The U.S.' top oil producing company ExxonMobil has partnered with American technology giant Microsoft to use cloud technology to increase oil and natural gas production, and efficiency in operations.
Microsoft's cloud technology will be applied to the oil-rich Permian basin in the U.S., which is expected to generate billions of dollars in value over the next decade, ExxonMobil said in a statement on Friday.
The technology includes integrated cloud environment that collects real-time data from oil field assets spanning hundreds of kilometers, according to the statement.
The collected data will enable ExxonMobil to make faster and better decisions on drilling, well completions, personnel deployment, leak detection, repair response times, methane emissions, and other emissions data.
The implementation of the technology is estimated to increase production of the company in the Permian basin, located in the states of Texas and New Mexico, by as much as 50,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day by 2025, it read.
The technology will cover 9.5 billion oil-equivalent barrel resources and more than 1.6 million acres (6,475 square kilometers) in the Permian basin -- the oil industry’s largest acreage using cloud technology, according to the statement.
'The unconventional business is fast moving, complex and data rich, which makes it well suited for the application of digital technologies to strengthen our operations and help deliver greater value,' Staale Gjervik, senior vice president in Permian Integrated Development for ExxonMobil’s Energy subsidiary XTO, said in the statement.
'The combination of Microsoft’s technologies with our unique strengths in oilfield technologies, production efficiency and integration will help drive growth in the Permian and serve as a model for additional implementation across the U.S. and abroad,' he added.
ExxonMobil announced on Jan. 8 that it signed a partnership with American technology giant IBM to use quantum computing in developing energy and manufacturing technologies, such as optimizing power grids, creating predictive environmental modeling, and discovering new materials for more efficient carbon capture.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr