AI—Just One More Ball for Energy Sector to Juggle

The energy sector is juggling a lot—growing energy demands, emissions reduction efforts and political headwinds, to name a few. As the sector grapples with multiple balls in motion, a new challenge is being thrown to the juggler—artificial intelligence (AI).

Experts speaking at the 2024 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition underlined the importance of collaboration when introducing new technologies into the fold, especially if the world is serious about reducing emissions.

“Our goal is to move from ‘find and fix’ to ‘predict and prevent,’ and we can’t do it alone,” Christopher Lolley, lower carbon director at Chevron, told the audience. “We need partnerships.”

The International Energy Agency estimates that half of the needed emissions reductions will come from new technologies, some of which don’t exist yet.

CO₂ is seen as a dominant contributor to the rise in greenhouse gas emissions. But methane has a global warming potential 28 times greater, Lolley said.

“We’re partnering with universities and different companies to advance detection technology so we can measure these emissions,” Lolley said.

Jimmy Fortuna, chief product officer at Enverus, said AI is going to transform the energy sector, especially in the journey from traditional energy sources to a future powered by advanced technologies.  

But this change will take quite some time, according to Kemal Farid, co-founder of Farid Ventures.

The trial-and-error nature of technological adaptation will vary the timelines of different types of projects, Farid said.

“When you get into ESG impact projects, things that help solve a major problem for humanity, your timeframe is even longer,” he said. “You have to be patient with those investments because instead of taking five years, it’s going to take 10 [years] or 15 years.”

AI’s capabilities have gotten more complex since Farid first started building AI, he said. But despite all the progress, the journey is far from over.

There are still potential pitfalls to avoid, especially if people rely too heavily on large language models. AI can conjure up fictional answers, known as confabulations, if the user is not careful, Fortuna said.

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But pairing AI with the right tools can still be transformative.

“With the right software and the right interfaces to structure data, what you can do is take the mundane out of things and speed them up quite a bit to produce better results faster,” he said.

The right software can limit inaccuracy spewed out by large language models, Farid said, but he put the onus on the operator to correct these issues, stressing the importance of precise questioning in harnessing the full potential of AI.

“There’s always garbage data in there. It’s always a little bit randomized,” he said. “But it’s how to ask the question that’s the most important thing,” Farid said.

The energy sector continues to catch new balls to juggle, but Lolley said it’s important to focus on balance. In this case, innovation must remain steady with fundamental engineering skills.

“You can’t lose sight of the fundamentals,” he said. “It’s fine to find different ways of communication, but we can’t lose sight of the fundamental engineering skills and things like that that we need because that’s what it’s going to take to solve these problems.”