The oil and gas sector is making significant investment for the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, for accelerating advancements in operational efficiency, safety, and environmental sustainability.
Some of the leading adopters of AI in oil and gas business include BP, ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Gazprom, Rosneft, Chevron, TotalEnergies, CNPC, Gazprom, among others.
Robotics and AI are reshaping how the oil and gas sector approaches exploration, production, refining, and logistics, instituting a new era of innovations for heightened productivity, efficiency, sustainability, and safety, according to Saurabh Daga, Project Manager for Disruptive Tech at GlobalData.
GlobalData has shared some of the AI and robotics deployment trends in the global oil and gas industry to enhance business outcomes.
Rosneft
Rosneft is implementing an artificial intelligence (AI) system on its drilling rigs operating on the fields in Orenburg Region. Specialists from Orenburgneft JSC have conducted successful pilot tests of Russia’s first automated drilling management system. Technological potential development is one of the key items of the Rosneft-2022 Strategy.
INEOS Energy
US-based SLB (formerly Schlumberger) has partnered with UK-based INEOS Energy to integrate AI capabilities through SLB’s Delfi digital platform – targeting operational performance across oil and gas operations, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and new acquisitions.
Shell
Shell used NVIDIA DGX systems to determine salt boundaries in reservoir modeling, enable 4K iterative image reconstruction, test new designs for industrial plants, and drive advancements in sustainable new materials.
Shell has tied up with Texas-based AI startup SparkCognition to enhance its deep-sea oil and gas exploration and drilling capabilities for developing generative AI solution.
Shell has deployed AI across its entire oil and gas supply chain, with over 160 active AI projects. It uses reinforcement learning in its exploration and drilling programme to reduce gas extraction costs. Shell’s Shell. AI Residency Programme gives data scientists and AI engineers experience with several AI projects across the company.
Shell’s RechargePlus programme uses AI to predict the demand for EV charging terminals throughout the day so that power can be supplied more efficiently.
Petrobras
Petrobras has partnered with robotics startup ANYbotics to automate asset inspection processes at its offshore sites using ANYmal X robotic inspection units to enhance efficiency and safety by delegating repetitive and hazardous inspection tasks to robots.
TotalEnergies
Japan’s Kawasaki Heavy Industries, in partnership with France-based TotalEnergies, completed offshore tests using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) named SPICE for subsea pipeline inspections near Awaji Island, Japan. AUV, featuring a robot arm, addresses the demand for subsea pipeline maintenance in offshore oil and gas fields.
BP
BP has partnered with Microsoft to implement its Azure cloud solutions, including machine learning (ML) for smarter drilling processes. BP is moving its data centers to Azure to accelerate the data analysis and facilitate faster, more effective decisions, which has significantly reduced the drilling time.
BP partnered with Bluware in 2020 to use deep learning to accelerate digital transformation initiatives. The project will improve subsurface data interpretation by eliminating manual, time-consuming interpretation of seismic data.
BP has invested in many AI companies, including Grid Edge and Belmont Technologies to boost decision making.
BP has trialled the AI-driven Spot robot at a refinery. The robot gathered data, detected abnormalities and emissions, and removed workers from hazardous spaces.
BP also implemented the Castrol Brain chatbot to answer queries from marine customers, saving time and allowing employees to focus on complex queries.
ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil has joined hands with IBM’s Data Science and AI Elite Team and seismic experts to use AI to interpret and integrate data from siloed systems into one repository.
Exxon has also partnered with MIT’s AI lab to develop AI-powered, self-learning, submersible ocean exploration robots.
TotalEnergies
TotalEnergies is deploying Copilot for Microsoft 365, Microsoft’s generative artificial intelligence assistant, for its employees. After making Bing Chat Enterprise, a secure AI chat solution based on internal data, available to employees in August 2023, TotalEnergies is pursuing its digital transformation.
Repsol
Repsol will start marketing ARiA, its cloud-based data and analytics platform, in collaboration with Accenture.
CNPC
CNPC worked with Huawei to build a cognitive computing platform — E8. It uses AI technologies like knowledge graphs, natural language processing, and machine learning to build, calculate, and apply knowledge systems. This provides intelligent analysis methods for oil and gas E&P research as well as production management.
Repsol Sinopec
Repsol Sinopec initially deployed OPEX’s emissions.AI on its Piper Bravo asset for a trial period of three months to evaluate and demonstrate how the technology can identify sources of operational emissions and provide tangible reduction opportunities.
Chevron
Chevron has introduced Spot at its El Segundo Refinery in California in 2022. Chevron has also partnered with Spot’s manufacturer Boston Dynamics for expanding its use of the robots in California, Texas and Mississippi.
“We’re trying to change the whole mindset of how robotics and Chevron coexist. They’re not toys. They’re tools, and they’re another way that helps us to safely and efficiently run our operations,” Trey Caylor, Robotics Manager at Chevron Technical Center.
Katie Pelliccio, General Manager of technology strategy and performance, said she views Spot as one of many solutions available within robotics.
Aramco
Aramco uses the power of AI, Big Data and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to enhance industrial processes and optimize many aspects of operations.
Aramco says the use of Big Data and AI has contributed to the company achieving a greater than 50 percent reduction in flaring since 2010, assisting in maintaining an industry-leading flare volume of below 1 percent of total raw gas production for the past decade.
At Khurais, one of its largest oil fields, Aramco has deployed 40,000 sensors to monitor more than 500 oil wells. Advances in Big Data analytics, machine learning, smart sensors, and robotics, have delivered a number of significant benefits at Khurais. These digital solutions have helped to achieve a 15 percent increase in oil production and a 100 percent improvement in troubleshooting response times.
Gazprom Neft
Russian oil and gas major Gazprom Neft has significantly reduced well site construction costs owing to the use of artificial intelligence (AI), President Vladimir Putin said at the artificial intelligence conference recently.
Investment in AI and robotics help oil and gas sector overcome challenges, from cost reduction to enhanced safety and sustainability, setting new benchmarks for efficiency and innovation. Deployment of AI and robotics are transforming autonomous operations, drilling optimization, plant inspections, fleet optimization, etc. enhancing efficiency and innovation.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
