Business Problem

An operator has the complex task to plan and manage an active drilling program with 5 rigs and a portfolio of hundreds of different exploration and development projects.

The projects all vary in front-end maturity, duration, value, location and hydrocarbon type.

Oil delivers most economic value per barrel, but meeting the existing gas contract is important for the company's reputation.

Goal

Use Game AI approach to create optimized sequences for different value drivers, and test robustness against uncertainties.

Game AI

We translated the company's rig sequence management into a game, and taught an AI agent to play this game.

Through self-play, the AI learns to master the game mechanics and to develop sequences that outperform human planning capability.

Using our AI as a planning assistant, we can now develop rig sequences much more efficiently than before.

Different business drivers are translated into alternative sequences for better decisions. Robustness against key uncertainties can be verified. And managing change becomes much easier.