ERHC Energy Inc (ERHE)

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Excerpt from A Wall Street Journal today:

France's Total this year is investing about EUR200 million ($219 million), or 30% of its research and development budget, into digital technology, of which AI is an increasing part, says Philippe Cordier, a scientific computing program director at the company. In its partnership with Google, Total is testing an AI program in the Gulf of Guinea, off western Africa, that will help interpret data from three-dimensional images of the subsurface and any potential hydrocarbon reservoirs found there.

Finding oil and gas, especially offshore, is a costly process that can sometimes take years. Geologists spend a lot of time looking at seismic graphics to learn about the geological composition of areas they are exploring. The AI program Total is using will help organize such data and identify imagery like fault lines, Mr. Cordier says. The company will continue to rely on humans to identify patterns that might lead to oil and gas discoveries, he says. But by using the technology, Total hopes to get faster, more reliable production forecasts and boost the productivity of its engineers by freeing them from repetitive tasks.

The AI program Total is using will help organize such data and identify imagery like fault lines, Mr. Cordier says. The company will continue to rely on humans to identify patterns that might lead to oil and gas discoveries, he says. But by using the technology, Total hopes to get faster, more reliable production forecasts and boost the productivity of its engineers by freeing them from repetitive tasks.