Skip to main content
Log in

Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Oil and Gas Development

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Archives of Computational Methods in Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Artificial intelligence has been back on the stage of research works in all the walks in recently years, the sharply increase of AI-based work have shown its potential to be a future direction for almost all disciplines. In oil and gas industry, AI technology is also doubtlessly a new shining star that draws attention from researchers devoted themselves into it. In order to dig up more about the applications of artificial intelligence in oilfield development for a hint of the future trend of this exciting technology in oil and gas industry, literature investigation of a large amount of AI-based work reported has been conducted in this work. Based on the investigation, the application of AI in important issues in oilfield development including oilfield production dynamic prediction, developing plan optimization, residual oil identification, fracture identification, and enhanced oil recovery are specifically investigated and summarized, the backs and cons of existing AI algorithms has been compared. Based on the analysis and discussion, current situation of the application of AI in oilfield development is concluded, and suggestions and potential directions of future work AI application in oil and gas developing are provided.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

Source: https://www.onepetro.org/

Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

ANFIS:

Adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system

ANN:

Artificial neural network

APSO:

Adaptive particle swarm optimization

BDA:

Big data analytics

BP:

Back propagation

CNN:

Convolutional neural network

DM:

Data mining

FCM:

Fuzzy clustering method

GA:

Genetic algorithm

GNN:

Graph neural network

HIS:

Hybrid intelligent system

Iot:

Internet of things technology

IPSO:

Improved particle swami optimization

LSSVM:

Least squares support vector machine

MAPE:

Mean absolute percent error

ML:

Machine learning

MLPNN:

Multi-layer perceptron neural network

MSE:

Mean squared error

NARX:

Nonlinear auto regressive model with eXogenous

PCA:

Principal component analysis

PNN:

Polynomial neural network

PSO:

Particle swarm optimization

QPSO:

Quantum particle swarm optimization

RMSE:

Root mean squared error

SD:

Standard deviation

SOM:

Self-organizing maps

SRM:

Surrogate regulation model

SVM:

Support vector machine

WOB:

Weight on bit

References

  1. Wang XL (2017) Application of artificial intelligence in oil and gas industry. Mod Inf Technol 3(1):117–119

    Google Scholar 

  2. Gilman H, Nordtvedt J E (2014) Intelligent energy: the past, the present, and the future. In: SPE intelligent energy conference & exhibition, 1–3 April. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Utrecht, pp 185–190

  3. Yu WJ (2016) On the development trend and necessity of intelligent oilfield. Sci Wealth 10:500

    Google Scholar 

  4. Shi YJ (2016) Analysis of the research status of intelligent oilfield in China. Straits Technol Ind 12:81–83

    Google Scholar 

  5. Ma SX (2018) Technology focus: formation evaluation. SPE 70(08):50. https://doi.org/10.2118/0818-0050-JPT

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Liu W, Yan N (2018) Application and influence of artificial intelligence in petroleum engineering area. Pet Technol Forum 4:32–40

    Google Scholar 

  7. Li DW, Shi GR (2018) Optimization of common data mining algorithms for petroleum exploration and development. Acta Pet Sin 39(2):240–246

    Google Scholar 

  8. Giuliani M, Cadei L, Montini M et al (2018) Hybrid artificial intelligence techniques for automatic simulation models matching with field data. In: Abu Dhabi international petroleum exhibition & conference, 12–15 November. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Abu Dhabi, pp 1–11

  9. Hojageldiyev D (2018) Artificial intelligence in HSE. In: Abu Dhabi international petroleum exhibition & conference, 12–15 November. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Abu Dhabi, pp 1–9

  10. Liu BJ (2015) Construction conception of intelligent oilfield. J Shengli Oilfield Party Sch 06:99–101

    Google Scholar 

  11. Liu XD, Yang TT, Yan HY (2013) Forecast of oilfield indexes based on elman neural network and genetic algorithm. Comput Mod 2:150–152

    Google Scholar 

  12. Lien MO, Jansen JD, Brouwer DR (2006) Multiscale smart well management. In: Intelligent energy conference and exhibition, 11–13 April. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Amsterdam, pp 1–11

  13. Liu N (2014) Digital oilfield construction, smooth evolution to intelligent oilfield. Silicon Val 4:191

    Google Scholar 

  14. Yousef AA, Liu JS, Blanchard GW et al (2012) Smart waterflooding: industry. In: SPE annual technical conference and exhibition, 8–10 October. Society of Petroleum Engineers, San Antonio, pp 1–25

  15. Wang HF, Wang SJ, Zhu SB (2018) Conception and exploration of the smart oil and gas field construction in “internet +” era. Oil Gas Field Surf Eng 8:1–8

    Google Scholar 

  16. Anderson S, Barvik S, Rabitoy C (2019) Innovative digital inspection methods. In: Offshore technology conference, 6–9 May, Houston, TX, pp 1–9

  17. Denney D (2006) To support digital oil fields. SPE 58(10):71–72

    Google Scholar 

  18. Nadhan D, Mayani MG, Rommetveit R (2018) Drilling with digital twins. In: IADC/SPE Asia pacific drilling technology conference and exhibition, 27–29 August. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Bangkok, pp 1–18

  19. Rodriguez JA, Nasr H, Scott M et al (2013) New generation of petroleum workflow automation: philosophy and practice. In: SPE digital energy conference, 5–7 March. Society of Petroleum Engineers, The Woodlands, pp 1–13

  20. Tan AA, Potts JK (1995) Digital log management system. SPE 7(04):88–90

    Google Scholar 

  21. William WW, Balch RS, Stubbs BA (2002) How artificial intelligence methods can forecast oil production. In: SPE/DOE improved oil recovery symposium, 13–17 April. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Tulsa, pp 1–16

  22. Gatta SR (1999) Decision tree analysis and risk modeling to appraise investments on major oil field projects.In: SPE middle east oil show and conference. Information Engineering Research Institute, USA, pp 187–202

  23. Agwu OE, Akpabio JU, Alabi SB et al (2018) Artificial intelligence techniques and their applications in drilling fluid engineering: a review. J Pet Sci Eng 167:300–315

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Tang HK, Li XY (2015) BP neural network is applied to the production dynamic analysis of an oil field. Oil Gas Field Surf Eng 4:20–21

    Google Scholar 

  25. Al-Thuwaini J, Zangl G, Phelps RE (2006) Innovative approach to assist history matching using artificial intelligence. In: Intelligent energy conference and exhibition, 11–13 April. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Amsterdam, pp 1–7

  26. Mohaghegh SD, Grujic OS, Zargari S, Dahaghi AK (2011) Modeling, history matching, forecasting and analysis of shale reservoirs performance using artificial intelligence. In: SPE digital energy conference and exhibition, 19–21 April. Society of Petroleum Engineers, The Woodlands, pp 1–14

  27. Costa LAN, Maschio C, Schiozer DJ (2014) Application of artificial neural networks in a history matching process. SPE J 123:30–45

    Google Scholar 

  28. Shahkarami A, Mohaghegh SD, Gholami V, Haghighat SA (2014) Artificial intelligence (AI) assisted history matching. In: SPE western North American and Rocky Mountain joint meeting, 17–18 April. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Denver, pp 1–26

  29. Denney D (2011) Modeling history matching, forecasting, and analysis of shale-reservoir performance with artificial intelligence. SPE 63(09):60–63

    Google Scholar 

  30. Zhu QJ, Gu YB, Lu SL et al (2002) Application of artificial neural network model in oil resource prediction. East China Geol 23(4):281–287

    Google Scholar 

  31. Al-Fattah SM, Startzman RA (2001) Predicting natural gas production using artificial neural network. In: SPE hydrocarbon economics and evaluation symposium, 2–3 April. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Dallas, pp 1–10

  32. Osman ESA (2001) Artificial neural networks models for identifying flow regimes and predicting liquid holdup in horizontal multiphase flow. In: SPE middle east oil show, 17–20 March. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Manama, pp 1–8

  33. Yan HY, Fu JY, Dong JH et al (2014) Forecast model of oilfield indexes based on IPSO GNN. Sci Technol Eng 14(15):197–202

    Google Scholar 

  34. Xu SH, Bi CC, Zhang Y et al (2015) Oilfield development indicators prediction based on radial basis process neural network. Comput Technol Autom 3:52–54

    Google Scholar 

  35. Feng GY, Han JX (2015) The oilfield production prediction model based on principal component analysis and least squares support vector machine. Comput Knowl Technol 11(31):144–147

    Google Scholar 

  36. Gaurav A (2017) Horizontal shale well EUR determination integrating geology, machine learning, pattern recognition and multivariate statistics focused on the Permian basin. In: SPE liquids-rich basins conference—North America, 13–14 September. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Midland, pp 1–19

  37. Salem KG, Abdulaziz AAM, Abdel Sattar A, Dahab ASD (2018) Prediction of hydraulic properties in carbonate reservoirs using artificial neural network. In: Abu Dhabi international petroleum exhibition & conference, 12–15 November. Society of Petroleum, Abu Dhabi, pp 1–18

  38. Ghahfarokhi PK, Carr T, Bhattacharya S, Elliott J, Shahkarami A, Martin K (2018) A fiber-optic assisted multilayer perceptron reservoir production modeling: a machine learning approach in prediction of gas production from the Marcellus shale. In: SPE/AAPG/SEG unconventional resources technology conference, 23–25 July, Houston, Texas, USA pp 1–10

  39. Khan MR, Tariq Z, Abdulraheem A (2018) Machine learning derived correlation to determine water saturation in complex lithologies. In: SPE Kingdom of Saudi Arabia annual technical symposium and exhibition, 23–26 April. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Dammam, pp 1–10

  40. Zhang ZX, Kang XF, Zhang FF (2012) Application of grey theory for oil and gas reservoir evaluation program optimization. Adv Mater Res 616–618:1008–1012

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Kang XJ, Yuan AW, Gao J et al (2006) Neural network method for comprehensive evaluation of oilfield development planning scheme. Spec Oil Gas Res 13(2):48–50

    Google Scholar 

  42. Park H, Lim JS, Kang JM, Roh J, Min B (2006) A hybrid artificial intelligence method for the optimization of integrated gas production system. In: SPE Asia pacific oil & gas conference and exhibition, 11–13 September. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Adelaide, pp 1–9

  43. Xiao DR, Pan H (2010) Optimization of designing of the oil field exploiting based on fuzzy mathematics and BP neural network. Microcomput Inf 26(6):209–211

    Google Scholar 

  44. Godarzi AA, Amiri RM, Talaei A et al (2014) Predicting oil price movements: a dynamic artificial neural network approach. Energy Policy 68(5):371–382

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Sun H, Li PC (2016) Measures optimization for oil and water well based on quantum particle swarm optimization. Comput Technol Dev 26(9):78–82

    Google Scholar 

  46. Feng GQ, Pan LY, Kong B et al (2018) Hierarchical optimization research based on fuzzy clustering analysis. Eval Dev Oil Gas Reserv 3:30–39

    Google Scholar 

  47. Roueché JN, Karacan CO (2018) Zone identification and oil saturation prediction in a waterflooded field: residual oil zone, East Seminole field, Texas, USA, Permian Basin. In: SPE improved oil recovery conference, 14–18 April. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Tulsa, pp 1–14

  48. Denney D (2000) Artificial neural networks identify restimulation candidates. SPE 52(02):44–45

    Google Scholar 

  49. Du QL, Zhu LH (2009) Remaining oil distribution and its description technology during ultra-high water cut stage in La-Sa-Xing oilfi1eld. Daqing Pet Geol Dev 5:99–105

    Google Scholar 

  50. Liu J, Gao HY, Wang TT et al (2013) Parameters prediction of remaining oil of aII oil region in Daqing based on BP neural networks. Inner Mong Petrochem Ind 23:47–50

    Google Scholar 

  51. Mao GQ, Teng QZ, Wu Y et al (2014) Shape recognition of remained oil based on Bp neural network. J Terahertz Sci Electron Inf Technol 12(6):858–864

    Google Scholar 

  52. Denney D (2006) Treating uncertainties in reservoir-performance prediction with neural networks. Soc Pet Eng 58(06):69–71

    Google Scholar 

  53. Thomas AL, La Pointe PR (1995) Conductive fracture identification using neural networks. In: The 35th U.S. symposium on rock mechanics (USRMS), 5–7 June. American Rock Mechanics Association, Reno pp 1–6

  54. Zhang JC, Xing YZ, Zheng LH (2005) Using artificial intelligent technique to identify fractures. Well Log Technol 29(1):52–54

    Google Scholar 

  55. Huang FX, Xia ZY, Gui HB et al (2016) The application of BP neural network to DMT hill metamorphic fracture prediction. Chin J Eng Geophys 13(4):483–490

    Google Scholar 

  56. Anderson RN, Xie B, Wu L, Kressner AA, Frantz JH, Ockree MA, McLane MA (2016) Using machine learning to identify the highest wet gas producing mix of hydraulic fracture classes and technology improvements in the Marcellus shale. In: Unconventional resources technology conference, pp 1–13

  57. Xie W (2017) Pso-LSSVM based identifying method for the fracture-vug fillings. Daqing Pet Geol Dev 2:135–142

    Google Scholar 

  58. Wu ZY, Mo XW, Liu JH et al (2018) Convolutional neural network algorithm for classification evaluation of fractured reservoirs. Pet Explor 57(04):135–143

    Google Scholar 

  59. Nande S (2018) Application of machine learning for closure pressure determination. In: SPE annual technical conference and exhibition, 24–26 September. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Dallas, pp 1–10

  60. Ahmed SA, Elkatatny S, Ali AZ, Abdulraheem A, Mahmoud M (2019) Artificial neural network ANN approach to predict fracture pressure. In: SPE middle east oil and gas show and conference, 18–21 March. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Manama, pp 1–9

  61. Adeyemi BJ, Sulaimon AA (2012) Predicting wax formation using artificial neural network. In: Nigeria annual international conference and exhibition, 6–8 August. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Lagos pp 1–8

  62. Li TN (2015) Study on diagnosis model of oilfield abnormal well based on feedback dynamic neural network. Comput Technol Autom 2:114–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  63. Liu BJ (2018) Research on diagnostic technique of indicator diagram based on CNN convolution neural network. J Xi’an Pet Univ 5:70–75

    Google Scholar 

  64. Wang X, He Y, Li F, Dou X, Wang Z, Xu H, Fu L (2019) A working condition diagnosis model of sucker rod pumping wells based on big data deep learning. In: International petroleum technology conference 26–28 March, Beijing, China, pp 1–10

  65. Zhou CC, Li J, Zhang XG et al (2008) Predication for EOR by polymer flooding based on artificial neural network-comparison between ANN and quadratic. Polynomial Stepwise Regres Method 27(3):113–116

    Google Scholar 

  66. Ni HM, Liu YJ, Fan YC et al (2014) Optimization of steam flooding injection and production based on improved particle swarm optimization. Acta Pet Sin 35(1):114–117

    Google Scholar 

  67. Shi SZ, Yu HY, Sun ZL et al (2014) Forecast of fracturing effect based on gray correlation analysis and BP neural network. J Changjiang Univ (Self Publ Ed) 31:154–156

    Google Scholar 

  68. Yang ZH, Li ZP (2017) A new method for choice of water-control fracturing segments in horizontal wells based on the BP neural network system. Geol Explor 53(4):0818–0824

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51874317) and the National Science and Technology Major Projects of China (Grant Nos. 2016ZX05037003).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Haiyang Yu.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

All authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, H., Yu, H., Cao, N. et al. Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Oil and Gas Development. Arch Computat Methods Eng 28, 937–949 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11831-020-09402-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11831-020-09402-8

Navigation