Adapting Digital Environment to Sustain Operations Remotely

Oil and gas remote operations (RO) enabled by automation and digital solutions are reducing the number of people required to work in the wellsite;many subject matter experts can now complete their daily tasks from the safety of the office in town. We have been transitioning to these new ways of working for some time, and the progress has been greatly accelerated to help ensure business continuity for customers during COVID-19 restrictions, allowing high numbers of wellsite operatives the freedom to work from home. For the Oil & Gas companies that have experimented with more technology, the results have been incredible. Digital transformation has finally hit the industry and it's taking off to meet sustainable goal of upstream companies, this transformation is one such measure by which these goals can be approached. Despite the global availability of technology to handle analytical task from a safe distance, substantial drilling activities have been carried out traditionally across globe. Such traditional drilling operations were carried out in Thailand where client and SLB work together in fast paced factory drilling environment where an oil well can drill and complete within 7 days for 2 strings (2-sections only) 2400-2600 m in onshore operation which requires experienced people to monitor and execute tasks. To support such operation from town i.e., remotely with systematic monitoring by skilled people, one requires to adapt digitization. This paper demonstrates the ability of SLB to adapt the digital environment by introducing "Remote Operation Center" setup enabling to help client achieve their sustainable goals within budget and provided an alternate solution to sustain operations in COVID-19 pandemic. Remote Operations is the ability to operate a system or a machine at a distance;one can handle multiple operations from a safe environment of office in town using technology. It unfolds analytical task & physical task;the former is handed over to Remote Operation Center and physical task is left at rig crew. The Remote Operation Center execute both Directional Drilling (DD) and Measurement & Logging While Drilling (MLWD) services at the well site, from town. Executing Directional Drilling Remote Operation was more challenging. RO moves industry towards future and pushes all other traditional players to work on sustainable goals while adapting to digital environment. On site presence of crew was reduced by 50% while maintaining same pace of operations with better data analysis. Copyright 2023, Society of Petroleum Engineers.

Remote Operations and Digital Transformation: A Solution for Business Continuity During Covid-19 Pandemic

Mubadala Petroleum conducts a fast-paced drilling program in the Gulf of Thailand, where rapid response resolutions are often required. This paper demonstrates the Remote Operation (RO) approach, which is an integrated approach comprised of people, software, network, and technology to transform operations, and moves analytical activities to safer office-based environments (Figure 1). The approach provides a high level of performance, leveraging global domain expertise, real-time collaboration, data visualization techniques, and intelligent planning within the restrictive context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Copyright © 2022, Offshore Technology Conference.