AI Supports, but Doesn't Replace, Human Ingenuity, Aker BP Says

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Written by Daniel Graeber for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Artificial intelligence (AI) can play a supporting role to the geologists and geophysicists planning upstream activity and should not be seen as a replacement for human ingenuity, executives at energy company Aker BP (Lysaker, Norway) said.

BP plc (NYSE:BP) (London, England) was among the first last year to announce a widespread embrace of so-called generative AI by embedding CoPilot, part of the Microsoft 365 suite, into its workforce.

"Leveraging the latest developments in AI-powered workplace solutions offers the opportunity for BP to transform how work gets done," Leigh-Ann Russel, an executive vice president in charge of innovation and engineering, said in November. "Our ambition is to empower our people to spend more time on innovation and the problem-solving that will help make the energy transition a success."

AI is emerging quickly, with companies such as chipmaker Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) (Santa Clara, California) supporting a rally on the tech-heavy NASDAQ. The ability of a machine, however, to write summaries, create videos or help with spreadsheets is something of a concern. The U.S. entertainment industry took to the picket line last year out of concern AI would replace people and Sports Illustrated recently caught flack for publishing AI-generated articles under faked author names.

But Aker BP said AI would play a supplementary role in its workforce, supporting exploration and production.

"Our principle is to use computers for what computers are good at, which is to find patterns in large multi-dimensional datasets," said Aina Juell Bugge, a senior data scientist at Aker BP.

Interpreting the seismic data that determines whether a prospect would yield oil and natural gas is an arduous and complex task. Aker BP said it can take several years of work before operators can even drill an exploration well, making AI's capabilities attractive for an industry in pursuit of efficiencies.

Data sets, meanwhile, are highly complex, combining well logs, core samples and other factors that determine when and where drilling begins. For Aker BP, these complexities can be overwhelming and arduous for the human brain, but not a machine.

Computers in general have been around for decades, but AI is opening new doors. Aker BP, meanwhile, is adamant that machines will not take over the job of geologists and geophysicists that ultimately determine an upstream strategy.

"With the 'exploration robot,' we have simply created a co-pilot for the explorationists that helps free up time that was previously used for repetitive and labor-intensive tasks," said Peder Aursand, a subsurface manager at Aker BP. "This time can now be used for creative processes and better understanding of the underground."

All that computing power, however, requires energy. Speaking earlier this week at the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston, John Ketchum, the head of renewable energy company NextEra Energy, said AI could strain the grid.

"What you have today is electric demand that has been relatively flat for years now, all of a sudden looking at an 81% increase" over the next five years, he was quoted by the Bloomberg news agency as saying.

Grids are already under strain because of extreme weather events and the extra surge in demand could in theory require even more fossil fuels on the grid, offsetting the efficiencies in the industry for AI.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).