FISH: Lizhi Xiao: AI Applications to Geoenergy Discovery and CO2 Sequestration

Lizhi Xiao, Professor Emereitus at China University of Petroleum and VIsiting Scholar at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, presents “AI Applications to Geoenergy Discovery and CO2 Sequestration” as part of the MIT Earth Resources Laboratory’s Friday Informal Seminar Hour. “Wellbores are critical for geoenergy exploration and production, and for making the CO2 sequestration success. Borehole geophysics gathers first-hand information to characterize and to monitor the wellbores and the formations. How to acquire, process and interpret the data, and how to utilize the data for better understanding of the science and engineering behind the wellbore, have been attracting broad attentions, recently in particular. In this talk I’ll demonstrate the importance of wellbores and borehole geophysics to oil, gas, geothermal and CO2 sequestration, then explore settings of machine learning to formation evaluation with conventional and imaging logs. I’ll further introduce a four-world model, in which includes physical world, digital world, the world of human cognition, the world of machine cognition, to build a technical framework for industry level AI application to geoenergy discovery and production, and to CO2 sequestration engineering and monitoring. The four-world model well explains the core elements and issues involved in digital transformation and machine intelligence applications.” Lizhi Xiao received BS in borehole geophysics from Jianghan Petroleum Institute in 1982 and MS in applied geophysics from China University of Mining and Technology in 1987. He spent two years studying mathematics at the mathematic institute of Fudan University, and four years studying Nuclear Magnetic Resonance at the Wuhan Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and received Ph.D in Physics in 1995. He has worked for the energy industry for more than 30 years with both China University of Petroleum and Halliburton Energy Service. He is now a professor emeritus of China University of Petroleum and the Editor-in-Chief of the journal of Petroleum Science, and was the Dean of School of Geophysics (2010-2016) and the Dean of School of Artificial Intelligence (2018-2022). He currently holds a visiting position at the Harvard Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He was rewarded Technical Achievement Award by the Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts in 2020.