Industry leaders focus on building more automated, less capital-intensive future
By Linda Hsieh, Editor & Publisher
Capital discipline, implementation of automation and digitalization technologies, and improving drilling and completion performance were top-of-mind issues with industry executives we interviewed for this year’s “Critical Issues in Drilling & Completions” Q&As.
In today’s market, operators, drilling contractors and service companies alike are searching for ways to drive continuous performance improvement. Especially amid the industry’s focus on capital discipline, automation and digitalization technologies are fast becoming indispensable tools in that journey.
“The future here is going to be a lot less capital intensive. It’s not going to be building new rigs. It’s going to be improving the rigs that we currently have,” said Tyson Seeliger, VP of Eastern Hemisphere Operations at Nabors Industries. He likened the effort to upgrading a personal computer, rather than buying a brand-new one: “It’s like if you were upgrading your computer, you could just go down and buy a new input, or we could buy maybe some more RAM and some more memory and make it better.”
Of course, alongside technology, talent retention remains another key ingredient to efficient and safe performance at the well site. “For us, keeping the same people on location working together is like keeping a symphony orchestra together,” said Hunter Landers, Senior VP of Completions at Diamondback Energy. “There are 10 or 20 providers out there at any given time working together to make it all work as one, so it’s very important that everybody is used to working together and knows each other’s moves.”
Upskilling that workforce will be key, as well, with industry leaders noting that they don’t see the importance of the human element diminishing even as operations become more automated. “From an automation perspective, the skill sets that we need may change,” said Zach Wilbur, Senior VP – Operations Support at NexTier Completion Solutions. “Perhaps we will need more people focused on digital, software and electrical, but we are using the people we have today and are training them to get there. We’re putting in those training programs so they can evolve their careers along with us as our company evolves.”
The evolution of our industry will require not only changes in technology and workforce skills, but also mentality changes, in order to properly incentivize all sectors of the drilling industry to equally push for innovation.
“I think we all need the mindset of creating more value and developing a model that allows us to share more of that value for the benefit of all,” said Alen Corak, VP of Well Construction Technology Delivery at SLB. “That means we should be willing to try different models, whatever they might be, to create win-win outcomes for all of us.” DC
