Please log in to your active PESA member account in order to view this video.
Publication Name: PESA Webinar Series
Authors: Alex Fuerst (Molyneux Advisors)
Date Published: December 2025
Abstract:
This webinar introduces the power of AI to transforms drill cuttings into comprehensive digital datasets for wellbore characterisation. By systematically digitising legacy and modern cuttings through automated washing, high-resolution imaging, and advanced segmentation algorithms, Grain-e extracts quantitative data traditionally captured only through qualitative wellsite descriptions.Using a variety of AI workflows to identify and measure individual grains, providing unbiased statistical analysis of grain size, sorting, sphericity, and roundness across 1,000-5000 particles per sample. This eliminates interpreter bias and delivers data-driven insights including subtle trends no technology has picked up previously.
Key applications span the well lifecycle:
Geological Insights: Optical stratigraphy using digital colour analysis reveals high-resolution correlations beyond simple sand/shale distinctions, identifying subtle depositional changes stacking patterns, with additional insights from enhancing colour spectra or investigating trace colour occurrences.
Reservoir Characterisation: Particle size distributions optimise completion design or inform sedimentological interpretations enhancing reservoir models when integrated with wireline data.
Drilling Safety & Geomechanics: AI-based identification of splintery cavings enables quantitative pore pressure assessment and wellbore stability evaluation. Cavings can be tied back to source formations using colour and texture signatures, improving geomechanical predictions.