A Glimpse of the Future of Exploration. ITPS at the Anniversary Conference of Rosgeologia

The ITPS experts took part in an open online conference, "Geology of the Future. 10 Years from now," marking the 10th anniversary of Rosgeologia, the largest holding in the industry. The speakers were the heads of Roscosmos, the Russian Quantum Center, 1C, Schlumberger, Serch Sentrik, TNG Group, Kalashnikov concern, et al. The event participants spoke about their views on the future of the industry and discussed high-tech trends of the next decade.

In his welcoming speech, Sergei Gorkov, the CEO of Rosgeologia, stated that digitalization would change all geological exploration processes beyond recognition. Innovative technologies within the Industry 4.0 concept will make it possible to digitize the search for new deposits, automate drilling complexes' operation, and efficiently manage projects of any complexity. "Is there a place for people in this process? Of course, it is the people who must come up with and create all this,” noted the CEO of the holding.

The conference participants voted on the high-tech trends in geology that will be trending in the next few years. The results revealed that big data analytics, machine learning, digital resource management technologies, and production operations represent the most significant value for the professional community. These processes make it possible to work with field data effectively regardless of their source and structure.

"An exploration project is just a small piece of well-structured information. Every year there are more and more geophysical and field data. The deeper it is, the harder it is to structure and analyze it. We want geologists to be able to analyze all available data on the project as a whole. This will be attainable due to the symbiosis of geology and data science. The answers to all questions of explorers lie at the junction of historical information and the modern data context," noted Vasily Borisov, the General Director of Search Centric.

"An important trend in geology for the next decade is learning how to get value from the enormous volumes of unstructured geological and geophysical data. Striving for efficiency, the companies must solve two key tasks: systematize, put enormous amounts of disparate information in order, and reduce project uncertainty. Such issues are being addressed within the framework of projects to create control systems for extensive geological-geophysical and field data. A recent example is a project on creating a databank for PJSC TATNEFT. It helped significantly reduce the time required for searching and processing information necessary to improve the accuracy of created digital field models and make decisions on their development," stated Rustam Kamalov, Deputy General Director for Oil&Gas Solutions at the ITPS Group of Companies.