Drillers Turning to Big Data in the Hunt for Cheaper Oil
Many like to see the end of the oil age not only because oil has environmental problems but even more because they feel that the world is empty. There is no more oomph in oil. Nothing could be further from the truth. Oil -so far – was more akin to a “hit-and-miss” game. The drilling casino (a damn well-educated and managed casino I must confess) still more or less bit their fingernails until oil was really struck in commercial quantities. This changes radically now. New data gathering methods allowing for in situ data gathering, interpretation and decision-making allows for oil drilling and production that resembles a manufacturing operation far more than a hit-and-miss casino. There is an awful lot of room at the bottom of oil and the oil age is not over by any count. Its rather shifting into high gear now.
Schlumberger, the leading oilfield services company, is working to increase oil output and cut the industry’s costs. The Schlumberger Software Technology Innovation Centre (STIC) located in the heart of Silicon Valley, is to apply big data technologies, pioneered by Google, Facebook and Amazon, to oil exploration and production.
