Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making its way into many industries today, helping to solve business problems and helping with efficiency. In this post, I’d like to share an interesting story about Shell choosing Azure for their AI platform. Shell Oil Company chose to use C3 IoT for their IoT device management and Azure for their predictive analytics.

Let’s look at how Shell is using this technology:

• The operations that are required to fix a drill or piece of equipment in the field is much more significant when it’s unexpected. Shell can use AI to look at when maintenance is required on compressors, valves and other equipment that’s used for oil drilling. This will help to reduce unplanned downtime and repair efforts. If they can keep up with maintenance before equipment fails, they can plan downtime and do so at much less cost.
• They’ll use AI to help steer the drill bits through shale deposits to find the best quality shale deposits.
• Failures of equipment of great size, such as drilling equipment, can have a lot of related damage and danger. This technology will improve the safety of employees and customers by helping to reduce unexpected failures.
• AI enabled drills will help chart a course for the well itself as it’s being drilled, as well as providing constant data from the drill bits on what type of material is being drilled through. The benefits here are 2-fold; they will get data on quality deposits and reduce the wear and tear on the drill. If the drill is using an IoT device to detect a harder material, they’ll have the knowledge to drill in a different area or to figure out the best path to reduce the wear and tear.
• It will free up the geologists and engineers to be able to manage more drills at one time, making them more efficient, as well as reactive to deal with problems as they arise while drilling.

As with everything in Azure, this platform is a highly scalable platform that will allow Shell to grow with what is required, plus have the flexibility to take on new workloads. With IoT and AI, these workloads are very easily scaled using Azure as a platform and all the services available with it.

I wanted to share this interesting use case about Shell because it really displays the capabilities of the Azure Platform to solve the mundane and enable the unthinkable.