Ever since industry has embraced the notion of the employment of machines to improve the productivity of the work done by man and tools, the drilling industry has tried to grasp and apply the more fantastic ideas being used in other industries to eliminate high risk and free operations from the limits of human intervention. Motivation has been fueled by the performance promise of automated drilling affecting our bottom line — drilling faster, safer, with fewer people.

Where are we?
Despite failed attempts to obtain the ultimate, one button “drill” command drilling rig, we have moved forward. There are many claims being made that the highly automated rig exists and is drilling today in various locations, but the statement needs some deeper analysis and clarification. Attempts to make the fully automatic leap have been overshadowed by critical barriers being unsatisfactorily overcome, and we are left with successfully breaking through a few key areas where we have been able to take significant steps:

Multitasking. One of the technology barriers is the stability of the design used in electrical and electronic hardware. These have been amplified by a fast entry into the state of the art of rig controls in the late 1990s where any potential to develop standards was lost in a rush towards the technology, leaving us with a relatively small number of systems with a high level of customization from rig to rig. Despite the control challenge, the functionality became a reality. The most advanced rigs today multitask, building stands of drill pipe and casing offline.

Simplicity. The majority of the systems have used Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs). However a new frontier has opened up that gives us the benefits of modern computing, with more robust technology. Computer hard drives have been replaced with non-rotating memory technology that significantly increases the capacity of the computer memory to sustain shock and vibration. This technology has facilitated the removal of technical experts from the rig site. The development of configurable software that can be modified on location without any programming expertise has improved acceptance and standardization on new rig systems.

Robotics. Today, we have semi-automated processes; however we have not gone the extra step into robotics for a number of reasons. The next barrier to overcome is specific to the robust sensing devices on the tools. In applications such as deepwater multiplex blowout preventer (BOP) control systems, we have managed to compensate successfully by using redundancy. The market has not been willing to invest in this for a number of reasons.

Mechanical barriers
The key mechanical processes that have not been accepted in running tubulars in the hole have been connection cleaning and doping and the handling of nonstandard drill string or well servicing products, such as bottomhole assembly components, subs, bits, special tubing and small tubing. Doping is hailed as a success in Norwegian operations, and although numerous systems and processes have been employed, it remains a market credibility and value proposition anomaly. The key is the value driver for the market. If automation is not ready or does not meet expectations, we can expect it to be slow in coming to market because the real users, rig crews, always reject a slower or unstable process.

Electronic drilling
Much talk has been around what we get to see, touch and feel on the rig floor where safer and faster operations make sense to us, but the real automation story is happening in the well construction process. The introduction of better control systems has found a home in drilling the well. The National Oilwell Varco Electronic Drilling System (EDS) was developed when Helmrich & Payne began making the draw works brake and computer a critical factor on their new generation land rigs. The rigs realized a drilling performance improvement of 30% from the optimization computer that runs the disc brake added to their traditional DC draw works. Later the same logic was applied to the AC draw works systems that became the norm for their rigs. Many drilling contractors have since employed the closed-loop control on their rigs and have taken the drillers hand off the brake.

Drillers
The push to 10,000-ft (3,048-m) drilling rigs caused reluctance to innovation during the construction cycle that came during 1996 through 1998. Almost every prototype tool installed came with a crew of programmers as we forced the technology and came out with state of the art “development project” rigs. In retrospect, the results were what you would expect — over budget, late, and struggling with ongoing upgrade and amendment to drill as originally designed. The end result did facilitate multitasking value, once the downtime problems were eventually overcome, but the result — reluctant investment in breakthrough technology — was apparent.

Trends in new construction
The current new-construction cycle has had one driving mantra — manage the risk. Some of the jackup rigs have abandoned programmed pipe-handling systems, and have returned to bridge crane pipe handing above the fingerboard, 1980s technology. But that is not the end of the story. Controlled steps toward automation keep successfully driving us forward.

We have built, in the first half of this decade, a handful of rigs that are moving forward beyond our technology traditions. Some drillers have been pushing harder than others for more automation. These rigs keep raising the control bar to eliminate human process interjection. Another process step has been taken where pipe deck pipe handling operations are only monitored when load transfers occur.

Reliability has improved with crew familiarity and device development, but we are still a step away from where we need to be. Possible steps forward could be increased redundancy on the tool control devices like deepwater BOPs or breakthrough in sensor stability that truly builds a rig crew’s faith.

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