A major technological shift is underway in the subsurface geoscience community, transforming how we collaborate, work, store, utilize, and analyze vast amounts of data.
This shift is now accelerating with the maturation of AI, cloud-native platforms, and data standards, moving from experimentation to scaled deployment across organizations.
Dig X Subsurface 2026 is the premier conference for the geoscience community and its digital ecosystem, dedicated to the digital subsurface.
The conference brings the community together to showcase how leading organizations and innovative projects harness digital technologies to unlock new opportunities and deepen subsurface understanding through integrated data, systems, and workflows.
Dig X Subsurface spans the entire subsurface value chain from exploration, production, IOR, well planning, and reservoir characterization to next-generation field development, data management, and digital twins. Traditionally siloed disciplines are converging into integrated systems and workflows, driven by digital advancements.
The community has long recognized that digitalization enables more efficient exploration, improved subsurface workflows, better well placement, and safer drilling. Today, the emphasis is on scaling these capabilities across assets and organizations while ensuring reliability, governance, and traceability of models and decisions.
Digital tools and integrated systems are enhancing subsurface understanding and strengthening NCS competitiveness through innovation and collaboration. However, they also introduce new complexities that require careful planning and specialized expertise.
Importantly, digitalization is more than just data and technology. It represents a broader transformation of workflows, mindsets, and culture. Success depends on new skillsets, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and effective human–AI interaction.
At Dig X Subsurface 2026, we will explore the vision for a truly digital subsurface future and the strategies required to realize it. How do we make new technologies accessible? How do we ensure transparency and trust in digital processes? How do we operationalize AI responsibly in high-stakes subsurface decisions? And how can smaller players compete and thrive alongside larger organizations?
We are eager to explore how data and digitalization drive value creation and how to cultivate a culture among subsurface professionals to fully embrace digital advancements.
We invite the digital subsurface ecosystem of energy companies, technology providers, data managers, authorities, research and educational institutions, data scientists, and digitalization professionals to submit abstracts to the Dig X Subsurface 2026 conference in December covering the following topics:
Next-generation subsurface workflows
- Transformative exploration and production workflows
- Digitized and automated well-planning and design
- Digital efforts to increase oil recovery and extend field lives
- Next-generation field development and digital twins
- Software automation tools for use cases like processing, rock physics, reservoir characterization, petrophysics, and inversion
- Explainable AI
- Subsurface ensembles, their analysis, and new approaches to ensemble-based decisions
- Agentic AI: From automated to autonomous workflows
Generative AI and large language models (LLMs)
- Unlocking hidden information in unstructured E&P reports
- Demonstrations of use cases and lessons learned
- AI platforms, applications, and tools
- Integration of unstructured and structured data
Data readiness and accessibility
- Data management, quality, and governance
- Integration of subsurface data across domains (wells, seismic, reservoir, production)
- User-friendly access to data through modern platforms and interfaces
- Preparing and standardizing data to support automation, analytics, and AI workflows
- Automated workflows for making technical E&P data readily available
- Strategic approaches to modernizing legacy data for future-ready workflows
Experimentation and rapid prototyping
- Small-scale projects and “vibe coding” approaches to rapid problem solving
- Turning lightweight initiatives into value by integrating quick solutions into workflows
- Building a culture that supports experimentation, learning, and acceptance of failure
OSDU and Digital Architecture
- OSDU data platform and interoperability – use cases on wellbore, seismic domain data management services (DDMS), and reservoir
- Lessons learned with OSDU architecture: tenants, partitions, DDMS, etc.
- Innovations in a complex digital landscape and evolving OSDU
- OSDU schemas development and Open Group Consortium experiences
We especially encourage sharing lessons learned and use cases presented by vendors and client companies together, and we welcome academia and research institutions to submit abstracts presenting their R&D projects, particularly PhD presentations.
Abstract deadline: 4 September 2026
Submit abstracts to events@geopublishing.no
Visit the conference website to learn more about the conference and the abstract requirements.