Enterprise IT vendor IBM announced its research partnership with energy company Repsol to utilize cognitive technologies to transform the oil and gas industry.
As per the partnership, IBM and Repsol are jointly developing two prototype cognitive applications to enhance Repsol’s decision making in the optimization of oil reservoir production and in the acquisition of new oil fields.
Repsol and IBM researchers will work together and use IBM’s Cognitive Environments Laboratory (CEL) to jointly develop and apply new prototype cognitive tools for real-world use cases in the oil and gas industry.
Cognitive computing software agents and technologies will be designed to collaborate with human experts in more natural ways, learn through interaction, and enable individuals and teams to make better decisions by overcoming cognitive limitations posed by big data.
CEL scientists can experiment with a combination of traditional and new interfaces based upon spoken dialog, gesture, robotics and advanced visualization and navigation techniques to learn and leverage models of human characteristics, preferences and biases.
The two prototype applications will leverage cognitive computing capabilities to specifically help Repsol reduce the risk and uncertainty of future oil field acquisitions and maximize the yield of existing oil fields.
“Cognitive environments can enhance the collective intelligence of the group and influence the direction of strategic decisions for better outcomes, which for Repsol will be optimizing reservoir production or enhancing the decision-making process for the acquisition of new oil fields,” said Dario Gil, director of the Cognitive Environments Lab at IBM Research.
