Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are slowly permeating more and more of the critical workflows across the oil and gas industry. One area where this change has been the slowest is in the field of reservoir simulation. This is not for lack of trying. The reality is reservoir simulation is just plain hard…complex models, non-linear relationships, 4 Dimensional problem (3D + Time), huge number of potential variables, non-unique solutions, the need for iterative solvers.

The traditional workflow for a physics based reservoir simulation is massively computationally intensive. Even with the move to parallel computing, cloud computing, and the benefit of Moore's Law, models regularly take hours or days to run. Statistical approaches that can churn through huge amounts of production and geologic data are useful, but are not able to model the complex physics and path dependencies that make reservoirs complex.

Origen.ai is looking at the problem through the lens of Artificial Intelligence with the goal of reducing simulation time down to seconds. Among the many benefits this capability could provide, we are most excited about new ways this could enable using simulations to optimize field development and production decisions. The limiting factor has always been time.

Reservoir simluation experts from nearly 25 Operators attended the session and the 30 minutes allocated to Q&A was not enough. Within a couple minutes the chat was full with a wide range of deep technical questions and ultimately we had to pass along a handful of questions to be answered offline. You can click here to see Origen's full presentation, Q&A session that caught fire, and insights from a super independent that has already executed POCs with Origen. To learn more about Origen you can also visit their Storefront.

Given Origen is an early stage company, the next step for most Operators is to evaluate with a POC. Given the current economic environment, some operators have approached Darcy about organizing a Joint Industry POC of Origen's technology to accelerate the learning and optimize resources. The idea is still under evaluation, but If you are interested in learning more about this joint POC opportunity, please contact Jack@darcypartners.com.

Thank You, Keith

Keith Norman Partner - Darcy Partners