Upstream Oil & Gas Artificial Intelligence

The upstream portion of the oil & gas business requires a lot of cash & is fraught with risks & obstacles. Big oil is aiming to automate its processes using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect equipment failure & ensure no pitfalls in the production environment, as the need to decrease operating costs grows. Because of these factors, Gartner has named AI as one of the top game-changing technologies for 2021.

Upstream oil & gas are undergoing digital transformation

Businesses can benefit greatly from digitally modernizing the upstream oil & gas industry by reducing the cycle & improving their chances. COVID-19, according to a recent EY survey, has made an investment in digital technology more critical for 58 percent of O&G business leaders. Using the cloud, IoT & AI to connect subsurface wells & facilities opens up a slew of new possibilities for their overall management, just as it does in the drilling industry. This creates a consistent environment for building multiple AI use cases in the oil & gas industry, as well as the flexibility to re-invent them if necessary.

Most Complex Challenges in the Upstream Oil & Gas Industry

Global oil consumption is predicted to reach 104.1 mb/d by 2026 in the post-Covid-19 future, up 4.4 mb/d from 2019. As a result, the upstream oil & gas industry is today confronted with the task of boosting energy output while reducing emissions (due to sustainability rules) & dealing with very fluctuating prices.
With earnings being squeezed by costly health & safety environmental regulations, the oil & gas business must maximize profits to survive. It is critical to optimize upstream oil & gas production in order to achieve this.

The strategy

Using Big Data & machine learning approaches, this Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform is meant to optimize upstream oil & gas production. Thousands of production data streams are analyzed in real-time by this AI system. It then recognizes field behavior & relationships, calculates key parameters, correlations & uncertainties & generates up-to-date prediction models for optimization. This system promotes best practices across all production teams & historical production settings, allowing production engineers to save time. It lowers expenses, identifies areas where cost savings can be made, & assists in increasing productivity.

Upstream algorithms in the oil & gas industry

Traditional machine learning & deep learning are the most widely employed AI approaches in the upstream sector & the entire oil & gas business. They are used to solve problems including classification, grouping, regression & neural networks. Machine learning & deep learning algorithms are black boxes, in the sense that there is no obvious formula that explains why or how they function. These methods include multi-dimensional algebraic expressions that are extremely difficult. The input & output data describing the system, object, or process are denoted by conceits in these expressions. This is referred to as the training process. The algorithms can generate innovative insights based on new inputs after being trained on known data.

How Artificial Intelligence is Changing the Upstream

Upstream, midstream & downstream are the three divisions of the petroleum (oil & gas) sector. The term “upstream” refers to the subsurface (mining) portion of the industry, which includes exploration, field development & crude oil/gas production. The terms midstream & downstream refer to the transportation of oil & gas & refinery refers to the manufacturing of fuels, lubricants, polymers & other products. We cover points where AI solutions have already been used & their results, explaining many of the upstream processes in depth. We also discuss where we expect AI to be employed & what kinds of outcomes it can produce.

Top AI Application for Upstream Oil & Gas

Let’s take a look at some of the current AI applications in upstream oil & gas, as well as the potential for future development. We’ll also discuss recent developments in building AI-based technologies, as well as their implications for decreasing risk & speeding up the sector as a whole.

AI’s Advantages in Upstream Oil & Gas

Dry Well Exploration Costs Reduce

Upstream oil & gas businesses can now use AI-based approaches to determine geological factors such as rock formation in order to avoid wasting time investigating dry wells. Furthermore, geologists are using well-log data to create ML models with current & new seismic profiles, which is assisting them in making educated guesses about the location of possible oil & gas resources.

Exploration/Drilling Projects Can Be Completed More Quickly

AI is being used by companies involved in drilling & exploration projects to develop algorithms for drilling with precision, decreasing the danger of oil spills, accidents & fire. The same technology aids them in increasing penetration. Another AI tool aids these organizations in optimizing their production by identifying areas where they are falling behind.

Better Uptime & Availability of Equipment

AI assists businesses in increasing income by reducing unnecessary maintenance expenditures & downtime due to equipment failure. While preventive maintenance is performed according to the manufacturer’s plan, AI-powered predictive maintenance builds trends from real-time process & equipment data to forecast changes in process equipment. This increases operational productivity and, as a result, uptime.

Cost-cutting

According to E&Y, 52 percent of oil & gas companies are using AI/ML in their operations & with good reason. Upstream oil & gas work was formerly thought to be very labor-intensive, but AI has helped to change that perception. Thanks to AI-powered process automation & predictive maintenance, businesses can now maximize productivity while lowering expenses.

Conclusion

Upstream oil & gas digitization is more of a deployment difficulty than a technological challenge, requiring more by-the-business & for-the-business methods. Identifying chances to solve business challenges & the demand for replicability & constant upscaling are virtually always at odds. Given that, more than anything, there is a need for strong regulation in the mass deployment of AI in upstream oil & gas, given the technology’s immense potential.