Oil and Gas Companies Pin Hopes on Artificial Intelligence to Save Cash
The technology gives companies the ability to predict future problems
With oil and gas prices hovering at decade lows, companies are turning to artificial intelligence to cut costs and boost productivity.
The technology, which gives companies the ability to predict future problems, is estimated to save the industry trillions of dollars and lead to a new wave of highly sophisticated jobs.
GE Oil and Gas is at the forefront of the shift, using artificial intelligence software to help producers become more efficient.
The company’s regional director, Mary Hackett, said the recent downturn in prices was driving interest in the technology.
“We now need to rather than add to production, we need to make production more efficient and it’s that that will change this industry,” she said.
“We know the industrial internet quite simply is the future of efficiency and productivity in the oil and gas industry.
“We know there will be a shift in the oil and gas industry similarly to create a space where we use data analytics to provide predictability.
GE’s software works by analysing massive amounts of data collected by companies, which it then uses to create patterns.
That allows the software to predict when a problem might arise at an operation days, weeks and months before it does.
The company’s director of sales and digital solutions, Ahmed Ibrahim, said the technology was a game changer for companies, particularly marginal businesses.
“The predictive analytics are power today. [It] is empowering the people and enabling a lot of our operations to tap into the wealth of data that we have,” he said.
Mr Abrahim said put simply, it was like Google trying to predict what you want to search before you have finished typing or Facebook tailoring advertisements to individual users.
“Industrial internet, in the most simplest way to think about it, is zero unplanned downtime,” he said.
“It’s the difference between a 12 per cent return on investment and 15 per cent, and in some cases it’s the difference between surviving and not surviving at all.”
Australia’s biggest oil and gas producer Woodside Energy has already started investing in the space and it is not surprising with plant shut downs costing operators on average $11 million a day.
It is estimated artificial intelligence could save the industrial sector $8.6 trillion over the next decade.
