Executive Viewpoint
I believe there are four technologies coming into play now that will enable significant breakthroughs in improving the cost model for drilling a well. We have seen reductions in cost and increases in performance, but the real challenge has been adoption of healthier cost models that are open to, and facilitate, disruption. These systems maintain the new lower-cost levels and ensure steady future performance improvements when the business returns to a healthier demand environment.
Many of today’s solutions lock people into large companies that manage more and more of their information. Such companies must instead facilitate the entry of more players and innovators into the marketplace to drive true change. For me, the revolution of this cycle is to be found in four critical technologies that are seen coming of age: 1) application-driven automation; 2) neural drilling; 3) RFID tags; and 4) Big Data.
Application-driven automation—making every driller the best driller. A simple operating system upgrade is available for all of NOV’s drilling systems. It takes advantage of years of investment in standard drilling controls. Within a few hours, an existing rig can go from variable human performance, to a more standard, top-class drilling system. This is just the beginning. The simple OS upgrade, which is installed in the control cabin with minimal downtime, can change how we work. Not only does it immediately increase performance to best-in-class, but it also eliminates the need for specialized computer software and hardware, which require dedicated operators, and replaces them with a simple application. As a result, those cost drains are no longer applied to the operation. Remote overview then becomes the normal practice for any operations that go beyond expectations of the system.
A well plan is loaded onto the rig, with all of the anticipated work to be done and responses expected from the well as drilling progresses. If surprises occur, the driller is there, observing the process while it happens. The driller can be focused, without worrying about the immediate actions that used to be required to maintain performance of the total system.
Simple, familiar technology, that we now use every day with our smart devices, can allow people to develop and download applications directly to the control system. The automated drilling sequence can then feed output and take guidance from the applications as drilling proceeds.
Moving forward, the applications and reach of the system will be limited only by our imagination. Major oil companies have already built smart algorithms and used them to manage NOV’s automated system, intervening with their special performance drilling practices to differentiate the system, when it works for them.
Neural drilling—turning the lights on in the well. The ability to have live, streaming data will illuminate the well environment, thus eliminating the science of interpreting the unknown. Neural drilling is a series of technologies from NOV that runs a wire securely installed within the drill pipe to facilitate direct, high-bandwidth, streaming data from various sensors up and down the drillstring and throughout the BHA. These data, in turn, can meet with surface applications and then deliver closed-loop, immediate control to the drilling system with outstanding results. The first level of outcome delivered a basic 30% to 80% improvement. In one early trial, the data facilitated extended well length and eliminated the need for an additional well.
RFID tags—surviving harsh well conditions. The value of RFID tags on drill pipe has been understood for 20 years, but no system has been able to withstand the harsh downhole environment. Those days are past, as we will not only auto-tally and know the length of the total drillstring, but we also have easily installed systems that can calculate the entire scope of work that needs to be done. The system also can configure the perfect mix of drill pipe and BHA, based on past data and the latest inspection reports, and determine whether the string is up for the task. The healthiest drill pipe can be positioned in the drillstring for the hardest work. The total supply chain can distribute goods for drilling, maximizing their lifecycles and preventing drill-pipe failure in future wells.
The same type of technology can be fitted in the data plates of equipment. This development, when combined with Big Data systems coming online, will enable improvements to maintenance practices, knowledge management, and uptime.
Big Data—planning ahead. After our engineers analyzed countless hours of pulled operational data, NOV developed a system that has revolutionized how we approach the primary offshore NPT issue. BOP stack pulls can now be avoided, and the 100% redundancy of the control systems on a subsea BOP stack are routinely providing a two-to-four-week warning that the valves are beginning to degrade—far ahead of failure.
The ability to project failure not only avoids unnecessary waste, it also allows a much more accurate flow of replacement spares. The ability to plan and execute replacement part supply, and to only change parts based on their actual condition, is critical to making dayrates fathomable, as the cost of operating is better managed.
NOV has built an industrial data platform, called MAX, that allows all of our businesses and products to access the modern performance tools of Big Data. Max makes operational data accessible across the organization to enable informed product development, advanced monitoring, and real-time troubleshooting. The systems that NOV is using are on open platforms, where users across other industries can share their improvements, rather than being tied to a single software solution.
These four technologies offer access to rapid cost reduction, normalize our high-cost expense areas and deliver step changes in operating performance. Drilling will never be the same again. 
