Advanced Drilling Technologies Helping to Drive Down Costs

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Margins are up and costs are down for shale producers, resulting in yet another resurgence for the resilient shale industry. Thanks to growing pressure from investors, operators are generating billions of dollars in free cash flow this year, and one of the reasons for those margins are lowering operating costs.

And what’s helping drive down those costs? Continued efficiencies gained through innovative technology making its ways to the oilfield. And while production efficiencies help fuel the shale boom, drilling innovations are still playing a major role in driving down costs.

Autonomous drilling rigs, downhole control systems and drill-ahead predictive technologies are helping reduce costs, drilling time and more precisely place the wellbore within the desired zone.

Fully automated land rig

In October, Nabors announced its fully automated land rig, which it claims as the world’s first, successfully drilled its first well. The PACE-R801 reached total depth of 19,917 ft in a horizontal well on an operational test pad for Exxon Mobil in the Permian Basin. Specific performance data was not announced.

According to Nabors, the PACE-R801 utilizes the full suite of the company’s drilling automation software—SmartDRILL and SmartSLIDE—which reduces drilling days for operators by four in the Permian and Williston basins. The company also reports that the rig has “shown promise” to reduce drilling emissions.

The rig requires one drilled to supervise the operations of the rig while others continue to perform other essential tasks such as service, maintenance, inspection and rig moves.

“Importantly, no longer are crews in the red zone areas,” Nabors reported.

“ExxonMobil’s collaboration with Nabors in deploying this automated rig in Midland demonstrates the ability to optimize drilling using the combined power of robotics, automation, computing and data,” said Jason Gahr, operations manager for unconventional drilling for ExxonMobil. “This is a great example of enhancing the safety, efficiency and environmental performance of our operations through innovative technologies.”

Automated drilling systems

Not only are drilling service companies breaking new ground with operators, they are also joining forces to push drilling technologies even further. In May, Schlumberger and NOV announced that they were collaborating to accelerate the development of automated drilling systems. According to a press release, the agreement enables the companies’ customers to combine Schlumberger’s surface and downhole drilling automation technologies with NOV’s rig automation platform.

“The integrated offering enables the automation of manual workflows, improving safety, decision-making, consistency and efficiency in drilling operations,” the release stated.

Additionally, the capabilities of the two companies combine to leverage advanced AI from Schlumberger’s DrillOps on-target well delivery system, while NOV NOVOS process-automation platform controls all NOV rig equipment within the operational scope.

According to the release, the two technologies will work together to manage compliance to procedure and to reach best-in-class operational performance.

The DrillOps suite  features open and modular technologies that leverage Schlumberger’s deep drilling domain knowledge and advanced machine learning applications to execute the digital drilling plan consistently and to automate drilling tasks.

Meanwhile, NOV’s NOVOS automates repetitive drilling activities that benefits contractors by allowing drillers to focus on consistent process execution and safety, which enables optimized drilling programs. 

According to Schlumberger, autonomous downhole drilling reduces control latency. The company explains in a data sheet that adjustments are made when and where the tools encounter the data. Following the plan more precisely results in better verticals, steeper curves, less tortuous tangents and more accurate laterals.

Conventional drilling with rotary steerable systems requires operating in manual mode, involving a command sequence applied repeatedly to control the trajectory through the vertical through the curve and into the tangent, Schlumberger explained in the report. 

Each sequence comprises multiple interventions and downlinks from the directional driller at the surface for steering force, toolface (TF) orientation and measurements. Downlinks to the BHA and tool data fed back to the surface for adjustments in commands are referred to as “control-loop time,” which, according to Schlumberger, can be as much as 20 minutes.

But according to the company, the autonomous downhole control system overcomes control-loop time and associated data-to-surface delays by minimizing surface interference and eliminating downlinks.

“Advanced BHA components can assess the data and react at the time and place needed, even when heading into the zone of exclusion or into rugged downhole conditions,” Schlumberger reported on its website. “The technology enables the auto-curve capability by bundling all the steps of manual mode into a single downhole autonomous process that begins with the directional driller downlinking the dogleg severity and TF as required on teh well path.”

Digital twin drilling technology

Meanwhile, the capabilities of digital twins in the upstream oil and gas industry have made their way into drilling operations. MindMesh’s RiMo real-time digital twin technology predicts drilling mechanics and drilling dysfunctions in real time. 

As MindMesh explained in a press release, when directional drillers actively steer the wellbore with a steerable motor or an RSS, they are often concerned about where the bit is headed. 

“Directional drilling technology has taken some of the guesswork out of the science by moving the survey point inside the MWD closer to the bit, but it’s always a projection to the bit and not a real measurement,” the company explained in the release.

The concept of digital twin drilling technologies, the company explained, is to essentially design unwanted characteristics such as torque and drag out of the well from the beginning. The technology produces quantifiable drilling dynamics like shock and vibration, downhole MSE, penetration rates and more in real time. 

According to the company, the RiMo platform is built to work through multiple workflows from planning, real-time digital twin and post-job analytics.