• Nabors and Schlumberger are testing new digital rig designs.
  • Commercialization is expected by 2017.
  • Concept rigs employ an iPhone approach to drilling or the integration of hardware and software to advance the drilling process.

With domestic rig count down 77% from peak, it might seem odd that a multinational oil services firm and one of the globe’s largest international land contractors are talking about a new upgrade cycle in rigs.

But that’s exactly what is happening.

Both Schlumberger Ltd. and Nabors Industries Ltd. discussed new rig concepts in New Orleans at the Scotia Howard Weil investor conference in March.

The new-generation rigs integrate digital sensors in downhole tools with surface equipment in real time via software to enhance ROP and accuracy in staying within zone in horizontal drilling.

Nabors announced its new rig, the M800, at the Scotia Howard Weil conference. The concept employs advances in rig control systems with the company’s proprietary MWD system and a directional drilling software interface to allow the driller to conduct automated geosteering operations and incorporate directional drilling services into the rig’s normal operations rather than relying on third-party service providers.

Nabors has completed one prototype of the M800, which it is currently showing to customers, and plans to finish two more by fourth-quarter 2016. The unit will feature an 850,000-lb hookload, stack 7,620 m (25,000 ft) of 5-in. drillpipe and incorporate a 7,500-psi circulation system. The rig is a beefed-up version of the pad-capable PACE-X concept.

Significantly, the software control systems can be retrofitted to Nabors existing premium AC-variable frequency drive (VFD) rig fleet and older legacy diesel electric silicon-controlled rectifier rigs.

Meanwhile, Schlumberger will begin field-testing a prototype integrated rig in Ecuador and the U.S. domestic market in 2016. The rig is the first product of the joint venture finalized in December 2015 between Germany’s Bauer Maschinen GmBH and Schlumberger and will incorporate surface equipment, top drives, pipehandling and BOPs from the Cameron International Corp. acquisition.

The Schlumberger drilling rig is part of a larger integrated approach to drilling and well completion that leverages the company’s manufacturing presence in drillbits, drilling fluids, bottomhole assemblies (BHAs), LWD and directional drilling.

Schlumberger first discussed its new rig technology as a component of its international business at Scotia Howard Weil in 2015. This past year, the multinational revealed it will be testing the rig for the U.S. market, with full commercialization in 2017. The drilling unit is part of a broader corporate strategy to move from supplying discrete individual technologies to creating digitally based integrated systems as a means of lowering the per-barrel cost of hydrocarbon extraction.

The bumper sticker explanation suggests that the next threshold in rig performance will digitally integrate the drilling process from the bit and BHA to surface equipment using software to automate mechanical processes such as geosteering and expand the ability for the human operator to make informed decisions.

Both rigs are entering a marketplace that is currently characterized by more than 450 stacked Tier I AC-VFD 1,500-hp units ideally suited for drilling the 2,286-m to 3,048-m (7,500-ft to 10,000-ft) laterals that are becoming commonplace in unconventional resource development, including landing laterals in ever-narrowing windows of quality rock.

Still, the latest evolution in rig design is a sign that the industry is moving from drilling efficiency toward drilling effectiveness. These new concept rigs will test whether operators will relinquish control of a drilling process that, under the direction of their in-house engineering staffs, has brought astonishing improvements in hydrocarbon harvest. Stay tuned.

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