The rapid growth of AI technologies and how to deploy them successfully is a crucial topic in every industry now, and the oil and gas business is no exception. For companies to remain competitive and profitable into the future, they will need to adopt fit-for-purpose AI tools that can help them optimize processes and control costs in ways that they could not have imagined a few years ago.

Few if any companies in the industry possess the staff expertise to develop tools in-house in this arena, meaning they will rely on third party contractors for this service. As I sought to learn more about the subject myself, I was able recently to interview Jimmy Fortuna, Chief Product Officer at Enverus, one of the industry’s biggest and most diverse providers of SAAS-based data analytics and consulting services.

Enverus recently introduced an AI tool it calls Instant Analyst™, a product that works in conjunction with generative AI technologies from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to enable Enverus to analyze vast data streams to enable real-time decision-making.

“When a user asks the Enverus Instant Analyst an open-ended question, the AI-powered system searches exclusively through Enverus’ vast repository of proprietary research and analytics,” Fortuna says. “This curated content, housed within the Enverus Intelligence Vault™, includes tens of thousands of documents containing valuable insights and data points specific to the energy industry. By using solely Enverus proprietary content, the Instant Analyst ensures that the answers it provides are highly relevant, accurate, and easily verifiable.”

Fortuna also points out that Enverus is exploring the use of its Enverus Fusion^TM technology to help customers integrate their data into the Instant Analyst knowledge base for their specific use. “This combination of data sources could further benefit those customers by allowing them to safely leverage the confidential data that only they possess while also maintaining the high standards of quality and accuracy that Enverus is known for,” he says.

Fortuna envisions employees’ routine tasks being automated by AI technology, which will have the impact of freeing up time for employees to contribute more that is directly relevant to their field of expertise by ending the need for them to become what we’ve traditionally referred to as “power users” of software. He points to efforts already underway at Enverus to add AI to its own proprietary software applications. “The result will be that workflows which were previously the domain of “power users” only will be carried out instead by people with little to no knowledge of how to use our software. We think that has the potential to be a game-changer and we are putting a lot of effort into it,” he adds.

Fortuna believes AI can also have a revolutionary impact on the ability of companies to cope with what is known in the industry as “the great crew change.” This term is used to describe the reality of hundreds of thousands of Baby Boomers heading into retirement at the same time when fewer and fewer young people have chosen to major in areas like petroleum engineering, geology and other key areas of expertise relevant to the industry. Fortuna believes AI will likely be able to help “bridge the knowledge gap between experienced and newer employees,” thus helping employers preserve and transfer institutional knowledge between generations.

Interestingly, Fortuna points out that forms of AI have been in use by the oil and gas industry for many years, but you would have to possess the expertise to know what you were looking at to realize it. “Unless you had a deep understanding of science, engineering, and statistics you would have been unaware that artificial intelligence technology was being put to use in certain highly specific applications,” he says.

Machine learning is a specific area that has seen significant deployment in oil and gas in recent decades. “Some machine learning technologies have been put to very effective use for problems related to seismic data that helps identify where oil and gas deposits might be found deep beneath the earth,” Fortuna points out. “In the domain of electric power, other machine learning technologies have been used to predict demand on electricity grids. Enverus was at the forefront of both applications, starting as far back as the mid-1990s. As we look ahead into the next decade, the number of areas in which artificial intelligence will be put to use in the energy sector is set to explode.”

The Bottom Line

Obviously, AI is an exciting realm that, if deployed ethically and properly, has the potential to positively impact every field of endeavor. When asked where we should expect things to go next in oil and gas, Fortuna says the answer to that is wide open.

“It’s hard to say. We are in the very early days of this technology and yet we are already seeing astonishing technical achievements,” he points out. “Just two years ago I don’t think anyone outside of the field of AI research would have easily imagined what is already possible today. At the rate things are advancing now, things that we think of as very impressive today will soon be taken for granted.”

It truly is a brave new world where AI is concerned, and companies are going to need a lot of help successfully navigating through it.