money to do it are telling you that’s not true.” And even if decarbonisation in energy generation is achieved, that does not mean that hydrocarbons are going away. He gestures vaguely at the office and says, “Most things in this room are plastic, which is hydrocarbon. So, they are not burning it; they are making it into plastics or composite materials.”

Still, unrealistic or not, those expectations have had a positive effect, he stresses, by sparking a wave of innovation and adaptation – yet another juxtaposition. “That development needs to happen and, by optimising those solutions, the costs will come down. Once the costs come down, then you will achieve your goals,” he says.

(Original photo by TADOBI)

This interview first appeared in the October edition of GOLD magazine. Click here to view it.