Digital drillers

Automation, machine learning, artificial intelligence and other new technologies could transform the oil industry

The digital oilfield has been a buzzword bouncing around the industry for at least a decade but its time might finally be arriving in the oil patch. Technological advances are coinciding with one of the most severe disruptions the oil industry has seen in generations, which has left companies looking for new answers to a seminal question: how to cope with what may be years of lower prices. The renewed enthusiasm for all things tech was on display at this year's CERAWeek conference in Houston, the US' biggest industry confab. Views on prices and policies from executives and ministers drew the usual headlines, but the more lasting and transformational story may have been taking place in the ha