While breakthroughs in digital technology have rewarded many industries with a step change in productivity and efficiency during the past decade, the drilling industry has yet to benefit on a large scale from these advances. The complete paper details the introduction of a drilling automation system (DAS) to deliver superior well-construction performance in a major gas field in the Middle East. The DAS was deployed on two onshore gas drilling rigs. The paper discusses the technology itself, the deployment process, implementation challenges, the agile development model, and the results achieved.
Introduction
In 2018, Schlumberger partnered with a major Middle Eastern national oil company on one of the world’s largest lump-sum, turnkey gas-well-delivery projects, where drilling operations had already been optimized by targeting high-impact, low-effort areas of opportunity.
