In late 2021, ITXOTIC was privileged to be part of the PETRONAS Futuretech 2.0 program. This program was geared towards identifying innovative startups that could revolutionize the Oil & Gas industry. During the program, we interacted with industry experts and learned about their business needs, with a particular emphasis on the focus on ESG, a concern for the whole industry, which is known for being ‘dirty.’ PETRONAS, like other players in the industry, has a goal to achieve net-zero carbon by 2050, and this presented us with a big challenge.
After the program, ITXOTIC delved deeper into the industry and continued discussions with some of the industry mentors. Through collaboration with experts in the company, we identified a lot of new opportunities where digital technology like AI could help achieve ESG objectives. Our expertise in computer vision AI allowed us to zoom in on visual analytics and identify three areas where modern AI could significantly improve operations in the industry.
The first area is active safety. Although safety is highly practised in the industry, it is still heavily reliant on a visual inspection done by people. By using computer vision AI coupled with CCTV cameras around the facility, many of the limitations can be addressed almost instantaneously. The AI can monitor every worker and detect PPE compliance, detect and locate the source of danger such as smoke, fire, and gas leaks, and avoid major events from happening, thus lowering the chances of loss of life, injury, and environmental impacts due to greenhouse gas leaks.
The second area is asset integrity management. The industry has many facilities that process oil & gas products, all of which are exposed to harsh conditions and must be regularly inspected and maintained in proper working condition. By using new digital technology like robots & drones coupled with computer vision, the inspection can be automated and completed significantly faster and more frequently than conventional practice. AI technology can help identify the exact locations of defects or damage that a human would miss, precisely measure and report the condition in an online dashboard system, and help reduce the overall cost of repair by reducing consumables like paint and spare parts required to fix the issue before it gets worse.
The third area is the exploration of new sources, which is still a very new area of research and experimentation. Finding new sources of oil and gas is a highly expensive operation, and it can take years of interpreting seismic and geological data. By training a sophisticated AI model using previous data of successful and unsuccessful exploration projects, there is a high chance of successful prediction by the AI to locate new oil or gas. Using the computational powers of AI can significantly improve the speed of interpreting petabytes of seismic data instead of relying on human experts to process it by hand. Finding oil faster results in less time and resources spent in the field for exploration, fewer ships doing surveys, less exploratory drilling, and less risk for the offshore crew being out in the field.
ITXOTIC is hard at work collaborating with experts in the industry to bring these solutions to the market. Our solutions not only have commercial appeal, but also significant benefits towards achieving ESG targets, and ultimately a better, greener, and safer future for the world.
