Geoactive at DIGEX 2023 Conference in Oslo

This years DIGEX conference hosted by GeoPublishing was held in the winter wonderland of Oslo, Norway during the last week of March. It was an opportunity for Geoactive to hear about the latest developments our customers (and regional operators) have made with their partners towards a truly digital landscape.

The two day event was a mix of presentations around digitalization and data integration and the way in which geological data is used in the digital world we live in.

We had an opportunity to share a space with GeoSoftware and Petrosys where we met new people and were reacquainted with some old colleagues. Catriona said, "It was my first time transporting and 'building' a stand solo but it was easily done and it looked great. We were able to show off our banners and they were great talking points for starting some more in-depth discussions about our subsurface applications, IP and IC." 

Throughout the conference, there was a lot of interesting work being presented from collaboration projects. The talks covered a wide range of applications of AI and ML, from the very general, like data mining of vast stores, to the very specific, like microfossil species identification. However, there was a common theme throughout all of these presentations that was more human, the need for accurate and robust QC. Presenters continually stressed the need for a good data set for the models to be trained on, ‘fact checked’ if you will, which for numeric data means with minimal errors, biases, and noise. We will be writing another blog specifically around our thoughts on this AI and HI (Human Intelligence) relationship and requirement later this month.

Paul summarized with "I think that, in the drive to improve efficiencies through the use of AI and ML, we cannot afford to lose sight of the importance of human experience in the ability to tell when something is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’." 

Amongst the digitalization and data environment talks were some geologically inspired reviews and the tie back to fundamental application of subsurface data, including the digitalization of palynological sample data and exploration. One of these presentations was made by one of our customers.

Alenka Crne from Harbour Energy presented "Revitalizing traditional well data to screen for new potential in the North Sea" during the Exploration Session. She was able to highlight the vital importance of data evaluation and QC in an intuitive and insightful way. Using IC to visualize the geographic and stratigraphic variation across wells that led to the discovery of data that required further QC and have an impact on the potential for overlooked plays.

Alenka has been an IC user for a long time and has brought it with her to several companies over the years. She is one of our power users at Harbour Energy and can integrate and query their well data from FMB, Diskos and other projects to map and analyze particular zones quickly. As her talk described, The ability to quickly see where previously interpreted maps and wells do not tell the same story can lead to improved confidence in the data and verify results on a regional and localized scale.

Catriona said, "It's always so nice to spend time in person with our customers and to have one of them volunteer to present a story around the North Sea potential while showing what IC did for that study was a great end to the trip."

There was a nice write up about what the different vendors thoughts and what their plans were for the future of digitalization in the GeoExpro article published online after the event.

A few pics from our time at DIGEX2023

Our colleagues and customers presenting during the conference

Icebreaker event hosted by SLB at their innovation centre

Preparing for a live demo from the GLEX team

Written by - Catriona Penman and Paul Spooner