From cuttings to clarity: AI unlocking the Norwegian Continental Shelf

About the role

The goal is to make geological cuttings not just visible, but actionable. Traditionally stored in boxes and rarely re-examined, these samples record the geological history of every drilled well. Through AI-enabled digitisation, 718,663 cutting samples from the Released Wells Initiative (RWI) operated by NOROG have been standardised and interpreted for lithology, grain size, cementation, and lost-circulation material (LCM).

Machine Learning in Action

Multiple machine-learning models work together to extract complementary insights from each cutting sample. Image-classification models analyse sample photographs to identify lithologies such as sandstone, shale, limestone, and mud additives such as LCM. Trained on thousands of annotated examples, they deliver consistent results, while bulk-annotation tools in EarthNET AI Images accelerate labelling and retraining.

Key Features and Applications

The product includes interpretations of lithology, grain size, cementation, and LCM, with metadata such as well ID, depth, log values, stratigraphy, and geographic coordinates. The data is delivered via EarthNET Data Lake and ZIP (LAS + CSV) and is OSDU compatible. The applications of this product include exploration, field development, and CCS projects.

Technical Details

Object-detection models further identify grains, cavings, and specific minerals, allowing grain-size estimation and depositional interpretation at the sub-millimetre scale. The lithological classification and LCM identification model have demonstrated strong performance with rapid turnaround, enabling the automated classification of 16 distinct lithologies and LCM types. Validation through a confusion matrix shows that the majority of samples are correctly predicted when compared to training and test data.

Benefits and Future Directions

The collaboration between RockWash Geodata and Earth Science Analytics marks a step-change in how the subsurface is understood. With the launch of the Analytics-Ready Cuttings Dataset through EarthNET AI Images, the Norwegian Continental Shelf becomes one of the world’s first basins where millions of rock fragments can be searched, visualised and analysed with AI precision. What once required months of manual study can now be achieved in minutes – empowering explorers and developers from oil and gas to CCS to make faster, data-driven decisions.