How Algorithms Are Taking Over Big Oil

With the help of artificial intelligence, BP says it needs 40% fewer workers to keep its natural gas flowing in Wyoming. A visitor to one of BP's natural gas fields in Wyoming a few years ago might have noticed an odd sight: smartphones in plastic bags tied to pumps with zip ties. This was an early test of a multistate initiative by the oil giant to link a network of Wi-Fi sensors to an artificial intelligence system--one that now operates the Wamsutter field in Wyoming with far less human oversight than before. Artificial intelligence has come to the oil patch, accelerating a technical change that is transforming the conditions for the oil and gas industry's 150,000 U.S. workers. Giant energy companies like Shell and BP are investing billions to bring artificial intelligence to new refineries, oilfields and deepwater drilling platforms.