Technological advancements happen over time with varying speed and consequence. Some advancements are so profound and abrupt they alter human life in fundamental ways relatively quickly (the light bulb and the Internet, for example). Others are slight, barely recognizable shifts, part of a vast and slow transition.
Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the topic-du-jour when it comes to technological advancements. Many warn of its awesome potential to fundamentally alter human life; others praise its application in myriad products and services as a productivity super-booster. Regardless of its benefits and drawbacks, AI is an increasingly important part of life.
And while many people are just starting to learn about AI, Calgary-based Ambyint has been leading with it for years. Eight years, to be exact. Using its AI-powered physics-informed production optimization platform, Ambyint supports upstream oil and gas companies.
“We service the North American oil and gas market,” says Benjamin Kemp, CEO. “Our mission is to help lean production teams improve performance of their onshore wells while increasing the productivity of the people responsible for managing those wells. We gather real-time data from the well, then run it through a multitude of physics and AI models providing teams with surveillance and analytics, anomaly detection, and autonomous setpoint management (ASPM).”
Originally formed in 2016, Ambyint was the continuation of a company called PumpWell, which obtained data from the wellhead so operators could work more efficiently. Ambyint took those operations and added autonomous activity to enhance that work.
“We came out with an AI offering in 2016, well ahead of its time,” Kemp, who joined the company in 2020, says. “We went through fluctuations in the market, building out and commercializing the product with customers. Then COVID occurred. So it’s been an interesting ride. But since 2020, we’ve started to find that consistency and maturity to what we’re doing.”
Kemp says the company today is in the 80-20 position: “Eighty per cent of the product is exactly what our customer needs. The last 20 per cent are those nuances, customer by customer, looking for features and tweaks that help them absorb our technology in a way that makes sense for them. We’re in that enhancement phase now.”
It’s a phase that comprises nearly 200,000 BOE/D across North America, managed by Ambyint’s platform. This includes two of the largest natural gas producers, one in the U.S. and one in Canada.
“We are commercially going strong right now,” Kemp confirms. “We work with some of the most reputable companies in the industry and we look to add new customers every quarter. Our impact is significant: we improve production, mitigate work effort, reduce the need for site visits, which is good from a safety perspective, all while driving down methane emissions.”
Since joining the company, Kemp says he’s seen an amazing shift in companies that previously wouldn’t allow a company like Ambyint to automate their wells.
“Our customers have more wells than ever before and less staff to manage them,” he notes. “So they are looking for technology that can help improve how they manage their day-to-day operations. The speed and scale at which we operate would be really hard to replicate with just more people.”
“We don’t replace jobs, I want to be clear on this,” he continues. “We help the people in those roles deliver on what they need to do daily. We free them up to do the higher value work and not stress about the highly repetitive tasks.”
With artificial lift systems, for example, production goes down over time, and so too does the economic interest level in that well. “Tools that can help them automate how they operate those lower or declining wells are very advantageous to them,” he says.
A shift in the market towards embracing technology in the field has also been helpful.
“It’s a unique situation we are in. There is no other product right now that has the same scale with equal complexity and value that we are driving out there in the market,” Kemp says. “This is why we’re such a good news story – we are like David competing against Goliath. Our competitors are huge, multinational billion-dollar corporations.”
Kemp is familiar with large multinational corporations, having previously worked at tech firms Xerox and Oracle and then Husky Energy. He has also worked in entrepreneurial and family owned and operated ventures.
“I’m all about trying to help companies be successful – not just the companies but the teams and people in those teams,” he explains. “I have a passion for not leaving potential on the table.”
Kemp was at Husky Energy when he first came across Ambyint. “Working for a producer, I could see that this technology was going to be a game changer in the industry,” he recalls. “It felt like a natural fit to join.”
“The biggest focus when I joined Ambyint was around putting the customer at the centre of the equation,” he continues. “When you’re building software, you can get fixated on the build and the customer almost becomes secondary.” Kemp says his fixation on customers has been a consistent thread in his career.
Being in Calgary has also been very beneficial for Ambyint. “The ecosystem makes it a lot easier for tech firms to scale than ever before,” he praises. “You can’t replicate that in other places. It’s right here for you. You’re able to plug into it.”
The talent available in Calgary is another benefit. “As Alberta goes through this additive process of driving other economic streams beyond energy it has really heightened and increased the talent pool,” he says.
Today, the bulk of Ambyint’s 50 staff members are in Calgary. Smaller teams are located in Grande Prairie, Toronto, Victoria, Houston, Denver, Oklahoma City and Brazil.
“We’re a values-led company,” Kemp says proudly. “We live by our values. It’s ingrained into our onboarding process and is part of our monthly recognition program. It’s how we measure ourselves internally. We have a high sense of purpose to drive change.”
Ambyint supports the communities in which it operates, and in Calgary is part of the Venture Mentoring Services Alberta and CITI, an organization dedicated to helping individuals build meaningful tech careers. “We’re committed to diversity and inclusion, especially in the communities we serve,” Kemp says..
It is also a partner with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (AMII), a global powerhouse as it relates to AI and machine learning. “We’ve just kicked off a project with them where we’re looking to elevate reinforcement learning, which in many people’s eyes is the top of the pyramid as it relates to AI. Through this partnership, our goal is to mitigate 90 per cent of methane venting events for our customers by optimizing their wells more effectively.”
“The feedback we’ve got from AMII in terms of what we’re doing is super positive,” Kemp continues. “It’s so powerful what we’re building here in Alberta from a tech perspective. We’re an AI shop doing closed-loop automation at scale in the energy sector like nobody else, and we’re in Calgary. This is a win for everyone, not just us, but for the industry and community around us.”
With so much potential, Kemp is determined to grow Ambyint with structure and a bit of constraint: “We’re being very deliberate on the scale and pace at which we grow. We are sustainable to deliver on our mission.
A great news story for Alberta, combining the core oil and gas sector with the growing tech sector. Ambyint is what Alberta is all about.
