MESSAGE FROM THE DEANS
AI/M On behalf of the College of Petroleum Engineering & Geosciences and the College of Computing and Mathematics at King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, it is our pleasure to welcome you to the “Data to Decisions in the E&P – Bridging the Gap with ML” workshop. This event brings together a diverse community of industry professionals, leading researchers, and innovative academicians to explore the power of data-driven methodologies and machine learning techniques in shaping the future
of exploration and production.
At KFUPM, we are committed to advancing knowledge and nurturing talent at the intersection of geosciences, petroleum engineering, mining and computing
disciplines. Our strategic location uniquely positions us to foster dynamic industry academia collaborations. Through this workshop, we aim to catalyze new approaches and methodologies that leverage cutting-edge AI/ML frameworks for tackling the most pressing challenges facing the upstream and mining sectors.
We are confident that the knowledge shared, discussions sparked, and partnerships forged during this gathering will not only accelerate scientific and technological progress, but also contribute to a more sustainable and innovative energy future. Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to witnessing the transformative ideas and impactful solutions that emerge from this event.
OVERVIEW
AI/ML has begun to have an impact broadly in Earth and Planetary Sciences, shedding entirely new light on extracting information from a wide range of data. Concurrently, scientific ML is empowering a deeper grasp of complex physics and processes, marking significant progress in the past couple of years. In the rapidly evolving landscape of AI/ML, this (3+1)-day Technical Workshop at the KFUPM main campus in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, aims to connect academia and industry as well as the AI/ML and E&P communities. The event targets fostering collaborations that drive technological advancements and push the boundaries of what is achievable in petroleum and mining science and engineering while the industry transitions itself towards a more sustainable future. Participants will have the chance to present scientific breakthroughs, engage in in-depth discussions, network with experts, chart venues for new scientific partnerships, and explore potential areas for future research and development in a challenging and exciting field. The program will focus on innovative applications and developments of AI/ML techniques leading to a new generation of approaches to overcome challenges faced by the upstream and mining sectors at large, including reservoir characterization, rock physics and modeling, drilling and tunneling optimization, productivity enhancement and production forecasting, carbon sequestration and utilization, hydrogen economy, lithium mining, and more. The event will encompass a wide range of topics, from datadriven approaches to predictive analytics, from (geo)physics-based deep learning to inference and uncertainty quantification such as through score diffusion, LLMs, and from learning dynamics to reinforcement learning whether for excavation stability or well control. The invitation-only event will feature keynote lectures, technical presentations, and a panel session. A short course will precede the main event and will be open to the public. Final presentations on selected challenge problems in a competition for graduate students and post-docs will also help set the stage for the main event. At the main event, participants will also work in breakout sessions to identify major operational and technical challenges and explore new directions to address some of the key challenges brought forward from the panel session, and potentially uncover hidden opportunities to collaborate and deliver AI/ML solutions that take the industry into the next energy evolution.
EVENT OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of the event are:
1. Connect the E&P and the AI/ML communities.
2. Identify the grand challenges in E&P that could benefit from the rapid advancements in AI/ML.
3. Develop an AI/ML roadmap for the E&P.
Post-event objectives will include issuing a call for proposals on the identified related oil and mining industries' grand challenges. Proposals will be jointly submitted to the industry with in-kind match funding from KFUPM. The 2D matrix below is a depiction of some of the major intersections between the E&P and the AI/ML fields that will be explored during this event.
OPPORTUNITY MATRIX
