Texas has long been known as a leader in oil and gas, and a local startup is looking to update the industry through artificial intelligence.
Launched earlier this year, Plano-based Brane is developing software that will help predict where the next profitable well is located, which it is looking to build out with the help of a $100,000 crowdfunding effort.
“The computers are able to look at an enormous amount of data, almost simultaneously, and find the nuances that a human would pass over,” said Paul Carlisle, Brane’s CEO.
Aggregating filings and other public data, Brane’s technology looks for information on things like where previous wells have been drilled, how much they produced and where other companies are planning to drill. That information provides users insight for potentially finding drilling sites earlier than others, something useful to firms in the industry and fund managers with assets in oil and gas.
“You're following the footprints of elephants. They're rather obvious. They're big. They don't just move on a dime,” Carlisle said. “It allows you to follow it. That's what we're doing with minerals.
So far, the company has raised more than $64,000 with its crowdfunding effort, with a valuation cap of $9 million. Carlisle said Brane would look to scale the amount and type of data its software processes with the funding.
If successful, Carlisle said the company would then launch a Reg A funding initiative, eying the maximum amount of $75 million. From there, he said Brane's 3-person team would look to move beyond just offering a SaaS product to using its tech to begin making its own mineral rights purchases, which would allow for additional revenue streams should another company purchase those rights or pay royalties from a drilling operation on the site.
“Mineral owners don't have to pay in expenses, but whatever is produced out of the ground, they get their share of the revenue,” Carlisle said. “It's not overly complicated. We're trying to purchase minerals before everyone else starts purchasing them. If we're the first guys out there talking and knocking on doors, odds are we're probably going to get a better price.”
As Brane continues to build out its product, Carlisle sees other opportunities to train the AI to look for other minerals, like identifying former fracking sites where lithium has potentially developed in the saline water injected back into the ground.
“There's going to be a big opportunity for our product, as these operators kick it back into high gear,” Carlisle said. “COVID has thrown a lot of the charts out the window. But, it is going to come to a point where we're going to be a little bit short on oil. That's going to be a great opportunity to use our product to go out and find where these operators are going to start drilling and actively putting new wells down. Our software is suited for just that, to find those opportunities before they happen.”
