Upstream opportunities and challenges

AI+ upstream, how to break the game

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is known as the engine of the "fourth" industrial revolution, which will greatly promote the digital transformation and intelligent development of the oil and gas industry, and produce significant social and economic benefits. According to Tres, more than 3,000 oil and gas companies spent about $1 trillion on well and related infrastructure operations in 2019, which could be reduced by about 10% if automation and digitization were accelerated. PWC predicts that by 2025, the upstream operations of oil and gas companies could save $100 billion to $1 trillion in capital and operating expenses through the application of AI technologies.

In recent years, the oil and gas industry faced with the problem of low oil prices, many international oil companies and oilfield service companies have joined hands with IT giants to achieve cross-border cooperation, increase the construction of artificial intelligence platforms, promote the rapid digital transformation of exploration and development business, and effectively improve the efficiency of the potential space. In 2017, Schlumberger and Google launched the DELFI cloud platform, which deeply integrates big data, cognitive computing and other technologies with oil and gas exploration and development, and builds a digital, automated and intelligent professional application environment for the whole process of exploration and development, supporting the innovation and development of enterprises, and making the platform development enter the era from "N" to "1".

Since 2020, major oil companies have stepped up efforts to build smart oil and gas fields in order to achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement. Shell proposed to build Smart Oilfield, which aims to increase production by 10%, increase recovery by 5% to 10%, reduce operating expenses by 20% and shorten field development cycle by 50%.

At present, the construction level of intelligent oil fields in China is in the transition stage from digital to intelligent, and a few oil areas have basically built the prototype of intelligent oil fields, which have the self-diagnosis, early warning and alarm of oil Wells, and can recommend optimized decision-making schemes.

The challenges of AI development in the oil and gas industry

In the past 20 years, China's petroleum enterprises have created the "oil and gas field Internet of Things construction mode" and "intelligent oil and gas field construction mode" in the construction of intelligent oil and gas fields. The integrity, scale and management of intelligent oil and gas fields have been in the forefront of foreign oil and gas fields. However, the development of artificial intelligence in the oil and gas industry still faces a series of challenges.

First, challenges such as data silos in exploration and development. Upstream exploration and development in the past few decades of information construction, the existence of multiple data entry, standards are not unified, repeated development of functions, information and business integration is not close and other problems have gradually emerged, resulting in more databases, more platforms, more isolated applications and other phenomena are becoming increasingly prominent. The difficulty of data sharing and business collaboration brings challenges to the landing application of artificial intelligence in the oil and gas industry, and the landing application of high-quality artificial intelligence technology requires high-quality big data as the premise and basis. Due to the limited collection technology means, the data that can represent the characteristics of the problem does not have the diversity characteristics, and the single feature big data is not the real big data, which also brings challenges to the research in the complex field of oil and gas exploration and development. Data is the soul of the development of artificial intelligence technology, big data, data quality and governance determine the future of intelligent development, digital transformation to seize the data and data governance is equivalent to seize the future of the development of artificial intelligence technology.

Second, the barrier challenge between artificial intelligence algorithm engineers and business personnel. Usually, business personnel do not understand the artificial intelligence algorithm, and algorithm engineers do not understand the professional expertise of business personnel, resulting in the phenomenon of "not understanding, not being able to say, not getting along" between algorithm engineers and business engineers, which brings obstacles to the landing of artificial intelligence in the business field. The application of artificial intelligence in the oil and gas industry is different from other industries. The objects of oil and gas exploration and development are underground, which is an invisible black box system that uses artificial intelligence technology to solve problems. Unlike the artificial intelligence AlphaGozero in the human-machine game, the Go board it takes is regular and visible. Most of the problems to be solved and dealt with in the oil and gas industry are not the object of any rules and problems to be solved, with super uncertainty. To solve the application problems of artificial intelligence in the oil and gas industry, professional knowledge and industry experience are very important. It is necessary to solve the challenges of barriers between algorithm engineers and business personnel. In order to promote the application of artificial intelligence technology products or scenes.

Third, intelligent application scenarios require continuous funding investment challenges brought about by continuous iterative development. Artificial intelligence technology and the basic theory and technical principle research of intelligent oil and gas field construction are not deep enough, the technology and methods are not mature enough, and there is no complete model for reference at home and abroad. Artificial intelligence scenarios and intelligent oil and gas field construction process, there are different degrees of data acquisition, data transmission, data storage, data processing, data management and data use of six links are missing, some oil fields only acquisition or video equipment, data and image analysis technology can not keep up, etc. Lead to different degrees of "build more, use less" or "only build no matter, only build no use" phenomenon.

Therefore, the artificial intelligence application scenarios and intelligent oil and gas fields currently built are still relatively preliminary. The emergence of these phenomena has also affected the process of digital intelligent transformation to a certain extent. The construction of artificial intelligence technology scenarios and intelligent oil and gas fields is not like the construction of buildings, and the completion acceptance can be ended, it needs to continue to invest in upgrading funds according to technological progress and innovative development, and constantly adapt to changing business needs and user experience. Artificial intelligence application scenarios and intelligent oil field construction, research planning and deployment should be comprehensive, but as far as artificial intelligence scenarios and intelligent oil and gas field construction strategies are concerned, there needs to be a focus, point, line and surface breakthrough step by step, and finally fully realize intelligence.

Fourth, high-end artificial intelligence technologies and products are subject to foreign restrictions. Artificial intelligence technology development and application scenarios landing, intelligent oil and gas field construction of high-performance intelligent sensors, cloud servers, cloud computing software and more than 50% of the technology and products from Europe and the United States. However, in recent years, the introduction of high-end technology is difficult, to the oil and gas industry artificial intelligence and intelligent oil and gas field construction has brought challenges, in recent years, although the domestic catch-up research and development of high-end artificial intelligence technology, but a few products compared with Europe and the United States there is still a gap. State-owned oil and gas enterprises need to solve the dilemma of key core technologies in a short period of time.

Fifth, the challenge of talent shortage. Artificial intelligence technology and application and the construction of intelligent oil and gas fields not only need a group of technical personnel who understand data science, network operation technicians, senior program personnel, but also need compound talents who understand both oil and gas business and artificial intelligence. Under the current situation, comprehensive universities need to set up artificial intelligence-related majors, and enterprises need to set up corresponding positions and title sequences; The landing of artificial intelligence scenarios can use social research and development forces such as universities, high-tech companies, labeling companies, and software companies to form joint research teams to solve the shortage of talents in the transformation of digital artificial intelligence.

Suggestions for the development of artificial intelligence in the oil and gas industry

First, the establishment of artificial intelligence key laboratory to accelerate the development and incubation of high-end technology products.

Build a key artificial intelligence laboratory, carry out data intelligence experiments, intelligent computing and intelligent platform research and development of the whole business chain of exploration and development, organically integrate cloud computing, big data, Internet of things, mobile Internet, artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies with the main business, and realize the transformation and upgrading of the traditional oil and gas industry. Co-construction and sharing, business collaboration, network interconnection, data interoperability, intelligent decision-making, ecological reengineering. With the construction of artificial intelligence key laboratories as the starting point, open up the full business chain of exploration and development engineering data, create a hybrid cloud platform, accelerate the research and development and incubation of high-end artificial intelligence products, help improve exploration and development efforts, and fight the offensive war of exploration and development.

Second, the cross-integration of artificial intelligence technology and business improves the current scientific and technological support and leads the future.

As a general technology, artificial intelligence technology will touch all fields of the oil and gas industry in the future, and fully realize the high degree of cross-integration of artificial intelligence and traditional business in a real sense, and become a new industry in the field of oil and gas - intelligent oil and gas. In the next 10 to 15 years, the upstream key business development of the intelligent oil and gas industry will target five major areas: intelligent exploration, intelligent development, intelligent engineering, intelligent production operation and optimization decision, and intelligent data governance. Focus on the core technology research in four aspects: First, carry out the research and application of basic technologies such as computer vision application technology, knowledge graph application technology, and machine learning-based application technology in the field of oil and gas exploration and development, and innovate and break through the basic key technologies of artificial intelligence; Second, accelerate the research on intelligent exploration technologies such as intelligent processing of seismic data, intelligent prediction of lithofacies, sedimentary facies and geological desserts, intelligent evaluation of exploration targets, etc., to build efficient and accurate intelligent evaluation technologies for oil and gas targets; The third is to strengthen the research on intelligent oil and gas reservoir geological modeling, intelligent reservoir simulation driven by physics and data, intelligent optimization of geological - reservoir - engineering integration, intelligent gas storage injection and production, and innovate the formation of digital twin oil and gas development technology; The fourth is to carry out technical research on the standardization of oil and gas exploration and development data, application data trusted security management, data governance and sharing, and data mart, and create intelligent data in the upstream oil and gas field.

Thirdly, strengthen the cultivation and introduction of compound talents.

Because the two fields of artificial intelligence and petroleum exploration and development cover a wide range of disciplines, the training of composite talents is difficult and the cycle is long, and it is necessary to vigorously cultivate, introduce and employ composite young talents and teams of artificial intelligence in various ways. Develop talent training plans for relevant research institutes and tilt towards the field of artificial intelligence; Joint training with key universities with artificial intelligence majors; With the help of the talent introduction program, we will strengthen the introduction and cultivation of high-end artificial intelligence talents, and introduce and recruit talents with dual professional backgrounds of artificial intelligence and oil and gas from home and abroad. Strengthen multi-party cooperation, school-enterprise cooperation, in-depth cooperation between petroleum enterprises and IT enterprises to cultivate compound talents, set up interdisciplinary joint research teams, achieve cross-border integration, carry out exploration and development business chain digital intelligent technology research, and truly play the role of "production, study and research".

Fourth, the rapid introduction of accurate support policies to encourage innovation and encourage transformation.

Artificial intelligence is a major opportunity for China to catch up with the forefront of science and technology, and even lead innovation. In order to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence innovation in China's petroleum enterprises, more effectively support the innovative development of a new generation of artificial intelligence in oil and gas exploration and development and the scene landing test, create an artificial intelligence original center, seize the commanding heights of artificial intelligence technology in the oil and gas industry, and propose policy support and innovation incentive policies. Establish an artificial intelligence technology research and development innovation fund for petroleum enterprises or an industrial innovation fund to give strong financial support and policy incentives to original artificial intelligence projects.

Deepen the reform of scientific research management and science and technology investment system and mechanism, establish early investment, long-term investment, phased continuous investment and industrial chain portfolio investment mechanisms for the artificial intelligence industry, establish a strong operational and implementable artificial intelligence research investment incentive mechanism, stimulate the vitality of research and development personnel, and create a good scientific research conditions for researchers to produce more results and quickly produce results.

The establishment of digital intelligence major projects corresponding to each business field of oil and gas, to ensure that the key technologies of digital intelligence can have corresponding research and development investment, so that there is no dead corner for digital intelligent transformation and development. Through special research, we can fully realize the research and development of new technologies, new products and new processes, form new industries and new formats, and realize industrial transformation. (Li Xin Dou Hongen, Artificial Intelligence Research Center, Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, China)