Chevron Australia is leveraging technology to enhance its energy operations, embracing digital twins, drones, and artificial intelligence to drive safety and efficiency, the Energy Club of WA has been told.

In a presentation to the club’s February dinner, Chevron Operations Director Danny Woodall said the digital twins –virtual replicas of its plants - are combined with AI to predict and diagnose process impacts and equipment issues.

The digital Gorgon and Wheatstone twins have garnered the highest number of users across Chevron globally, showing the willingness of Australian workers to adapt to new technologies, Mr Woodall said.

AI is being integrated into job planning and predictive maintenance programs, and drones are used for maintenance inspections.

AI had the potential to balance affordability, reliability, and cleaner energy production in the energy sector.

 “The most important advantage of these technologies is that they make our work safer, removing people from harm's way, while delivering business value,” Mr Woodall said.

He shared an example of how machine learning can enhance company capabilities.
A team of 12 Chevron engineers faced a two-and-a-half-year data cleaning task
before moving IT systems. Instead of spending their valuable time on this, they developed an application in four months that completed the task in just four-and-a-half
weeks with 98 per cent reliability.

As the use of AI increases globally, so does the need for energy powering data centres, he said.

An AI-powered search demand significantly more electricity than a regular internet search, leading Chevron to explore gas-fired power plants alongside data centres
to meet this surge in demand.

Mr Woodall said Chevron is progressing approvals for the back fill for Gorgon, the Geryon and Eurytion fields, known as the Gorgon Stage Three (GS3) project,
aiming to maintain gas supply with subsea tiebacks. Jansz-Io compression project is set to maximise gas recovery from the Jansz-Io field.

Chevron's carbon capture and storage (CCS) efforts at Gorgon have stored over 10.5 million tons of CO2.

Mr Woodall compared this to, “taking more than two and a half million cars off the road for one year in Australia or planting an area almost 60 times the size
of Kings Park with trees”.

As Chevron aims to reduce the carbon emissions intensity of its operations, it acknowledges the need for pragmatic conversations about energy.

Balancing energy security, economic prosperity, and environmental protection is important.

“These challenges are real, and overcoming them requires us to have a better, more pragmatic conversation about energy,” Mr Woodall said.

“One that recognises the importance of balancing energy security, economic prosperity and environmental protection.

“A conversation based on facts and real-world practical experience, not on ideology and not with sensationalism, where we can acknowledge that there
are trade-offs that have to be made without being accused of abandoning our global climate ambitions.”

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