Automation, which offers benefits like a smoother wellbore, consistent and efficient drilling, and improved safety, is a cornerstone of BP’s drilling strategy.
Just last quarter, automated drilling through managed pressure drilling (MPD) allowed “on-the-go” optimization based on downhole data from one of BP’s wells in the deepwater Atlantis field in the Gulf of America, said Ann Davies, senior vice president for wells at BP.
“The technology performed reliably on its first run, delivering stable, consistent drilling without operational surprises,” she told JPT.
All of the relevant systems behaved as expected and delivered high uptime, strong acceptance by the crew, and performance that was either on par with or approaching technical limits, giving BP the confidence to scale up the technology deployment further, she said.
Autonomous drilling using MPD was deployed on the well in October 2025 in 7,000 ft of water.
Davies said the supermajor sees potential applications for this technology in the US Gulf and other regions where BP operates.
“Eventually, the destination is full closed-loop automation,” she said.
Over the years, BP has invested in early-kick-detection technology, which she said has enabled drilling to become more proactive than reactive.
“I think we’re only starting to scratch the surface of how we can use data to predict what’s next when it comes to well operations,” Davies said. “I could see a big shift that will happen over the next couple of years.”
That kind of foresight will help drive up safety and efficiency, she added.
Already, early-kick-prediction algorithms are about 90% accurate, even when not using MPD. Training the algorithm to predict kicks for MPD activities took longer because of the number of variables, she said. But being able to predict kicks while using MPD has made a difference for BP.
“It was helping us drill wells that we weren’t able to drill before, especially on the Na Kika field,” she said. “We can respond to what the subsurface gives us a little bit quicker, a little bit easier.”
That technology has since evolved, and BP is now using it globally. “It’s helping us access barrels we couldn’t access before.”
Robotics also continue to draw interest as the industry pursues a vision of removing humans from the rig floor, she said. The goal is to replace human roles on the rig floor with robotics and automation, freeing up humans to do other, safer activities.
But robotics could have a role well beyond drilling.
“Intervention to increase production is another area I think robotics could have a big role to play in, in the future,” she said. “Can we send robots down wells? I’m not there yet, but I’m definitely interested.”
And as technology changes how work is done, BP is investing in upskilling people from “the way we used to drill to how we’re going to be drilling now and how we’re going to be drilling in the future.”
BP is also using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to facilitate work. Its Wells AI assistant “looks a bit like a ChatGPT or a Copilot, but we have 100 years of knowledge” in the documents, standards, and procedures that the drilling team can access within seconds. “The assistant could really, really help people do the job” by providing details about standards, past incidents on similar jobs, potential opportunities, and more, she said. “I’m really pleased to see the high usage from the offshore staff.”
It Takes a Village
BP sees alliances as a way to derive value, and the supermajor has embraced the alliance model in the US Gulf’s Paleogene activities to align objectives for better results.
By treating the reservoir as the customer, the model aligns the operating model across the operator, rig provider, and service providers to enable successful execution and long-term value creation.
“It’s not just about rig rates and service day rates. It’s about how can we get as much value as possible out of the asset or the opportunity that we are developing. And that means if you’re in an alliance type of model, that everyone in that group is incentivized to bring value out of that particular asset,” she said.
The focus, then, is ensuring “everyone’s got the same objective, as opposed to an operator having an objective of ‘I want to get as much value out of this field as possible,’ a rig company having an objective of ‘I want to make as much money out of this contract as possible,’ and a service company trying to get as much margin as possible.”
