What Are the Latest AI Developments Oil and Gas Needs to be Aware Of?

What are the latest artificial intelligence (AI) developments the oil and gas sector needs to be aware of?

That was the question Rigzone posed to Toni Fadnes, the Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) of eDrilling, which describes itself on its website as a technology company with an AI and software portfolio designed to drive the sustainable transformation of the energy industry.

Responding to Rigzone, Fadnes said “agentic AI is what will help us (finally) transform our industry, and what everybody across all the workflows, should be aware of”. 

“Building upon the previous to technology eras, PC and SaaS, Agentic AI - systems capable of advanced reasoning and task execution - is already revolutionizing the way organizations operate,” Fadnes added.

“In short Agentic, or as I like to call them, AI-powered engineers, autonomously execute complex, goal-oriented tasks with a high degree of predictability. They act as productivity accelerators by incorporating human input through multi-modal interfaces,” he continued.

Fadnes went on to state that AI-powered engineers operate with minimal supervision, make decisions based on contextual data, and dynamically replan in response to real-time changes in the environment or objectives.

“Why you should care, and act, right now? Two-fold,” Fadnes emphasized. 

“AI-powered engineers offer significant value right out of the gate. By solving the decades-long data universe value dilemma, which engineers often spend 40 to 70 percent of their time on, human engineers are freed up to focus entirely on their actual job, or in other words, freeing engineers up to do what they were meant to do. From day one,” he added.

“Secondly, by deploying AI-powered engineers now, it will start building the trust with your organization to do the more complex stuff,” he continued.

“Just like you would not ask your rookie engineer to autonomously drill your next deepwater HPHT wildcat, the same, I think, applies to AI-powered engineers. Even if it was able to,” Fadnes went on to state.

Rigzone has contacted the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP), which describes itself on its site as the global voice of its industry, for comment on Fadnes’ statement. At the time of writing, the IOGP has not responded to Rigzone’s request with a comment.

Fadnes has previously served as eDrilling’s executive chairman and CEO, and joined the company, which is based in Norway, back in 2015.

On its site, eDrilling describes AI as a “megatrend” and highlights that it has built three “AI powered engineers”. These comprise Ida, which is described on the company’s site as an AI powered drilling engineer, Nora, which is described on the site as an AI-powered well design and planning engineer, and Marie.

The eDrilling site has little information about Marie, but a statement sent to Rigzone by Fadnes last month introducing the creation described Marie as an “Agentic AI powered data management engineer”. 

“Marie automates data exchange between different software, she unifies and interconnects all data needed, and consolidates multiple workflows. In addition, she writes reports and takes care of documentation,” the statement noted.

On its site, eDrilling notes that it “pioneer[ed].. AI long before it became vogue” and says it “continue[s] to invest in research and development to explore innovative technologies and solutions that can facilitate the industry’s transition to a low-carbon future”. 

“This involves collaborations with research institutions, energy companies, service companies, OEMs, ISVs, startups, and other stakeholders - to provide all these actors with the technology and digital tools needed to succeed,” the site adds.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com