Neptune Energy to make use of digital technologies to find oil & gas faster

Oil and gas company Neptune Energy has announced plans for a digital subsurface program with the aim of discovering hydrocarbons 70 percent faster.

In addition, the program will reduce exploration costs, and bring discoveries into production up to three years earlier than current industry standards permit, Neptune said on Tuesday.

The program was unveiled on Tuesday at DigEx 2020 in Oslo, Norway, where the company discussed how it was making use of digital technologies including the latest cloud infrastructure to reduce the time from “idea to discovery”.

Neptune is working with a range of partners and vendors to develop new tools to scan and interpret vast quantities of seismic data, significantly reducing the time spent by geoscientists on administrative work and preparation, and providing them with data-informed insights they can use to identify hydrocarbons more efficiently and with more certainty, reducing the likelihood of drilling a dry well.

The company is also progressing a proof of concept project, testing new digital workstations provided by Cegal, a global provider of hybrid cloud solutions. The workstations would be hosted on Microsoft Azure’s cloud infrastructure and would make use of technology from Bluware which enables artificial intelligence and machine learning to interpret huge volumes of data.

This would create a global data hub and a platform for Neptune’s teams around the world to collaborate and access, share and analyse vast quantities of geological data, enabling them to pool their resources and experience.

Neptune’s VP Exploration & Development, Gro Haatvedt, said: “Exploration and drilling is an important part of our strategy to grow our business in key geographies, yet it is expensive and time-consuming. Vast amounts of data, often stuck in multiple silos around the world, must be reviewed and interpreted before a single well can be drilled. At the same time, we employ incredibly intelligent geoscientists and exploration teams who have to spend much of their time on administrative work. Our digital subsurface approach will provide tools and platforms for our teams to access data quickly, allowing them to focus their time on delivering insights and results.”

Neptune’s Chief Information Officer, Kaveh Pourteymour, added: “Our goal is to make use of digital technologies to find and produce oil and gas faster, with more certainty and safely. If we can provide better intelligence and insights on where hydrocarbons reside, we can accelerate their discovery and production and reduce the cost of exploration.”

GeoCloud workstations are already in use by Neptune’s teams today. The results of the proof of concept will help inform the next steps of the company’s global cloud strategy.

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