Shell to Use New AI Technology in Deepwater Oil Exploration

Shell Plc will use AI-based technology from big-data analytics firm SparkCognition in its deep sea exploration and production to boost offshore oil output, the companies said on Wednesday. 

SparkCognition's AI algorithms will process and analyze large amounts of seismic data in the hunt for new oil reservoirs by Shell, the largest oil producer in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. 

"We are committed to finding new and innovative ways to reinvent our exploration ways of working," Gabriel Guerra, Shell's vice president of innovation and performance, said in a statement. 

The goal is to improve operational efficiency and speed, and increase production and success in exploration. The new process can shorten explorations to less than nine days from nine months, the companies said. 

"Generative AI for seismic imaging can positively disrupt the exploration process and has broad and far-reaching implications," said Bruce Porter, chief science officer for Austin, Texas-based SparkCognition. 

The technology would generate subsurface images using fewer seismic data scans than usual, helping with deep sea preservation, the companies said. Seismic technology sends sound waves to explore subsurface areas. Fewer seismic surveys accelerate exploration workflow and would save costs in high-performance computing, they added.

(Reuters - Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Richard Chang)