Drilling advances

Fundamental to the steadily evolving digitalization of the well construction process are similarly evolving tools that ensure all pertinent parties are interconnected, enabling real-time collaboration in the exercise. “The main philosophy for any successful operation is to keep the interested parties well-informed and engaged in the project,” says Nabors Operations Supervisor Celeste Shaffer. “Intelligent communication is vital to optimizing a drilling operation.”

For Nabors, providing a seamless communication link is the primary driver of the contractor’s RigCLOUD open cloud platform and the accompanying 24/7 remote operations center, which Shaffer says have “increased collaboration for internal and client operations teams.” More recently, the company has developed technologies that further advance real-time communication between the office and field-based operator, contractor and service company personnel. “The open cloud platform is uniquely designed to host drilling and analytical software at the rig site, on the web and on mobile devices,” she told a virtual IADC Drilling Engineering Committee (DEC) technology forum in March. “Leveraging an open cloud platform can abort the (data) silos and continue the partnership between the operator, contractor and service companies.”

Dashboard sharing is one of the newest digital tools that Nabors employs to break down silos, where one party guards its data like gold at a federal depository. “The ability for users to share a dashboard provides full transparency when looking at data,” she said.

Automated reporting. Shaffer identifies one of the key advantages of digital communications as the automated integration of all data streams into the control system, which is subsequently fed directly to the open cloud platform. Data include the daily drilling reports, which are vital for viewing progress on meeting key performance indicators (KPI). “The data is converted into KPI in easily digested formats and used by the operator and drilling contractor to help monitor the fleet. For example, you can see what your connections times were against the KPI target, and if you’re not meeting the target, you can make the necessary adjustments.”

Despite the well-documented capacity of digital communications to dismantle data silos, ownership of said data remains a prickly subject. “That’s something we do take seriously here, and these (ownership) challenges are addressed through certain protocols,” she said. “But, as far as ownership of data is concerned, that’s up to the owner of the well. The operator really controls who sees what.”

With often-sensitive data flowing between multiple parties, all companies engaged in digital collaboration likewise must be cognizant of the ever-increasing risks of cyber-attacks. “Everything is really contained in our platform, and with additional security measures in place, we really don’t see that being an issue,” Shaffer said.

Aligning planners and doers. Of course, no digital communication strategy is effective if the folks actually executing the drilling plan aren’t brought fully into the loop. That means making sure rig site personnel are apprised of what was discussed during planning and included in the clear line of accountability, said Schlumberger Well Delivery Manager Ana Da Silva, who is responsible for data governance for the company’s operations control centers (OCC) in Houston and Abu Dhabi, administered by the Well Construction division. “Accountability is shared. We need to ensure that those doing the plan are accountable and also ensure those in the field are accountable for the execution,” she said.

The twin OCCs take a proactive approach to well planning, particularly relevant when programming a technically demanding and high-profile project. “The main tools we use are for managing and communicating risks to the field,” she said. “It’s much more efficient to prevent an incident from occurring in the first place, rather than focusing on the firefighting that comes with response and recovery.” The OCC support what Schlumberger calls performance life workflows, which deliver remote performance assurance and real-time expertise to the field. “This allows us to make more technical expertise available to the wellsite and reduce the costs and risks of additional people,” Da Silva said.

A technical peer review (TPR) early on thoroughly analyzes the technical proposal to ensure it meets the operator’s requirement—a critical component when introducing new technology. “We need to ensure the well design, the drilling fluid design and the equipment are appropriate for the job. We need to ensure any risks associated with the introduction of new technology are addressed and contingency plans in place. We also identify any opportunities that may help the clients complete their wells faster and improve performance,” she said.

Every second counts. One way of getting to target depth faster is speeding up the lag time in the transfer of data to the wellsite. Legacy data transmittal protocols add a lag of 10 to 15 seconds to real-time transmittal, resulting in remote observers waiting for data to display on their screen. “Communication with, and timely feedback to, the drilling operation suffers from this lack of a shared view of fresh data,” says Philip Neri, marketing director of Houston’s Energistics.

Neri told the DEC that the industry’s data transfer group recently updated its 2016 WebSocket-based two-way protocol that shrinks the data lag time to one second, while facilitating distribution to the drill site staff, operator, contractor’s office and third-party companies. “Collaborative decision-making improves when all actors on a call are looking in real time at the same data and can rapidly apply analytics to contribute insights to the group,” he said.

About the Authors

Jim Redden

Contributing Editor

Jim Redden is a Houston-based consultant and a journalism graduate of Marshall University, has more than 40 years of experience as a writer, editor and corporate communicator, primarily on the upstream oil and gas industry.