Artificial intelligence is quietly transforming one of the world’s oldest industries. Here’s how to win.
Listen to the audio version of this article (generated by artificial intelligence).
Editor’s note: Some of you may remember Joe Austin from last week. He’s a Wall Street veteran who has spent decades studying how technology is changing the way companies operate, and works alongside Mark Chaikin at our affiliate, Chaikin Analytics.
Joe was looking in a place that most investors don’t associate with AI: the oil and gas industry. But something interesting is happening.
Over the past few years, US oil producers have been drilling with fewer rigs while continuing to increase production. This is the kind of productivity gain that gets my attention.
In today’s guest article, Joe explains how AI helps businesses make faster decisions, improve efficiency, and get more out of existing processes. What he sees in oil and gas may happen in other industries as well.
This is because some of the biggest AI opportunities may not come from the companies that make the technology. They may come from industries that put you into work.
To help identify those opportunities, Mark and Joe have developed AI time machinea new tool designed to find stocks that resemble some of the market’s biggest winners before their major moves.
Tomorrow at 10am ET, Mark and Joe will unveil it for the first time. If you want to be among the first to see it in action, I advise you to reserve your place now.
Until then, here’s Joe…
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The search for oil and gas never stops. And it’s never the same.
On Alaska’s North Slope, drilling rigs operate in some of the harshest conditions on Earth. In winter, temperatures routinely drop into the negatives. At the winter solstice, daylight can last for two hours per day.
The enemy is the environment. Low light, extreme cold and encroaching sea ice shut down operations for about half the year. When your drilling period is so short, every hour counts.
Meanwhile, thousands of miles south, drillships are working in the warm waters off Guyana above the Stabroek Block – a deepwater area Exxon Mobil Company (XOM) The CEO described one of the biggest oil discoveries in nearly two decades. The water depth here can reach more than 6,000 feet before it reaches the oil reservoir.
Everything costs a fortune, and nothing stops. The daily price of drilling ships ranges between $400,000 and $500,000 per day.
Then there is the US shale correction.
In the Permian Basin and Marcellus Shale, the challenge isn’t the weather or day rates. It’s doing more with less. From late 2022 to late last year, the number of active drilling rigs in the lower 48 states fell by about a third.
But during the same period, Permian production jumped 18%. Appalachia production increased by 10%. Last July, the lower 48 states set a new record for their monthly crude oil production.
Fewer platforms. More oil. This is efficiency, and AI is driving it.
These are three environments with very different problems. But the solution is always the same: better technology. Now, that means artificial intelligence.
Artificial Intelligence is reshaping industrial processes in real time
Throughout the oil and gas industry, artificial intelligence is reshaping how wells are drilled.
The basic machinery has been around for decades: a drilling tower to support the drill string, a rotating system to rotate the drill bit, a crane to raise and lower equipment, and a circulation system to pump drilling fluid in and out of the hole. But what happens inside those systems has changed dramatically.
Sensors in the drill string are now sending live data from down the hole while drilling is still underway. This gives engineers an instant read of rock type, pressure and direction of the well. The software tracks mud weight and chemistry in real time, picking up warning signs of pressure before fluids start flowing into the well out of control.
Directional drilling allows crews to bend the well path underground to reach targets thousands of feet away, making it possible to drill multiple wells from a single surface location. When each section is drilled, it is lined with steel casing and bolted into place. Evaluation tools check the consistency of the cement before the crew moves to a greater depth.
For many years, skilled operators and engineers have managed all of this by reading data, making decisions, and adjusting on the fly. Now, artificial intelligence is doing the work. And the results are measurable.
Surface systems no longer just follow pre-established rules. They learn from live well data, make decisions, and adjust drilling parameters faster and more consistently than any human. In one 2024 drilling program, an AI-based system drilled nearly 50% faster than a manual crew.
Downhole, AI now interprets data from drilling tools in real time and automatically adjusts the well’s path – keeping the bit in the most productive zone without waiting for a geologist to evaluate it. In one well in Ecuador, the AI system made 25 path corrections along a single well section, each correction in seconds. This well has become one of the best producers in the country.
On the fluid side, machine learning models can report signs of pressure imbalance 10 to 12 minutes earlier than traditional monitoring tools. Cement evaluation models that previously required a specialist to manually read complex audio logs now operate automatically, faster and with better accuracy.
This is what physical AI looks like. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not a software upgrade. They are machines that make real-time decisions in conditions where human error costs millions of dollars – or worse.
Where is the opportunity?
Many of the companies leading this transformation fall within the energy equipment and services industry. These are not household names. It’s not the Nvidias or Microsofts that are discussed on financial TV every day.
But they do something just as important: they make one of the world’s most capital-intensive industries dramatically more efficient. and Force meter — Mark Chaikin 20-Factor Stock Rating System – currently classifies this corner of the market as “strong.”
Of the 58 stocks in the energy equipment and services sector that Energy Barometer tracks, 26 carry a rating of “bull” or better. Only one gets “bearish” or worse.
I spent 40 years on Wall Street. And I’ll tell you – when a less visible sector like this lights up, it’s worth paying attention to.
The AI opportunity is not just limited to the big infrastructure names. It’s present in companies using AI to transform physical industries – oil and gas, mining, manufacturing and power generation. These are trillion dollar industries that are just starting to feel the full impact of what this technology can do.
A new way to find these stocks
Here’s the challenge: It’s hard to find the right stocks in these less-covered corners of the market. There is no shortage of companies clamoring for AI capabilities. The question is which ones have real financial and artistic momentum behind them – and which ones are the ones that will stay on the ride.
This is a problem Mark has spent his entire career trying to solve. And on June 24, we’ll unveil the most powerful tool ever designed to do just that.
It is called Time machine. It’s Chaikin Analytics’ first AI-powered platform — and it works by scanning decades of market history to find stocks today whose fundamental and technical fingerprints match early profiles of stocks such as Nvidia company (NVDA), Amazon.com Inc. (Amzn)and Meta Platforms Inc. (dead)before they make their biggest moves.
In the backtest, stocks that went on emerged with gains of 995%, 1,406%, and 3,804% — all while the “underlying” stocks they were matched with produced much more modest returns.
This is the first time Mark and I have shown this to anyone outside of Chaikin Analytics. Charter membership spots are limited, and this offer will not be repeated.
If you want to be among the first to access Time Machine — and know which stocks you’re pointing to as the next generation of potential 10X winners — the first step is Reserve your place for our free event on June 24th.
People who sign up now will get early beta access to Time Machine before June 24, so you can start exploring the platform right away. No purchase necessary. Get the listing for this free stream here.
The story of oil, gas and artificial intelligence is just one example of what a time machine is designed to find. The opportunity is much larger than any one sector.
good investment,
Joe Austin
Senior Analyst, Chaiken Analytics
note: Time Machine is Chaikin Analytics’ first AI-powered product — and June 24 marks its public debut. Mark Chaikin has spent 60 years building tools that give individual investors an advantage. This is the biggest thing he’s released in years. Charter membership is limited, and when it expires, it disappears. Register now to reserve your place.
