While many individuals and business sectors all over the globe are not yet preparing for a robot apocalypse or other takeover by technology, there is no denying the impact artificial intelligence (AI) is having on industries across the globe. Now recognized as a viable option to increase efficiencies, perform data analysis, and improve decision-making abilities, AI is here to stay. The oil and gas industry is not an exception to this new rule, and the industry’s exploration and production processes are already incorporating AI.
AI promises true transformation across the oil and gas industry. Being early in the adoption of new applications of AI can produce tremendous benefits, but it also comes with tremendous risks. It is critical that companies within the oil and gas industry consider the pros and cons of AI use in the oil and gas industry before beginning to incorporate it into practices and processes.
Why Is AI Relevant to the Oil and Gas Industry?
As industries continue to evaluate, test, and adopt the use of AI, oil and gas must continue to consider the application of the tools available. The industry must also consider ways of including AI in its operations that have not yet been considered. AI promises improvements to processes, cost savings, and general efficiencies in operations. It also costs money to build, implement, and maintain, and brings new concerns about policies surrounding its use.
Overall, however, the oil and gas industry can likely benefit by designing and implementing deployable AI following careful consideration of the pros and cons of its impact on each company, the employees of the companies, and the industry as a whole. AI brings the promise of autonomous operations, new efficiencies, helpful predictions, and improved data collection and use. It is also an industry that may benefit from new and improved uses of interactions between humans and AI on existing processes.
From predicting maintenance before incidents that increase costs and the length of the downtime from equipment failures or accidents to increasing the accuracy of efforts surrounding the industry’s necessary explorations, AI offers opportunities and great promise throughout the oil and gas industry. The industry can also look to AI to optimize drilling operations and better strategize energy use, extraction plans, and apply creative planning to make additional improvements to procedures, policies, and processes.
What Are The Pros of Using AI in The Oil and Gas Industry?
Predictive analytics offer real potential within the oil and gas industry due to the ability to increase the success of explorations through algorithms that AI generates. The ability to identify potential reservoirs and drilling sites with greater accuracy can cut costs and reduce risks.
Once a site is identified, downtime can be quite costly for an oil and gas company. Coupled with properly calibrated sensors, AI may offer fairly reliable predictions about equipment failures and offer important reminders about maintenance. Addressing potential equipment issues before costly breakdowns can add real value to operations.
What Are The Cons of Using AI in The Oil and Gas Industry?
AI is not free, and implementation costs can be high when considering the need for people to program and operate it, software to learn your operations, and the infrastructure to support it. Once purchased, appropriate mechanisms must be firmly in place to protect the operating system from cyberattacks, which could result in severe disruption to operations and great financial loss. The oil and gas industry must take steps to design and implement a strategy for the development, rollout, and ultimate planned use of AI before making an investment in the technology.
The human element is somewhat lost when you choose AI to replace laborers, and you may want to consider up-skill offerings for your employees to avoid major disruption to the industry as a whole. In addition, when you remove the knowledge humans bring to the industry, you risk loss of both institutional knowledge and new knowledge that comes with future-facing concepts. The loss of both established and new human capital is not something to take lightly when considering the long-term health of any industry or business within that industry.
Additional concerns with the use of AI in the oil and gas industry arise regarding data inputs and ethics. When AI models look at publicly available data to shape predictions, that data likely has some errors that may result in inefficiencies and costly mistakes. Further, the AI may not account for privacy concerns associated with the data it collects, including the fact that the reasons for which the data was collected in the first place may not have contemplated AI use.
Should You Use AI for Your Business?
Like most things in life, we take the good with the bad, and every pro has its con. When it comes to AI use in the oil and gas industry, the cons must be considered carefully before determining when, where, and how to use it, and again before implementation. From costs and security to the replacement of institutional knowledge with machines, there are many considerations. Contact the oil and gas attorneys at MehaffyWeber today for a knowledgeable evaluation for your operations.