LONDON, Sept 15 – TotalEnergies is partnering with French artificial intelligence company Mistral AI on a three-year programme aimed at applying advanced AI to oil and gas exploration, reservoir development and the optimization of existing fields.
The companies will invest more than €100 million ($115 million) in the initiative, which will involve developing proprietary frontier AI models trained on decades of TotalEnergies’ geoscience and subsurface data.
The programme will combine artificial intelligence with TotalEnergies’ accumulated expertise in geoscience and reservoir engineering. The companies said the system will draw on nearly a century of knowledge and close to 10 petaflops of data to analyze complex subsurface information and generate scenarios for exploration and reservoir development.
The technology is also intended to help TotalEnergies optimize existing projects and extend the operating life of producing fields.
Building a Joint AI and Geoscience Laboratory
TotalEnergies and Mistral AI will establish a joint scientific laboratory bringing together the oil major’s subsurface specialists with Mistral’s AI research and engineering capabilities.
The laboratory will focus on developing AI solutions tailored to TotalEnergies’ exploration and production activities, with particular emphasis on agentic AI and models capable of integrating and interpreting large volumes of scientific and technical data.
The initiative reflects a broader effort by TotalEnergies to build proprietary AI capabilities around its strategic subsurface datasets rather than relying solely on general-purpose models.
Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TotalEnergies, said AI could generate significant value in exploration and reservoir engineering.
“Exploration and reservoir engineering are among the areas where artificial intelligence can create the greatest value for our activities. By combining a century of geoscience data, the expertise of our teams and Mistral’s capabilities, we aim to develop a new generation of tools capable of supporting our experts in analyzing the most complex data and in their decision-making,” Pouyanné said.
He added that the partnership also supports TotalEnergies’ objective of strengthening Europe’s digital capabilities and competitiveness.
Mistral Expands Role in Industrial AI
For Mistral AI, the agreement expands its involvement in highly specialized industrial applications where AI models must process complex proprietary datasets and meet demanding technical requirements.
Arthur Mensch, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Mistral AI, said the partnership demonstrates how customizable AI systems can be applied to sophisticated industrial and scientific processes.
“We are delighted to take our collaboration with TotalEnergies to the next level. This project demonstrates the ability of our models to support complex industrial processes and adapt to the most demanding scientific and energy challenges,” Mensch said.
He also highlighted the importance of allowing large companies to deploy advanced AI while maintaining control over sensitive intellectual property.
The programme will therefore combine TotalEnergies’ proprietary subsurface information with Mistral’s AI technology within a European digital ecosystem, giving the French energy company greater control over the development and deployment of models built around its own data.
For the energy industry, the partnership points to an expanding role for AI beyond operational automation. The ability to process geological, geophysical and reservoir data at scale could influence how companies identify exploration prospects, evaluate reservoirs and determine how to maximize production from mature assets.
