AI-driven Tech Promises to Cut Offshore Well Drilling Times, Costs, and Boost Safety

 Offshore drilling firm Transocean, on behalf of its clients Wintershall Dea and OMV, has contracted InteliWell to equip and utilize its proprietary InteliWell software on the semi-submersible drilling rig Transocean Norge.

InteliWell is a joint venture (JV) between Nekkar's subsidiary Intellilift AS, Transocean Ltd., and RigNet, Inc. a Viasat Inc. subsidiary, formed to accelerate autonomous well construction.

InteliWell says its mission is to decrease drilling times through rig automation and streamlining the well construction process using new processes and tools driven by artificial intelligence. 

"InteliWell offers a suite of applications that provide an end-to-end, closed-loop workflow for well-construction planning, execution, and monitoring." the company said.

The Transocean Norge is a harsh environment offshore drilling rig with capacity of conducting drilling operations in water depths up to 1,000 meters and a maximum drilling depth of 12,200 meters. The semi-submersible drilling rig will start a joint contract with Wintershall Dea and OMV for the drilling of 17 wells on the Norwegian continental shelf.

"InteliWell will enable more efficient and consistent execution of drilling operations, which will result in reduced drilling time and costs for both the Operators, Wintershall Dea and OMV, and Transocean. Additionally, the use of InteliWell will improve safety by reducing the need for manual work and personnel exposure in red zones on the rig floor," says Stig Trydal, Board Member of InteliWell, and Managing Director of Intellilift.

In other Transocean-related news, Transocean last week said it had recently drilled its first fully-automated hole section of a well.

The milestone, which Transocean described as significant, was achieved in the Norwegian Sea, offshore Norway.

The company used the Transocean Encourage harsh environment semi-submersible drilling rig for the operation. Read more here.

Sustained Upcycle in Offshore Drilling Space


Transocean earlier this week released its first quarter results, posting a net loss attributable to controlling interest of $465 million, contract drilling revenues of $649 million, and adjusted EBITDA was $217 million. The company's contract backlog was $8.6 billion as of the April 2023 fleet status report

"The Transocean team delivered an outstanding quarter of safe, reliable and efficient operations, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 33% on adjusted revenues of $667 million,” said Chief Executive Officer, Jeremy Thigpen

"The strong performance is the result of excellent revenue efficiency of nearly 98 percent and exemplifies our commitment to operational excellence.”

Thigpen added: "Additionally, the contracts we secured during the quarter, which were predominantly for our harsh environment fleet, complement the wave of ultra-deepwater fixtures we announced over the last several quarters, providing further evidence of a broad, sustained upcycle."

Transocean, best known for its offshore oil and gas drilling services, in April said it was looking to expand into the offshore wind sector with plans to convert some of its offshore drilling vessels into wind foundation installation vessels.Read more here.

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