“FWI has changed the game”
“I’m a petroleum engineer, but I’ve been in the exploration and seismic business since the 1970s,” says Rafael when we meet on Teams a week before the IMAGE Conference in…
Technology
From scattered campfires to integrated cities: The future of energy software
For the last decade, the technology landscape of the energy industry has resembled a wilderness at night – vast, dark and punctuated by innovative points of light. Over time, these…
PETRONAS’s digital gambit: Architecting an AI-powered E&P ecosystem
In a strategic pivot that extends far beyond typical corporate upgrades, PETRONAS is executing a national data strategy designed to redefine Malaysia’s position in the global energy landscape. The company…
Finding big fields by detecting the smallest element
“We are changing the world of exploration,” says Denis Krysanov from Heologic, when we meet on Teams. “I’m now planning on expanding Heologic’s operations in the United States,” he says.…
The human touch in reservoir modelling
As our 30-minute conversation took place on a Tuesday morning in early September, three emails arrived in Bastian’s inbox. Three separate and unrelated enquiries from customers in Switzerland, Germany, and…
Seabed mapping – let AI do the work
“I spent days, if not weeks, trawling through high-resolution photos,” a geoscientist from an oil and gas company recently told me. Why did he do that? He carried out this…
Using horizontal drilling technology to permanently store radioactive waste
“We get that question a lot,” says Rod Baltzer, CEO of Deep Isolation, when he calls in from Dallas. “But no, oil and gas wells cannot be easily converted to…
Blurring the line between geology and reservoir engineering
How often has it happened that a dynamic simulation grid turns out to be not fit for purpose because something goes wrong – too fast a pressure build-up, too fast…
“I’m exceptionally bullish about the future”
“As an industry, we have come a long way. From drilling vertical wells to slanted wells, then using slotted liners in horizontal wells, via passive inflow strategies to now active…
Finding the right needle in the haystack
The ultimate question every operator faces is whether there is room to arrest the decline of their producing field by investing to increase the recovery factor. One of the most…
Shale 3.0
With reports that output from the US shale basins is creaming, combined with price pressure on production and environmental concerns, there has never been a better time to invest in…
AI and the future of subsurface discovery: Are we asking the right questions?
The question at the heart of geoethics today isn’t just whether we should use artificial intelligence (AI) in geoscience, it’s how we use it, to what end, and what that…