Our story
In the age of quick-fixes and the “fail-fast” mentality, our story is about long-term commitment to cultivating deep knowledge while thinking differently. This belief lies at the core of how we started creating the world’s first AI for production optimization in the oil & gas industry.
2007
We are scientists and technologists at heart, and unsurprisingly our story began in the dusty halls of the cybernetics department of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). It was still early days of the fourth industrial revolution; 2007 was the year of the first iPhone, Facebook had just launched the year before and Uber was still two years out. Few were yet to talk about big data and machine learning on a large scale. At the same time, a NTNU PhD student by the name of Vidar Gunnerud and his professor Bjarne Foss started questioning the existing physics-based simulators as the basis for petroleum production optimization.
2013
“Why not connect to the field data directly” soon became our mantra, and spurred us on a mission to unlock live production data from its confines and use it more extensively. Years of research and development at NTNU combined with access to the industry, made us believe we were really on to something. As a result, Solution Seeker was established in 2013.
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2014
Luckily, we obtained our first visionary partners, ConocoPhillips and Neptune Energy (previously GDF Suez), in early 2014. We moved to the basement in Oslo Science Park, dug into the work and sped up our testing and development. Wintershall and Lundin joined our efforts, and we were able to keep digging, learning, pivoting and developing through the oil industry downturn of 2015-2016.
2016
Our product, ProductionCompass AI, started taking shape. The idea of our Compass has always been to create a solution that points out the direction of increased production for our users. We have filled it with solutions to use-cases in deep collaboration with the production teams we support. And when we come up against difficult and complex production challenges, we refuse to throw in the towel – in direct opposition to the popular “fail fast” mentality. Instead, we dig our heels in and dedicate even more effort to developing new technologies, leveraging recent advances in big data and machine learning algorithms. If everyone just fails fast, there will be no innovation and new technology.
![](https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=600&s=c33f0770f66f47071e67aae2532a3665 600w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=700&s=93d7be3d8ecd0f521a7d7ece2ba03ec6 700w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=800&s=e04e7f33592f3d5a5cf320111cc8b7a6 800w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=900&s=9d2cc3a0f627003bc65e59251e68e401 900w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=1000&s=a802b86c8c62ad4faa2a88984d45ad7c 1000w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=1100&s=050011b0786f52ff5dea454bc7732175 1100w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=1200&s=6e9f7712511b3761183ee9e895ce6232 1200w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=1300&s=e183ff7572bf84cbaff3359c84e357dc 1300w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=1400&s=1275773de925fb35accfa0d228bcb0d4 1400w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=1500&s=d869cad1fd63e52175dbc1df95489128 1500w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=1600&s=148dab93de8bf0ab89ed4b8bcd9ab1d6 1600w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=1700&s=8289b2ad9e9bd7dce3801033598662ad 1700w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=1800&s=900592e503999a5a81928c3ec570cbe6 1800w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=1900&s=5b216f79dec19e6b376e0bb7ef4b8173 1900w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=2000&s=3f35baceaa3b9275c5c8711d1b34fb92 2000w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=2100&s=bc8cc73e090bb95f77c7bb5a3bd290b1 2100w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=2200&s=9463924c860c2090b5f70c659ca1c04c 2200w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=2300&s=c76c9cccb77be000438636ed29a1168e 2300w, https://solutionseeker2021.imgix.net/images/stock-test/211122-CompassLogo_2021-11-22-104451_rcnw.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&cs=srgb&fit=clip&q=90&w=2400&s=d2680ba94ad7d06a3c4a3702f5ffa2ab 2400w)
2019
The answer to the last industry downturn was effectivization and digitalization, creating a large demand and opportunity for niche deeptech companies like us when activity started picking up again. There is huge potential for increasing production through better utilization of existing data streams, and oil companies are also realizing this. On the tech-development side, we started ramping up our efforts on the transfer learning concept so that our machine learning models can learn across wells. This is a truly game-changing technology for e.g. virtual flow metering. We filed our first patent on the topic in 2020.
Simultaneously we moved into new, beautiful offices in the center of Oslo, with plenty of space to grow. Client list is expanding and we have landed our first international contracts. Three new colleagues joined our team in 2019, finally making our headcount ~15.
2020
The pandemic hits early 2020 and in conjunction with the international oil price war creates huge uncertainty in the market. As travel is restricted and everyone is confined to home-offices, we double-down on our research and even increase our deep work productivity. ProductionCompass AI’s first standalone product module Well Test Optimization is launched and ready for the market.
2021
As the shadow of the pandemic is lifting, multiple studies show that the COVID-19 has increased the urgency of investing in digital transformation globally. Despite the past year’s challenges, the oil and gas industry has clarified its thinking on the need for accelerating digitization, and on how and where it needs to happen. With this backdrop, BCG acquires a stake in Solution Seeker, cementing our partnership. Together, we are offering a truly unique value proposition combining Solution Seeker’s patented data feed and proven use cases with BCGs relentless focus on value and client enablement.
Our Brazilian office takes off with the Mero Digitalization project kick-off in January and three hires in Rio de Janeiro. Headcount ~25.
We are growing and our next steps are productification and internationalization. The future looks bright, and we are excited to keep writing our story in the name of hard-core science and innovation.