Data science is the future of oil and gas.
That’s according to Andy Wang, the founder and CEO of data solutions company Prescient, who made the statement during an interview with Rigzone.
“Data science will dramatically increase the ability of oil and gas operations to improve efficiency, reduce costs, improve safety and empower employees from the IT team to the field team,” Wang told Rigzone.
In the interview, Wang emphasized that data science includes many data tools, including machine learning, which he noted will be an important part of the future of oil and gas. When asked if he thought more and more oil companies would adopt data science and machine learning, Wang answered positively on both counts.
When asked to list some pitfalls of data science in the oil and gas world, Wang told Rigzone that data science requires a shift to a data-driven culture and requires an understanding of how to apply the science of appropriate data to solve the appropriate problems.
Asked by Rigzone if data science professionals are in high demand right now in the oil and gas sector, Wang said “we see the demand is growing.”
When Rigzone asked the same question of Gladney B. Darroh, the founder and president of Houston-based Piper-Morgan Search, Darroh told Rigzone that “interest is building.”
“I expect this interest to translate into an ever-increasing demand for data science professionals, both through direct hire and contract,” added Darroh.
“At the moment I have not seen an increase in demand, but I have been receiving more inquiries from companies. Without a doubt, it is a wave that is being built”, he continued.
Offering his opinion, Dave Mount, the president of Louisiana-based OneSource Professional Search, told Rigzone that the demand, at least from the company’s client base of oil and gas operating companies, for data scientists dedicated “has been a bit slow in the last two to three years”.
“The peak demand, at least from what we saw, was before the oil price/Covid crash,” Mount said.
“Demand seemed to emanate primarily from onshore unconventional shale players who were in high growth mode with hundreds of wells under their operating umbrella, where they had many data points to sample and analyze statistically, versus geologically, production operations and mineral royalty. companies,” he added.
“We’re not sure if the drop in demand for dedicated data scientists is happening across the entire energy supply chain or just in the segments we serve,” Mount continued.
“What we’ve seen is more demand for employees who can integrate high-end data analytics and statistics into their more traditional roles, namely production analysts, production engineers and repository engineers,” Mount said.
Wang participated in the recent Gulf Coast International Section Data Science Convention event of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) in Houston, Texas, which was attended by the president of Rigzone. The event, described as the SPE-GCS Data Analytics Study Group’s annual flagship event, hosted representatives from the energy and technology sectors.
Wang is described on Prescient’s website as a technologist and entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience. He helped grow his startup, GTI IoT Technology, from a two-person founding team to more than 150 employees, and deployed more than 500,000 IoT devices for industrial applications, the site notes, adding that he receive a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
According to Prescient’s website, the Massachusetts-based company’s mission is to give businesses the tools they need to make informed decisions based on data-driven insights.
To contact the author, please send an email andreas.exarcheas@rigzone.com
