Integrated automation technologies and proactive support network optimize drilling performance

ALF FREDVIK, TRAVIS BUTLER, BRANDT LANZET and JESSICA STUMP, NOV 

Oil and gas drilling is complex and requires precise, consistent execution of a well plan through tasks to ensure safety and wellbore quality while maximizing efficiency and minimizing environmental impact.  

As the commander of the drill floor, the driller executes tasks by following operational procedures and controlling heavy machinery through multiple screens and control devices, along with ensuring the safety of the crew. The driller also must control the drilling equipment to generate data that represent the wellbore conditions, such as friction tests and surveys, as well as conduct reaming cycles, make speed adjustments, and perform other actions to maintain well quality and integrity. This constant stream of incoming data and tasks that need attention can overwhelm the driller, especially those less-experienced.  

Automation enhances precision, reduces human error and allows real-time adjustments, enabling safer and more efficient drilling in increasingly intricate and challenging environments—longer laterals, higher pressures and temperatures, and deeper water depths. Deploying automation is a significant change and a multi-decade journey of technological stepping stones and continuous improvement for operators, drilling contractors and equipment manufacturers. As a result, scaling and increasing adoption of these advanced technologies requires collaboration among all stakeholders. 

NOV has combined full process automation, data integration and analytics with a robust support structure in land and offshore drilling operations. In addition to pioneering automated pipe-handling and drilling technologies, the company’s new proactive support service is optimizing drilling, pipe-handling and automation performance worldwide. 

CONTROLS AND AUTOMATION EVOLUTION 

Over the last 40 years, the gradual evolution of mechanization and automation in the drilling industry has been marked by continuous technological advancements that have dramatically improved safety, risk mitigation and operational efficiency.  

In the 1980s, the development of mechanized drill floor equipment, such as pipe-handling and racking systems, began to give the rig more control over the equipment. Floormen stood next to the heavy-duty machines in the red zone—exposed to the elements, as well as demanding and physically exhausting conditions—and directly controlled them with physical levers.  

By the next decade, the focus shifted from individual machine control to integrated control systems, using software to integrate and optimize machine and process control. NOV’s Cyberbase™ (Fig. 1) and Amphion™ control systems replaced manual switches and gauges with joystick controls, computer screens, and keypads. With these systems, one human could control all drilling and pipe handling equipment, as well as the active heave drawworks from a single workstation. 

Fig. 1. Cyberbase merges direct machine control, rig automation, drilling data, CCTV, and third-party information into one cohesive system deployed at the RISE™ driller’s workstation.

The systems enabled the drill floor commander to focus on drilling, tripping, and stand-building processes by providing an intuitive and efficient rig floor command center in the driller’s cabin. Touchscreens and network architecture allowed the driller to supervise and control all drilling-related functions, streamline operations, ensure reliability and uptime, and reduce the potential for human error. 

PROCESS EXECUTION OPTIMIZATION 

As drilling operations became increasingly more intricate, operators and drilling contractors demanded more advanced and comprehensive control systems that enhance safety, optimize performance, and mitigate operational risks. In response, NOV took a more proactive approach and turned its focus to process automation, augmenting drill floor automation with drilling efficiency tools and applications to increase consistency.  

One of the most time-consuming—typically 30%—and risk-prone activities on the drilling rig, pipe handling requires constant attention from the entire crew. Drillers must safely and efficiently pass tubulars between various pieces of heavy equipment with their own interlocks, tracking their location from several places on the rig and the order both into and out of the well. Simultaneously, they must also navigate multiple screens, alerts, and messages, and have the situational awareness of both crew safety and data coming from the wellbore. 

NOV developed the Multi Machine Control (MMC) system to automate pipe tripping and stand-building processes for drill pipe and casing. By allowing MMC to execute the manual, repetitive slip-to-slip (S2S) sequences for tripping, drilling connections, stand building, casing building, and riser running, the operator can focus fully on the process and other critical tasks. This enhanced focus improves both the safety and efficiency of the operations while the operator controls the overall speed and execution. With MMC, one operator controls all the machines with a single joystick.  

Soon after, the introduction of the NOV operating system (NOVOS™), the industry’s first reflexive drilling system (Fig. 2), marked a major technological stepping-stone in the drilling automation journey. A reflexive drilling system is designed to perform a series of actions when prompted, just as the human reflex responds to a specific stimulus.  

Fig. 2. NOVOS integrates advanced automation, data analytics, and control systems to enhance drilling efficiency, safety, and reliability.

This operating system serves as a link between machine and process control to ease the burden on the driller, resulting in safer and more efficient well construction. Sitting on top of the rig’s base-level control system, NOVOS uses an imported well plan that details desired drilling parameter ranges, performing planned operations until total depth is reached. Naturally, this level of control and consistency leads to improved drilling performance throughout the well’s lifecycle, regardless of driller experience levels.  

By managing hardware (rig equipment and sensors) and software (control system and applications), NOVOS provides a common platform for the control, monitoring, scheduling and optimization of drilling operations. It allows drillers to automate repetitive drilling activities, including coming off and going on bottom, friction tests, downlinking, taking surveys, and making fully hands-free offshore connections. The result is greater consistency, with every driller—regardless of the individual experience level—able to achieve the same improved performance, time and time again. Greater consistency also reduces nonproductive time (NPT) and wear and tear on drill bits, drill pipe and other equipment.  

Currently running on more than 140 land and offshore drilling rigs worldwide, NOVOS structures data and defines activities that enable engineers to develop lessons learned and apply/scale best practices across rig fleets and regions.  

Moreover, this open, secure and versatile platform integrates core, enhanced and third-party applications for drilling optimization, dysfunction mitigation, pressure management and directional drilling. This adaptability and interoperability enable drilling contractors and operators to customize their operations to specific needs, thereby improving wellbore quality, reducing downtime and lowering operational costs.  

One notable application, the M/D Totco™ KAIZEN™ intelligent drilling optimizer, uses continuous learning capabilities and artificial intelligence to proactively mitigate drilling dysfunction, maximize the rate of penetration (ROP), and optimize mechanical specific energy. It continuously assesses drilling performance, based on current wellbore conditions and offset well data, recognizing environmental changes to adjust weight-on-bit and revolutions per minute setpoints. 

Recently, NOV introduced AURA,™ a solution for automating and digitizing the driller’s view. By consolidating multiple screens into a single customizable screen, the system displays data and visuals from multiple sources, as needed, for each specific operation, such as digital well plans, downhole simulations, red zone monitoring, CCTV, and key performance indicators (KPI). It also enables the information to be visualized in the driller’s chair, as well as on workstations around the rig and onshore.  

PROACTIVE SUPPORT AND DATA ANALYTICS 

Deploying automation technologies offers clear benefits but presents several challenges for drilling contractors and operators. Key hurdles include integrating new technologies into existing rig infrastructure and control systems, which requires careful retrofitting and assessment to ensure compatibility with current workflows and equipment and minimize operational disruptions. 

In addition, comprehensive training and upskilling of rig crews are necessary, as these technologies demand different skills and knowledge, compared to conventional methods. Ensuring that rig crews can effectively operate, monitor and maintain these automation systems is crucial for leveraging their full potential. Collaboration and accountability between rig crews, technology providers and operators are essential for continuous performance improvement.  

In late 2022, NOV created a proactive support service for drilling automation. As part of its Automation Lifecycle Management program, the Performance Center (Fig. 3) specializes in drilling and pipe-handling operations, providing remote support and performance recommendations through data analytics. This expertise helps drilling contractors and operators gain better insights, become more efficient, and achieve and sustain higher levels of operational performance.  

Fig. 3. The Performance Center, a proactive support service, focuses on drilling and pipe-handling operations optimization through data analytics.

By monitoring the drilling processes, equipment and data from the micro KPI level, this data analytics group can make predictions and recommendations in real time, based on small movements in operations.  

The Performance Center, with teams in Houston, Norway and the UK, also plays a major role in fostering transparency, collaboration and accountability between NOV, the rig crew and the operator. Implementing a unified, one-team approach enables a clear understanding of deliverables and goals, which helps improve, achieve and sustain drilling, pipe-handling and automation performance.  

More than 20 land and offshore rigs are currently enrolled in the Performance Center, as well as using NOV’s automation technologies. For many rigs, this combination has, and continues to produce, significant operational improvements, including setting weight-to-weight (W2W) and S2S connection time records. 

A land rig in Alaska’s North Slope enrolled in the Performance Center in mid-2023. After joining, the rig crew utilized NOVOS more consistently while the average W2W time declined throughout 2023 and into 2024. By May 2024, the rig achieved its fastest W2W time of 10.79 minutes, roughly 26% faster year-over-year. 

In addition, after subscribing to the Performance Center in April 2023, a drillship offshore Guyana using NOVOS also experienced an average W2W time decline throughout 2023. And only five months after joining, the rig recorded its fastest W2W time of 7.86 minutes—so far. In the North Sea, a semisubmersible, enrolled in the Performance Center since 2022, achieved a record W2W average record of 3.14 minutes. 

Meanwhile, since enrolling in the Performance Center in December 2023, a drillship using MMC continues to result in faster average S2S trip-in and trip-out speeds. Its average S2S trip-in speed improved by nearly 30%, while the average S2S trip-out improved by more than 22%. Moreover, one notable trip-in of 112 stands resulted in a rate of 2,010 ft/hr, with an average S2S time of about 117.3 seconds (1.95 minutes). And a trip-out of 53 stands resulted in a rate of 2,900 ft/hr, with an average S2S time of about 99.13 seconds (1.65 minutes). 

Finally, the combination of NOVOS, the Kaizen drilling optimization application, and the Performance Center empowered a land rig in the Middle East to deliver efficient and fully optimized connections and optimal drilling performance. The drilling automation platform enabled an average 68% reduction in connection steps per stand. Using NOVOS and Kaizen, the drilling contractor and operator set new records in every hole section, resulting in a 52% gross ROP increase and a 34% time savings compared to offsets and plans.  

CONCLUSION 

Drilling control systems and rig automation enhance the driller's command over robust drill floor equipment, enhancing safety while empowering more informed decision-making. By orchestrating the drill floor machinery and equipment, automation and software control systems enable the driller to focus on more critical tasks and processes and ensure the safety of the rig crew, ultimately reducing NPT, invisible lost time and operational costs.  

NOV’s proactive approach to drilling automation integrates control systems, technologies and data-driven insights that not only foster more consistent performance and predictable drilling outcomes but also meet today’s and tomorrow’s essentials. 

As the drilling automation journey advances and the deployment and consistent utilization increases across the industry, NOV will remain at the forefront, leveraging its comprehensive technology, expertise and global support network to enable safer, more efficient and sustainable drilling operations. 

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ALF FREDVIK is a product line director at NOV with a background in problem-solving and engineering solutions across various industries. He is passionate about technology’s transformative power, exploring ways to enhance rig execution quality, automate for safety and efficiency, and reduce emissions. 

TRAVIS BUTLER is the operations manager for NOV’s Aftermarket Performance and Data Services organization. He joined NOV in 2014 as part of the Installation and Commissioning team, then moved into drilling automation, where he has led various roles in the development and support of the NOVOS automation system. Mr. Butler also led the development of the Aftermarket Performance Center. He holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Texas State University.   

BRANDT LANZET is the product line manager for Automation at NOV. Having joined the energy industry in 2013, he has worked for service companies, drilling contractors, and OEMs, deploying, implementing, designing, and developing drilling automation technologies. Mr. Lanzet holds a B.Sc. degree in geophysics from Virginia Tech. 

JESSICA STUMP is a senior writer at NOV. She has written about the energy industry for more than 13 years. Jessica has a journalism degree from Texas Tech University.