SLB, Oman's Ministry of Energy and Minerals and the Oman Investment Authority created a partnership to develop Oman's potential geothermal resources, an SLB press release announced on Nov. 16.

"Geothermal is one of the world’s most promising clean energy resources, and it has a crucial role to play in reaching net-zero targets," president of SLB's New Energy business Gavin Rennick said in the release.

"Using digital technology solutions to assess geothermal resource potential can accelerate prospectivity analysis and, ultimately, the delivery and performance of geothermal installations," he added.

In the initial phase of the collaboration, the partnership completed an assessment to evaluate surface, subsurface and well data from over 7,000 oil, gas and water wells over a three-month period to map the best spots for geothermal prospects in Oman.

SLB's GeothermEx multidisciplinary geothermal consulting team initially used a proprietary artificial intelligence system to assess, sort and evaluate the huge volume of data from the Oman Oil & Gas Data Repository (OGDR), the release stated.

The team then delivered an assessment of the country's geothermal potential. In the next phase, the collaborators will assess the financial feasibility of the geothermal resource development.

"This collaboration between the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Oman Investment Authority and SLB is in line with Oman’s efforts to decarbonize the energy sector, achieve its Net Zero goal, and implement Oman Vision 2040," Omani Minister of Energy and Minerals HE Salim Al Aufi said in the release.

"Building on existing country data and infrastructure, this collaboration will create opportunities by utilizing the latest technologies in the field of geothermal exploration and ramp up activities in Oman’s clean energy stream," he continued.