DSDE: Features

NASA is undertaking a drilling project on the Moon—the first on any planetary body outside the Earth. The mission’s purpose, collecting subsurface soil and ice samples to search for water beneath the lunar surface, is being compared to collecting core samples on Earth and will use technologies, such as a rotary-percussive drill, that have been adapted from those for h…

Anomalies in heart function can be diagnosed in real time by measuring an electrical signal. Petroleum engineers have adapted the concept to diagnose anomalous drilling conditions in real time using a shock signature recorded downhole.

Oslo-based consultancy Rystad Energy sees the potential for robots and automation to replace up to 400,000 roles in North America, Europe, and Russia by 2030. The timeline is not guaranteed, though, and will move at a speed set by human decision making.

Scientists at the Sandia National Laboratories are using machine learning to find methane hydrates on the seafloor, using an approach similar to weather forecasting.

Economical oil extraction depends largely on reducing wear and tear of downhole equipment and tubulars through regular monitoring and batch treatment to cut the risk of corrosion and costly workovers. Having a data-driven approach to scheduling batch treatment can bring down the frequency of treatment and avoid the unnecessary use of resources.

As the saying goes, the future is now. This is certainly the case offshore Norway, which represents one of the industry’s most influential test beds for impactful innovation.

At least a dozen satellites are being built to orbit the Earth in search of methane leaks. They will be measuring methane flows, and some will be able to identify the source down to the facility level.

Start-and-stop data management initiatives and a mishmash of partial solutions are no longer viable for managing the digital oil field. Data management should be transformed from a cost center to a cash-flow-generating function.

Algorithms are taking over the world, or so we are led to believe, given their growing pervasiveness in multiple fields of human endeavor such as consumer marketing, finance, design and manufacturing, health care, politics, and sports. The focus of this article is to examine where things stand in regard to the application of these techniques for managing subsurface en…

Wintershall Dea set out to demystify digital for engineers with an informal network of staff experts who help fill the gaps in this new way of doing things and have a focus on maximizing the return on problems previously solved.