BP invests $5m in AI firm as it looks to technology to boost its exploration activities

BP’s venture capital division has invested $5m in an artificial intelligence firm in a bid to bolster its “digital capabilities” for its activities around oil and natural gas exploration.

The oil and gas giant’s specialist venture capital fund set up in 2004, BP Ventures, made the investment in a series A round for Belmont Technology, a Houston-based artificial intelligence start-up.

BP is exploring opportunities to apply machine learning and “cognitive computing” in its global oil and gas business, with a particular focus on its Upstream work, which involves activities in “oil and natural gas exploration, field development and production”.

Belmont Technology has developed a cloud-base, artificial intelligence platform that BP employees can feed with “platform geology, geophysics, reservoir and historic project information”.

It is able to link the data and inputs together to create an overview of BP’s “subsurface assets”, identifying new connections to improve BP’s oversight of its different projects.

“This AI-based platform, which we’ve nicknamed Sandy, is expected to unlock critical data for our subsurface engineers at a much accelerated pace,” David Eyton, BP’s group head of technology said.

“This investment helps drive forward our digital strategy and further underpins our Upstream operations with cutting edge technology.”

The technology also makes use of neural networks to perform simulations of BP’s various projects. The aim for the oil and gas company is to find ways of accelerating its projects timeframes, all the way from exploration of sites to the modelling of reservoirs.

Belmont Technology’s chief executive Jean-Marie Laigle said: “We are excited by the prospect of deploying a cutting-edge cognitive AI solution within BP.

“Our technology enables real-time thinking for subsurface engineers, helping transform the way teams work, analyse data, understand situations and generate novel ideas.”

BP’s investment into Belmont Technology will allow the start-up to bolster its workforce and marks continued interest from BP to invest in cutting-edge technology following a previous $20m investment in a Series B funding round for Beyond Limits, an artificial intelligence firm.

Source: The Telegraph