Approximately 50% of field development costs are related to offshore drilling and well activities, and 80% of offshore well cost is time related. Thus, the high cost of well drilling and construction is perceived as important by oil compa-nies. The expected answer to this, by the same actors, is increased autonomy of drilling operations through automa-tion and extensive use of data- and digital technologies for optimization of drilling and completion operations.

Challenges and opportunities

The main challenges in D&W are time consuming well plan-ning, high Non-Productive Time (NPT), high time-related costs, environmental footprint (especially time-related), inaccurate/insufficient measurements and challenging interpretation of the drilling data (both downhole and topside), high uncertainty about underground conditions and decision making under such uncertainty.

Current digitalization and automation solutions adopted by the industry include model-based planning and optimi-zation, monitoring and low-level automation systems, as well as human experts support (e.g. in remote support centers) with their expertise/experience and simulation software support, as shown in the figure below. Recent developments in Data analytics, Autonomy, Automation and Remote operation, Digital twins as well as Digitalized organization open significant opportunities for further improvements in efficiency, safety and reduced environ-mental footprint in D&W operations.

Research strategy

There are five research directions within digitalization and automation in D&W pursued in this program area.

Digital well planning: Well planning today is a lengthy process that includes manual iterative use of a number of models and programs for the design of the well path, hydraulic pressure loss, etc. There is considerable potential for improvement in this area, for example, by integrating this process in a digital twin-like service combining all the models and experience from prior operations.
Automated operations: In recent years we have witnessed increased automation of single functions, such as auto-mated operational limits, automatic well guards, automatic sequences, as well as a certain level of automatic process control as, for example, in MPD technology. Larger gains can be expected when building integrated systems that automate across these functions to achieve higher-level performance.
Decision support systems: Increased efficiency and safety can be achieved by automating and integrating data analytics into decision making processes in drilling and completion operations. The driller and support personnel may then focus on higher supervision-level tasks that cannot be performed by machines. For increasing streams of real-time and logged data (e.g., with the use of wired drill pipe), automated data analytics and decision support systems become a necessity.
Novel measurement methods: Data is the key component for data analytics, decision making and automation systems. Measurements data can be acquired through passive sensing from downhole and top-side sensors during ongoing operations. It can also result from active information “harvesting” as in well- and equipment testing. Both passive and active data gathering are far from exhausting their potential benefits from digital and automation technologies.
Integrated digitalized operations: For safe and efficient D&W operations, one needs to address digitalization and automation (including various levels of remote operations) not only from the technology point of view, but also from the organizational perspective that considers the human factor in the interaction between people and digital tech-nologies. Cyber security, safety of instrumented systems, human-machine interaction, and new operational models will play an essential role here.