AI market hits $2.6 billion by 2022–Yemi-Esan

&NewLine;<p>The&NewLine;global market for Artificial Intelligence&comma; AI- computational tools that&NewLine;substitute for human intelligence in problem solving&comma; is expected to hit about&NewLine;&dollar;2&period;6 billion by year 2022&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This&NewLine;was disclosed by Dr&period; Folasade Yemi-Esan&comma; Permanent Secretary&comma; Federal Ministry&NewLine;of Petroleum Resources and guest speaker at the 2019 Nigeria Annual&NewLine;International Conference and Exhibition&comma; NAICE&comma; organized by the Nigeria&NewLine;Council of the Society of Petroleum Engineers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The&NewLine;conference with a theme &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Artificial Intelligence&comma; Big Data and Mobile&NewLine;Technology&semi; Changing the Future of the Energy Industry&comma;” held at Eko Hotel with&NewLine;hundreds of participants from different continents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>According&NewLine;to Esan&comma; the time is ripe for the full deployment of AI in the operational modes&NewLine;of the petroleum industry&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The Artificial Intelligence market is&NewLine;expected to hit &dollar;2&period;85 billion by 2022&comma; growing by 12&period;6 &percnt; through data&NewLine;technology&period; It has permeated into several sectors with positive output but&NewLine;sadly&comma; not much is being felt in oil and gas industry&comma;” she stated&comma; adding that&NewLine;it &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;helps to make safer and accurate decisions&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Describing&NewLine;the 2019 theme as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;apt” given the imperative of the new technology to meet&NewLine;digital economy&comma; Esan disclosed that the President Muhammadu Buhari led Federal&NewLine;Ministry of Petroleum is not losing sight of the objectives of AI&comma; saying that&NewLine;the administration is already committed to changing the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;oil future” through&NewLine;the instrumentality of AI’s key role in reservoir management and drilling&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Government&NewLine;is pushing in that direction&period; This pursuit is backed by transparent policy&period; We&NewLine;are working with Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries&comma; OPEC &nbsp&semi;on data for authenticity including the&NewLine;Department of Petroleum Resources&comma; DPR and National Bureau of Statistics&comma; NBS&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>She&NewLine;however&comma; lamented the apparent lack of accurate data in the petroleum industry&NewLine;network&comma; saying &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;data has intrinsic value but it has to be discovered&period; How true&NewLine;and reliable is our data&quest; SPE should proffer the answer&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>To&NewLine;bridge the gap&comma; Esan submitted that &nbsp&semi;training and other forms of capacity building&NewLine;are key and must therefore&comma; be given a priority even as she admonished players&NewLine;in the sector to partner with the federal government in addressing the&NewLine;dwindling gains in the oil and gas business&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;