IBM supporting Eni on exploration data analysis

June 26, 2019

Offshore staff

SAN DONATO MILANESE, Italy – Eni and IBM have unveiled initial results of a multi-year collaboration using artificial intelligence (AI).

Their research tool Cognitive Discovery is designed to support Eni's decision-making during the initial phases of exploration in order to reduce risks linked to geological complexity.

It works as an augmented ‘intelligence assistant,’ Eni said, providing a more realistic and precise representation of the subsurface geological model while processing large volumes of geological, physical, and geochemical data.

The company then processes these data sets into knowledge graphs which employ AI to contextualize and present data to geoscientists to assist their decision making and identification or verification of possible alternative scenarios.

Cognitive Discovery should also allow Eni to analyze a huge quantity of structured or unstructured data that could be numerical, logical, or a combination of the two.

For the evaluation of a basin, geoscientists analyze data from various sources to assess the likely presence and potential size of hydrocarbon accumulations ahead of potential exploration drilling.

The two partners plan to extend the document analysis of the tool engineering and reservoirs in order to enlarge its knowledge base and make any subsequent knowledge graphs fit for multiple purposes.

At present, Cognitive Discovery runs on an IBM HPC Power 9 cluster at Eni’s Green Data Center near Pavia, northern Italy.

06/26/2019