YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, New York and
MADRID, Oct. 30, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Scientists at IBM
(NYSE: IBM) and leading global energy company Repsol S.A.(REP.US)
announced today the world's first research collaboration to
leverage cognitive technologies that will help transform the oil
and gas industry. IBM and Repsol are jointly developing two
prototype cognitive applications specifically designed to augment
Repsol's strategic decision making in the optimization of oil
reservoir production and in the acquisition of new oil fields.
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The oil and gas industry boasts some of the most advanced
geological, geophysical and chemical science in the world. However
with the explosion of big data and emerging science, the discovery,
mining, integration and interpretation of this data, together with
critical geopolitical, economic and other global news, require a
whole new approach to computing that can speed access to business
insights, enhance strategic decision-making and drive
productivity.
Using the capabilities of IBM's pioneering Cognitive
Environments Laboratory (CEL), Repsol and IBM researchers will work
together to jointly develop and apply new prototype cognitive tools
for real-world use cases in the oil and gas industry. Cognitive
computing software agents and technologies will be designed to
collaborate with human experts in more natural ways, learn through
interaction, and enable individuals and teams to make better
decisions by overcoming cognitive limitations posed by big
data.
Scientists in the CEL will also be able to experiment with a
combination of traditional and new interfaces based upon spoken
dialog, gesture, robotics and advanced visualization and navigation
techniques. Through these modalities, they will be able to learn
and leverage sophisticated models of human characteristics,
preferences and biases that may be present in the decision-making
process.
For example, an engineer evaluating what new oil fields to
acquire will typically have to manually read through an enormous
set of journal papers and baseline reports with seismic imaging
data and models of reservoir, well, facilities, production and
export. Cognitive technologies can quickly help by analyzing
hundreds of thousands of papers and reports, prioritize and link
that data to the specific decision at hand, and introduce new
real-time factors to be considered such as current news events
around economic instability, political unrest and natural
disasters. Using the research tools in the CEL, the engineer along
with key stakeholders can more fluidly build conceptual and
geological models, highlight the impact of the potential risks and
uncertainty, visualize trade-offs, and explore what-if scenarios to
ensure the best decision is made.
The two prototype applications that will be jointly developed by
IBM and Repsol will leverage cognitive computing capabilities to
specifically help Repsol reduce the risk and uncertainty of future
oil field acquisitions and maximize the yield of existing oil
fields – both of which can have a significant impact on the
efficiency and efficacy of the global operations of Repsol and all
oil and gas companies.
"Repsol's technological research and applications have already
helped us significantly improve the way we visualize and develop
oil and gas fields, and this latest collaboration with IBM opens up
a whole world of new possibilities. We are convinced that the
seamless blending of technology and talent will be the key driver
for the industry in the 21st Century, where efficient
management of resources is paramount," said Santiago Quesada Garmendia, Director of E&P
Technology for Repsol.
A New Environment for Decision-Making
Global energy demand is expected to grow by more than 53 percent
by 2035, with more than half of that energy being supplied by oil
and gas.[1] In order to maintain an energy supply for years to
come, companies are constantly making high-stakes decisions in the
face of uncertainty and risks, while the volume of complex data is
growing exponentially.
Decision making doesn't happen only in one place and often it
requires people to regroup with more information or new
stakeholders to be involved before arriving at an outcome. As
people work and move across many physical environments, it is
important for people to have access to cognitive capabilities in a
seamless computing experience whether it's at the office, at home
or in the field.
Such a fluid cognitive computing experience will be possible
with a cognitive environment infrastructure that provides a new
class of cognitive software agents and services designed
specifically to interact with people across various devices and
physical spaces. As users move from strategic cognitive rooms to
their offices and even homes, a society of cognitive agents will
move seamlessly with them across these environments and different
modes of interaction and computation will scale appropriately to
each.
Cognitive environments can look and feel very different (from
board rooms in the workplace, to cars, to homes, to mobile
devices), but by being connected to one another they will enable
human-computer collaboration at "the speed of thought", leading to
more informed and robust decision-making.
"In the field of oil and gas, a deeply interactive and
significantly more collaborative cognitive environment enables
geologists, geophysicists, petrochemical engineers, economists,
planners, and developers to come together in a single environment
that leverages their individual and unique skills, tools and
applications," said Dario Gil,
Director of the Cognitive Environments Lab at IBM Research.
"Cognitive environments can enhance the collective intelligence of
the group and influence the direction of strategic decisions for
better outcomes, which for Repsol will be optimizing reservoir
production or enhancing the decision-making process for the
acquisition of new oil fields."
Santiago Quesada Garmendia will
discuss this research collaboration at IBM's annual Cognitive
Systems Colloquium, being held today at IBM's Thomas J. Watson
Research Center in Yorktown Heights,
NY. He will unveil initial insights of a prototype cognitive
environment and tools, which are being jointly developed with IBM
for specific oil and gas industry applications.
The event, attended by academics, researchers and IBM clients
and collaborators, will focus on how the new era of cognitive
computing will deliver the next level of advanced collaboration
between people and computers to augment human intelligence,
boosting the productivity and creativity of individuals and teams,
and thereby transforming industries and professions.
About IBM
For more information, please visit
www.research.ibm.com.
About Repsol
Repsol is a Spanish integrated oil and
gas company present in over thirty countries, employing 24,000
people. The company is the market-leader in refining and marketing
in Spain and has a worldwide daily
production of 346,000 barrels of oil equivalent.
During the last decade Repsol has reinvented itself from being
specialized in refining by growing a large exploration and
production business, which since 2004 has posted more than 50
discoveries, eight of which are amongst the world's largest.
The Repsol Technology Centre is one of the largest technological
investigation centres in Europe,
with a myriad of projects to boost exploration and production
activity by applying ground-breaking technology. Its award-winning
Kaleidoscope seismic imaging project, developed together with IBM,
proved to be a breakthrough in mapping pre-salt oil formations, and
the company's multiple technological initiatives in oilfield
mapping and modelling have improved safety, efficiency and
profitability in its operations.
Repsol's expansion strategy envisages industry-leading
production, reserves and earnings growth throughout the next decade
thanks to the successful start-up of new fields and a strong
exploration pipeline.
[1] Energy Information Administration
CONTACT:
Christine Vu
+1 914-945-2755
vuch@us.ibm.com