In Energy, the Plant Is Governed and the Commercial Floor Is Not

Energy companies govern their operational technology to a standard most industries never approach. Change control, process safety review, sign off, audit. There are good reasons for all of it and nobody should want less. Then walk to the commercial floor. Somebody is summarising a tender document in a free chatbot. Somebody is pasting partner terms into a tool to draft a briefing note. Somebody in planning has production figures in a consumer account because the reporting system is slow and the deadline is today. Two completely different worlds inside one company. The side where an unauthorised change is close to unthinkable, and the side where nobody has ever been told there is a rule. I understand how it happened. Governance in this sector grew up around physical risk, and physical risk lives on the operational estate. The commercial floor was never the thing that could hurt somebody, so it was never the thing that got the process. But look at what is on that floor. Reserve information. Commercial terms with joint venture partners and with governments. Production data ahead of disclosure. That material is market sensitive and in some cases nationally sensitive. The fix is not another committee. It is one page saying which tools are approved and what may go into them, applied to the whole company rather than the part with the hard hats. You already know how to govern things. Point it at the other half of the building. *Stanislaus Martins trains enterprise teams across Sub Saharan Africa on practical AI adoption and governance. [Speaking and training](/speaking).*