An Online Microcredential Certification Program to Upskill Petrotechnical Professionals in Data Analytics and Machine Learning with an Upstream Oil and Gas Industry Focus

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalyanaraman Venugopal ◽  
Dvijesh Shastri ◽  
Suryanarayanan Radhakrishnan ◽  
Ramanan Krishnamoorti

Abstract The upstream oil and gas industry's digital transformation over the last few years has accelerated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data analytics and machine learning are key components of this digital transformation and have become essential skills for experienced petrotechnical professionals (PTPs) and aspiring entrants into the field. The objective of our work was to design and deliver a practical, engaging, and online microcredential certification program in upstream energy data analytics for PTPs. The program was conceived as a collaboration between academia (University of Houston's UH Energy) and industry (NExT, a Schlumberger company). It was designed as three belt levels (Bronze, Silver, and Gold), each containing three stackable badges of 12 to 15 hours duration per badge. Key design points included Identifying an online platform for administration Delivering convenient, interactive, live online sessions Delivering hybrid classes blending lectures and hands-on laboratories Designing laboratories using upstream datasets across various stages of oilfield expertise Administering test and quizzes, Kaggle competitions, and team projects. The program contents were designed incorporating appropriate instructional design practices for effective online class delivery. The design and delivery of the laboratories using a code-free approach by leveraging visual programming offers PTPs and new entrants a unique opportunity to learn data analytics concepts without the traditional concern of learning to code. Additionally, the collaboration between academia and industry enables delivering a program that combines academic rigor with application of the skills and knowledge to solve problems facing the industry using the real-world datasets. As a pilot program, all three badges of the Bronze belt were scheduled and successfully delivered during July and August 2020, as six 2-hour sessions per badge. From a total of 26 students registered in badge 1, 24 completed it, resulting in a completion rate of 92%. Out of these students, 19 registered and completed badge 2 and badge 3, resulting in the completion rates of 100%. Based on the success of the pilot program, a second delivery of the Bronze belt with 18 participants was offered from October 2020 through January 2021. All 18 participants completed all three badges. Feedback from participants attests to the success of the pilot program as seen in the following excerpts: "A very good course and instructors. I have already recommended the course to a friend and I will continue to be an advocate for the course." "Teachers are very receptive to questions and it is a joy to hear their lectures." "I found the University of Houston course to be both highly engaging and incredibly informative. The course teaches basic principles of data science without being bogged down by the specific coding language."

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Muqtadir Khan

Abstract With the advancement in machine learning (ML) applications, some recent research has been conducted to optimize fracturing treatments. There are a variety of models available using various objective functions for optimization and different mathematical techniques. There is a need to extend the ML techniques to optimize the choice of algorithm. For fracturing treatment design, the literature for comparative algorithm performance is sparse. The research predominantly shows that compared to the most commonly used regressors and classifiers, some sort of boosting technique consistently outperforms on model testing and prediction accuracy. A database was constructed for a heterogeneous reservoir. Four widely used boosting algorithms were used on the database to predict the design only from the output of a short injection/falloff test. Feature importance analysis was done on eight output parameters from the falloff analysis, and six were finalized for the model construction. The outputs selected for prediction were fracturing fluid efficiency, proppant mass, maximum proppant concentration, and injection rate. Extreme gradient boost (XGBoost), categorical boost (CatBoost), adaptive boost (AdaBoost), and light gradient boosting machine (LGBM) were the algorithms finalized for the comparative study. The sensitivity was done for a different number of classes (four, five, and six) to establish a balance between accuracy and prediction granularity. The results showed that the best algorithm choice was between XGBoost and CatBoost for the predicted parameters under certain model construction conditions. The accuracy for all outputs for the holdout sets varied between 80 and 92%, showing robust significance for a wider utilization of these models. Data science has contributed to various oil and gas industry domains and has tremendous applications in the stimulation domain. The research and review conducted in this paper add a valuable resource for the user to build digital databases and use the appropriate algorithm without much trial and error. Implementing this model reduced the complexity of the proppant fracturing treatment redesign process, enhanced operational efficiency, and reduced fracture damage by eliminating minifrac steps with crosslinked gel.


Author(s):  
Shubham Parsoya Et.al

Digital transformation in the field of oil and Gas industry is already a significant impact creator. It is actually act like catalyst through which the overall functionality of the oil and gas industry get enhanced and the overall output with the help of technologically-advanced mechanism, increased up to manifold. In the present scenario, the over-all quest is not just about the volume of the oil and petroleum, but it is also regarding the overall value generated throughout the process. And such enhanced level of value generation is taking place with great pace with the help of enhanced level of implementations of different types of technologies in different type of activities related to the oil and gas industry. In the present scenario, oil and gas industry’s business model is no longer depending upon just the inflated and narrow based value-chain mechanism. It is actually depending upon the almost all modernized and futuristic technologies. The modern technologies include big data analytics, 3D printing technology, cyber security, digital marketing, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, drone technologies, database management system, etc. all these technologies are not only supports in handling the overall business capability of the oil and Gas Industries, but also eliminate the overall negative impact generating elements. With the help of technologies and digital transformation, the overall profitability of the oil and gas industry enhanced. Digital transformation is a prominent and significant impact creator which is not limited to the oil and gas industry, but also reaching up to the all-global level Businesses. It is transforming the overall business operations by enhancing the speed of innovation and making the use of practical knowledge base which ultimately enhance the overall power of operations and increase efficiencies. With the emergence of digital transformation technologies especially with the emergence of big data analytics, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence have supports several types of innovative and new ways of developing and transforming the overall market as well as the customer satisfaction in significant manner. All such innovative technologies and digital transformations are contributing significantly in shaping the future of oil and gas industry


2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (10) ◽  
pp. 60-60
Author(s):  
Yagna Oruganti

With a moderate- to low-oil-price environment being the new normal, improving process efficiency, thereby leading to hydrocarbon recovery at reduced costs, is becoming the need of the hour. The oil and gas industry generates vast amounts of data that, if properly leveraged, can generate insights that lead to recovering hydrocarbons with reduced costs, better safety records, lower costs associated with equipment downtime, and reduced environmental footprint. Data analytics and machine-learning techniques offer tremendous potential in leveraging the data. An analysis of papers in OnePetro from 2014 to 2020 illustrates the steep increase in the number of machine-learning-related papers year after year. The analysis also reveals reservoir characterization, formation evaluation, and drilling as domains that have seen the highest number of papers on the application of machine-learning techniques. Reservoir characterization in particular is a field that has seen an explosion of papers on machine learning, with the use of convolutional neural networks for fault detection, seismic imaging and inversion, and the use of classical machine-learning algorithms such as random forests for lithofacies classification. Formation evaluation is another area that has gained a lot of traction with applications such as the use of classical machine-learning techniques such as support vector regression to predict rock mechanical properties and the use of deep-learning techniques such as long short-term memory to predict synthetic logs in unconventional reservoirs. Drilling is another domain where a tremendous amount of work has been done with papers on optimizing drilling parameters using techniques such as genetic algorithms, using automated machine-learning frameworks for bit dull grade prediction, and application of natural language processing for stuck-pipe prevention and reduction of nonproductive time. As the application of machine learning toward solving various problems in the upstream oil and gas industry proliferates, explainable artificial intelligence or machine-learning interpretability becomes critical for data scientists and business decision-makers alike. Data scientists need the ability to explain machine-learning models to executives and stakeholders to verify hypotheses and build trust in the models. One of the three highlighted papers used Shapley additive explanations, which is a game-theory-based approach to explain machine-learning outputs, to provide a layer of interpretability to their machine-learning model for identification of identification of geomechanical facies along horizontal wells. A cautionary note: While there is significant promise in applying these techniques, there remain many challenges in capitalizing on the data—lack of common data models in the industry, data silos, data stored in on-premises resources, slow migration of data to the cloud, legacy databases and systems, lack of digitization of older/legacy reports, well logs, and lack of standardization in data-collection methodologies across different facilities and geomarkets, to name a few. I would like to invite readers to review the selection of papers to get an idea of various applications in the upstream oil and gas space where machine-learning methods have been leveraged. The highlighted papers cover the topics of fatigue dam-age of marine risers and well performance optimization and identification of frackable, brittle, and producible rock along horizontal wells using drilling data. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE 201597 - Improved Robustness in Long-Term Pressure-Data Analysis Using Wavelets and Deep Learning by Dante Orta Alemán, Stanford University, et al. SPE 202379 - A Network Data Analytics Approach to Assessing Reservoir Uncertainty and Identification of Characteristic Reservoir Models by Eugene Tan, the University of Western Australia, et al. OTC 30936 - Data-Driven Performance Optimization in Section Milling by Shantanu Neema, Chevron, et al.


Author(s):  
Zeeshan Tariq ◽  
Murtada Saleh Aljawad ◽  
Amjed Hasan ◽  
Mobeen Murtaza ◽  
Emad Mohammed ◽  
...  

AbstractThis study offered a detailed review of data sciences and machine learning (ML) roles in different petroleum engineering and geosciences segments such as petroleum exploration, reservoir characterization, oil well drilling, production, and well stimulation, emphasizing the newly emerging field of unconventional reservoirs. The future of data science and ML in the oil and gas industry, highlighting what is required from ML for better prediction, is also discussed. This study also provides a comprehensive comparison of different ML techniques used in the oil and gas industry. With the arrival of powerful computers, advanced ML algorithms, and extensive data generation from different industry tools, we see a bright future in developing solutions to the complex problems in the oil and gas industry that were previously beyond the grip of analytical solutions or numerical simulation. ML tools can incorporate every detail in the log data and every information connected to the target data. Despite their limitations, they are not constrained by limiting assumptions of analytical solutions or by particular data and/or power processing requirements of numerical simulators. This detailed and comprehensive study can serve as an exclusive reference for ML applications in the industry. Based on the review conducted, it was found that ML techniques offer a great potential in solving problems in almost all areas of the oil and gas industry involving prediction, classification, and clustering. With the generation of huge data in everyday oil and gas industry activates, machine learning and big data handling techniques are becoming a necessity toward a more efficient industry.


IEEE Access ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Thumeera R. Wanasinghe ◽  
Trung Trinh ◽  
Trung Nguyen ◽  
Raymond G. Gosine ◽  
Lesley Anne James ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Israel Guevara ◽  
David Ardila ◽  
Kevin Daza ◽  
Oscar Ovalle ◽  
Paola Pastor ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (03) ◽  
pp. 25-30
Author(s):  
Srikanta Mishra ◽  
Jared Schuetter ◽  
Akhil Datta-Gupta ◽  
Grant Bromhal

Algorithms are taking over the world, or so we are led to believe, given their growing pervasiveness in multiple fields of human endeavor such as consumer marketing, finance, design and manufacturing, health care, politics, sports, etc. The focus of this article is to examine where things stand in regard to the application of these techniques for managing subsurface energy resources in domains such as conventional and unconventional oil and gas, geologic carbon sequestration, and geothermal energy. It is useful to start with some definitions to establish a common vocabulary. Data analytics (DA)—Sophisticated data collection and analysis to understand and model hidden patterns and relationships in complex, multivariate data sets Machine learning (ML)—Building a model between predictors and response, where an algorithm (often a black box) is used to infer the underlying input/output relationship from the data Artificial intelligence (AI)—Applying a predictive model with new data to make decisions without human intervention (and with the possibility of feedback for model updating) Thus, DA can be thought of as a broad framework that helps determine what happened (descriptive analytics), why it happened (diagnostic analytics), what will happen (predictive analytics), or how can we make something happen (prescriptive analytics) (Sankaran et al. 2019). Although DA is built upon a foundation of classical statistics and optimization, it has increasingly come to rely upon ML, especially for predictive and prescriptive analytics (Donoho 2017). While the terms DA, ML, and AI are often used interchangeably, it is important to recognize that ML is basically a subset of DA and a core enabling element of the broader application for the decision-making construct that is AI. In recent years, there has been a proliferation in studies using ML for predictive analytics in the context of subsurface energy resources. Consider how the number of papers on ML in the OnePetro database has been increasing exponentially since 1990 (Fig. 1). These trends are also reflected in the number of technical sessions devoted to ML/AI topics in conferences organized by SPE, AAPG, and SEG among others; as wells as books targeted to practitioners in these professions (Holdaway 2014; Mishra and Datta-Gupta 2017; Mohaghegh 2017; Misra et al. 2019). Given these high levels of activity, our goal is to provide some observations and recommendations on the practice of data-driven model building using ML techniques. The observations are motivated by our belief that some geoscientists and petroleum engineers may be jumping the gun by applying these techniques in an ad hoc manner without any foundational understanding, whereas others may be holding off on using these methods because they do not have any formal ML training and could benefit from some concrete advice on the subject. The recommendations are conditioned by our experience in applying both conventional statistical modeling and data analytics approaches to practical problems.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afungchwi Ronald Ngwashi ◽  
David O. Ogbe ◽  
Dickson O. Udebhulu

Abstract Data analytics has only recently picked the interest of the oil and gas industry as it has made data visualization much simpler, faster, and cost-effective. This is driven by the promising innovative techniques in developing artificial intelligence and machine-learning tools to provide sustainable solutions to ever-increasing problems of the petroleum industry activities. Sand production is one of these real issues faced by the oil and gas industry. Understanding whether a well will produce sand or not is the foundation of every completion job in sandstone formations. The Niger Delta Province is a region characterized by friable and unconsolidated sandstones, therefore it's more prone to sanding. It is economically unattractive in this region to design sand equipment for a well that will not produce sand. This paper is aimed at developing a fast and more accurate machine-learning algorithm to predict sanding in sandstone formations. A two-layered Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with back-propagation algorithm was developed using PYTHON programming language. The algorithm uses 11 geological and reservoir parameters that are associated with the onset of sanding. These parameters include depth, overburden, pore pressure, maximum and minimum horizontal stresses, well azimuth, well inclination, Poisson's ratio, Young's Modulus, friction angle, and shale content. Data typical of the Niger Delta were collected to validate the algorithm. The data was further split into a training set (70%) and a test set (30%). Statistical analyses of the data yielded correlations between the parameters and were plotted for better visualization. The accuracy of the ANN algorithm is found to depend on the number of parameters, number of epochs, and the size of the data set. For a completion engineer, the answer to the question of whether or not a well will require sand production control is binary-either a well will produce sand or it does not. Support vector machines (SVM) are known to be better suited as the machine-learning tools for binary identification. This study also presents a comparative analysis between ANN and SVM models as tools for predicting sand production. Analysis of the Niger Delta data set indicated that SVM outperformed ANN model even when the training data set is sparse. Using the 30% test set, ANN gives an accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 - Score of about 80% while the SVM performance was 100% for the four metrics. It is then concluded that machine learning tools such as ANN with back-propagation and SVM are simple, accurate, and easy-to-use tools for effectively predicting sand production.


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