How AI, Blockchain Bring About Digital Revolution
Published on : Thursday 19-03-2020
Jasbir Singh elaborates upon how emerging technologies are ushering in a digital revolution in the oil and gas sector.
Oil and gas are among the most highly valued commodities in the energy sector so far. The economy of the entire world revolve around these. Industrial growth is directly linked to the variation of oil and gas prices caused by the vagaries in production, demand change and above all, on the uncertainty in political conditions around the world. As much concern is raised always over the environmental impact of energy production and consumption, the industry is seeking innovative approaches to achieve their business goals for reducing the environmental impact.
The oil and gas industry adopts all sorts of digital technologies as companies are looking for ways to keep costs lower while boosting efficiency. Artificial intelligence has revitalised this sector, which in turn has the potential to positively cause economic improvement in industries of all kinds. The area which benefits most is the oil and gas sector upstream and downstream. Artificial intelligence is a better answer to many problems than older approaches. The offshore oil and gas industry has migrated rapidly into digital technology in recent years, to meet the challenges of economic exploration and production. Artificial intelligence is new introduction in upstream oil and gas sector, which is adopted by large groups to use it for crewless exploration in deep sea.
The aim is improving exploration and production and reducing running costs and extend the benefit to the customer by reliable operation by digital transformation in this landscape. The idea is to make use of AI for predictive analytics to improve business performance and keep operating costs to a minimum. This is all possible to store large volume of relevant data and its fast retrieval on demand by operators and engineers during exploration. The power of large volume of data, which is vital for offshore industry, particularly oil and gas companies, which are generating vast amounts of information stored in network rather than private servers. That data can provide a huge amount of information about operations, but only if it is analysed correctly. Artificial intelligence devices enable engineers/operators to access this information to make better decisions. The result will be a reduction in costly downtime of offshore plants/equipment on drilling well/FPSO/FLNG/sea oil or gas exploration, which can have a major impact on profits.
Blockchain, which is also referred to as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), has made it possible to make history of any digital asset unalterable and transparent through the use of decentralisation and cryptographic hashing. Use of blockchain technology helps users to access data in real time everywhere simultaneously. The moment data is created in the form of a document and shared it on the network, the document is distributed instead of copied or transferred. This creates a decentralised distribution chain that gives everyone access to the document at the same time. No one is waiting for changes by another party, while all modifications to the uploaded document are being recorded in real-time, making changes completely transparent to all users.
The recent trend is the use of robotic exploration to help improve deep water exploration. Companies are developing marine exploration robots to help monitor conditions in deep water sea. These slow-moving robots would hover a few feet above the ocean floor, allowing to safeguard the fragile ecosystem. Robots shall monitor conditions and track changes over time to show how operations might impact the ecosystem at the surface of sea. Robots shall provide a clearer picture of an ecosystem and help companies manage their overall footprint with signature trail.
Companies have developed a modular production facility for oil. These are basically remotely controlled platforms which can target even small oil pockets to extract in a financially sustainable way. Until now, such smaller pockets were not financially viable to move assets for shorter period with large crew to extract oil/gas. However, using AI automation technology with the use of blockchain allows them to drive down the cost of production.
AI algorithms are being developed for the best use in the offshore oil and gas sector where energy companies are harnessing the skills of experts in this sector of advanced tech fields. Companies are developing flexible infrastructure, enabling the user to access blockchain systems to extract the required data for oil and gas exploration and extraction systems to view and make use as quickly as possible.
E&P process involves mapping and analysing the seismic activity in a potential oil field. Traditionally, much of the data collected by the company, such as seismic records, were image files that geologists analysed manually. Companies wanted to automate the digitisation of this analysis and create a searchable portal for their employees where this could be used to identify patterns indicating any economic liabilities a new field might bring to the company. Artificial intelligence has enormous potential in oil and gas sector for exploration, a lot of which still remains to be further proven. It will increase the amount of information available to operators and help them analyse it more effectively. Developing advanced automated vehicles to explore deep beneath the ocean is a reality now, which can protect fragile habitats. In the future, we can expect exploration to become more reliable, affordable, effective and kinder to the environment.
With the surfacing of new AI technologies, the industry has begun to visualise the full extent of what it can offer. Large oil and gas companies operate out of several different locations globally and a quick access to their data records might be a vital part of their business processes. AI tools can help oil and gas companies digitise records and automate the analysis of geological data and charts, potentially leading to the identification of issues for failures and initiate maintenance requirement.
Jasbir Singh, Director, ECPR Technologies has over 32 years of business experience with extensive international exposure, both from business and cultural points of view. He is one of the experts in Foundation Fieldbus technology and recognised for continuous improvement in technological development.
