Story by Mabel Adorkor Annang
Players in the Oil and Gas Industry say Artificial intelligence (AI), has the potential to revolutionise Africa’s oil and gas sector by driving innovation across various aspects of the industry.
At the 2024 Ghana Biennial International Summit and Exhibition in Accra, Industry players said if Ghana’s oil and gas industry is well-positioned, it will benefit from AI adoption.
Industry experts highlighted the transformative potential of artificial intelligence (AI), for Africa’s oil and gas sector, with a particular focus on Ghana.
With her burgeoning oil and gas industry, Ghana stands to gain significantly from AI adoption.
Experts emphasised that by investing in AI infrastructure and fostering collaboration among oil and gas companies, AI startups, and research institutions, Ghana can harness AI to drive innovation and promote sustainable development within its energy sector.
Deputy Energy Minister Collins Adomako Mensah said the oil and gas sector requires innovation, hence the need to adopt AI to help make the industry robust to meet global market demands and accelerate the energy transition agenda.
“The latest trend in the oil and gas industry highlights the significance of innovation battering sustainable progress. Utilisation, for instance, is expected to play a key role in the energy transition strategy. Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are being leveraged to increase the safety of inefficient operations, improve coasts, and extract reserves that were previously considered to commence,“ he stressed.
During a panel discussion, Country Manager, SLB Ghana, Julia Gridasova, highlighted some benefits of adopting AI in the hydrocarbon industry.
“AI can help enhance forecasting tools to identify opportunities for investment when dealing with large sample that can help us optimise well placements for power and optimise drilling.“
The Section Director of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Ghana, Dr. Riverson Oppong, said most countries are reluctant to embrace AI in the oil and gas industry. He, however, debunked claims that AI will create redundancy.
“The companies are going to effectively retrain their staff to be who they need them to be so that they don’t go to university to study AI.” According to him, the oil and gas industry is becoming big because the demand for oil and gas is high. Therefore, staff in the industry will also increase.
The 2024 Ghana Biennial International Summit and Exhibition was on the theme “Embracing Innovation: Redefining the Future of the Oil and Gas Industry in Africa”.
