The upstream oil and gas industry could save up to $75 billion a year by 2023 with the deployment of so-called "big data," new research by consultancy Wood Mackenzie reveals. Embracing advances in analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence could pay big dividends for the industry. These savings can be realized at every stage of the upstream lifecycle, Kallanish Energy learns. "Digitalization offers multiple prizes in exploration. The biggest would be to uncover new resources … but anyone with a competitive advantage in exploration would have a material advantage in licensing or M&A," Greig Aitken, principal analyst in Wood Mackenzie's corporate analysis team, said Monday.