Iain Docherty
Iain Docherty is a Chemical Engineer with over 10 years of experience across nuclear, energy, mining, and renewables sectors. He is currently a Lead Engineer at Pontem Analytics, specializing in combining first-principles modelling with data-driven approaches to optimise processes. Proven experience in developing and deploying control and optimization solutions leveraging deep reinforcement learning and machine learning techniques.
Session
In this presentation, we demonstrate how Large Language Models (LLMs) can revolutionize safety log analysis in the oil and gas industry. Our research with a major operator involved processing 15,000 safety observations through a novel multi-stage pipeline. First, we developed a domain-specific categorical framework aligned with industry standards. We then implemented an unsupervised learning approach using sentence transformers to calculate semantic similarity between observations and predefined categories. This enabled multi-dimensional classification with weighted confidence percentages. Finally, we deployed a fine-tuned LLM to assign priority scores and enhance categorization accuracy, all while maintaining data privacy through on-premises processing. The resulting system streamlines real-time safety log processing, enabling more efficient identification of potential hazards and trends. Our implementation demonstrates significant improvements in classification accuracy and processing efficiency compared to traditional methods, providing actionable insights for proactive safety management.