Finnish-Russian AI Project Could Help Boost Oil Well Output

Finnish-Russian AI and IIoT solutions developer ZYFRA Group has successfully tested an Electrical Submersible Pump (ESP) software unit, designed to enhance the efficiency of oil extraction by boosting oil well production rates by 1.5% without any additional capital investment, Oil Review reports.

The ESP software unit is now operational for more than three months in 500 oil wells in Western Siberia, which makes an additional profit of $2 million, the company says.

The unit is equipped with artificial intelligence to provide recommendations based on historical Big Data analysis. The unit recommends a mode of well operation that will ensure maximum oil flow rate for a certain period of time and provides for stable operation during that period. The highest demand for the ESP software unit is expected from Russia, U.S., Canada, Southeast Asia, Northern and West Africa and Middle East.

“Scientists regularly claim that the era of oil will end soon and that readily available hydrocarbons are almost exhausted. The digitalization of the oil and gas industry will help simplify extraction of hard-to-recover oil while at the same time extending the lifespan of the oilfield by more than one decade,” said Dmitry Krikunov, ZYFRA’s AI team leader in the oil and gas sector.

“The ‘smart oil deposit’ concept could help oil companies to cut costs by 5% and enhance production volumes by 2%. CERA calculates that ‘smart oil and gas deposits’ could cut production costs by 1–6%, shrink oil-well downtime by 1–4% and reduce labor intensity by up to 25%,” Krikunov said.

With its new AI equipped ESP software unit ZYFRA aims to capture a sizeable share of the global market of digital solutions for the upstream oil and gas industry valuing $366 million. The total global market in this sector is valued at up to $8.9 billion.