2026 Operational Summary

By Christine Cantera, Editorial Assistant

Government & Industry Affairs

IADC’s Government & Industry Affairs (GIA) team works to make sure the drilling industry’s perspective reaches lawmakers, regulators and other decision makers, both in the US and in the international bodies that shape offshore operations.

Face-to-face engagement with policymakers is central to that mission. IADC members returned to the nation’s capital for the 2026 IADC Washington, DC, Fly-In, held 14–16 September. Executives from member companies took part in a three-day program of small-group meetings with senators and members of Congress, discussions with senior officials on energy policy and regulatory issues, and networking with policymakers and their staff.

In January, IADC joined API and other upstream associations in submitting comments in support of the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) proposed draft program for the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program, which calls for a five-year schedule of 34 lease sales through 2031.

Outside the US, IADC staff attended the 12th session of the International Maritime Organization’s Ship Design and Construction Subcommittee during the week of 19 January. IADC helped a working group clarify safety requirements for equipment near hazardous zones on MODUs, including clearer standards for preventing explosive atmospheres during well control incidents.

Closer to home, IADC attended the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s (IPAA) 97th Annual Meeting in Colorado Springs, Colo., where attendees approved a merger between IPAA and the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance. IADC now serves on the IPAA Advisory Board, giving drilling contractors a seat at the table with operators.

DrillersPAC, IADC’s political action committee, gave members direct access to elected officials and candidates throughout the year. Activities included a Texas Congressional Candidate Forum and a luncheon with the IADC Houston Chapter, at which Texas House candidates spoke about their vision for policy that strengthens energy trade and security.

International Development

Drilling is a global business, and each region brings its own priorities. IADC’s International Development team meets them through regional representatives, chapters and direct engagement with regulators and governments.

Building relationships in person remained a priority. In August, IADC leadership toured Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to meet with members. Their stops included operators, drilling contractors and training academies in both countries. Conversations centered on personnel safety, operational efficiency, the continued need for IADC training solutions and the use of artificial intelligence.

Engagement also reached government audiences and emerging offshore markets. In March, a nine-member delegation from Cyprus visited IADC’s Houston office as part of the US Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program. The group, in exploring the theme of global energy security and economic growth, met with the IADC team to discuss promoting innovative technology and safe drilling practices.

In June, IADC representatives attended the Suriname Energy, Oil & Gas Summit. IADC met with the Staatsolie Hydrocarbon Institute, the country’s offshore regulator, to discuss how IADC’s safety orientation and accreditation programs could help build foundational safety awareness among people entering the offshore workforce.

Regional Chapters

IADC’s 15 Regional Chapters bring members together locally to share market insights, recognize safety achievements and build relationships. Throughout the year, chapters convened members around the issues that matter most in their regions.

The Southern Arabian Peninsula Chapter opened the year with a meeting at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai, where speakers covered digital transformation in crew and office travel and Middle East jackup market trends through 2027.

In Brazil, the chapter’s first General Meeting of the year took place at the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) and featured presentations from Petrobras, Shell, ANP and IADC, reinforcing the chapter’s goal of contributing to safer and more efficient offshore operations in Brazil.

Meanwhile, in July, Latin America Chapter members gathered at Noble’s Houston office for a market presentation on offshore drilling activity and the outlook for the region, a spotlight on opportunities in Argentina, and an update on a planned Uruguay and Argentina trade delegation.

Safety and workforce development remained shared priorities. In Lagos, the Nigeria Chapter’s HSE Awards & Technical Session tackled a shortage of competent drilling personnel, an aging workforce and the need for structured development programs as rig activity rises. Members were recognized for safety excellence and for taking part in the IADC Incident Statistics Program.

In Kuala Lumpur, the Southeast Asia Chapter held its fourth annual Safety Awards Gala, recognizing 2025 safety performance. The IADC Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) Student Chapter supported on-site management for the event.

Chapters also created space for relationships to grow. Nearly 70 teams took part in the North Sea Chapter’s 43rd annual golf tournament at Peterculter Golf Club in Aberdeen, Scotland. During the awards dinner, members raised and donated £3,500 to the Russell Anderson Foundation.

Student Chapters

Launched in 2017, IADC Student Chapters connect the next generation of drilling professionals with the industry through hands-on experiences and networking that complement their academic studies. Twenty chapters operate at universities and educational institutions worldwide.

Building on the success of the past two years, the IADC Student Chapter Scholarship Program again offered 20 scholarships of $5,000 each to undergraduate members of IADC Student Chapters, reflecting the association’s commitment to encouraging and empowering the next generation of industry professionals.

Industry events also gave students a window into the wider energy sector. IADC sponsored 22 students to attend India Energy Week 2026 in Goa, India, including representatives of Student Chapters at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU) and MIT World Peace University. Students set out to gain first-hand exposure to emerging technologies, explore advances in drilling automation, well control, digitalization and safety management systems, and meet industry experts and policymakers.

IADC also went to the students. This spring, IADC team members visited 11 US-based Student Chapters, from Texas A&M to Montana Technological University. Each campus visit was typically combined with a lunch-and-learn presentation with students and faculty; topics included how IADC is structured and how students can use its resources, the role of drilling professionals across the life of a project and how to build a secure financial future after graduation.

Chapters also hosted their own hands-on programs. The IADC UTP Student Chapter in Malaysia partnered with the school’s Petroleum Engineering Department on the Upstream Heroes Program, where first-year students took on an Explorace teamwork challenge and designed and built their own oil rig structures. In Saudi Arabia, the IADC King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals Student Chapter hosted an expert talk on safety management in the drilling industry and held a full-day workshop with Halliburton on AI and generative AI in drilling engineering.

In India, the IADC PDEU Student Chapter convened Drilling Weekend 2026, bringing more than 75 attendees to campus for technical engagement and real-world case analysis designed to bridge academia and industry. Jindal Drilling led a live technical case study session and awarded 41,000 Indian rupees (approximately US$428) in cash prizes to the winning teams.

Committees

IADC’s committees bring member experts together to share knowledge, develop practical guidance and organize events that serve the wider industry. Here’s a snapshot of 2026 highlights from select committees:

• Young Professionals (YP) Committee: Hosted the third annual IADC YP Summit; organized AI Literacy & Prompt Engineering Workshop at Patterson-UTI in Houston; hosted summer bowling and other networking socials.
• Advanced Rig Technology (ART) Committee: Held its annual ART Conference in Austin, Texas, in conjunction with a workshop on AI prompt engineering; hosted another edition of Spark Tank, where technology entrepreneurs and emerging companies pitched products and ideas to a panel representing a drilling contractor, an operator, a service company and a venture capital firm; issued IADC Bit and BHA Dull Grading Manual, developed by a workgroup with more than 160 volunteer experts; joined SPE’s Drilling Systems Advancement Technical Section to host a symposium exploring how to accelerate the development and implementation of automated drilling systems.
• Contracts Committee: Revised IADC Standard Equipment List for jackup rigs, last updated in 1993.

  

• Supply Chain Committee: Hosted AI Engineering & Prompt Literacy course at Patterson-UTI; launched Emerging Talent Series pairing students with industry professionals for mock interviews and career conversations; hosted networking happy hours.
• Health, Safety, Environment & Training Committee: Published IADC “Definition of a Serious Injury and Fatality,” a practical guide to help members assess and identify actual and potential serious injury and fatality (SIF) events; released Casing Operations Guidelines, developed by 24 employees of 10 member companies, to improve safety during casing operations.
• Drilling Engineers Committee: Hosted quarterly technology forums examining how AI is changing well construction and how drilling contractors are driving performance through interoperability; held a pub-based debate of managed pressure drilling (MPD) concepts and practices that was attended by more than 100 industry professionals.

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  Technical Publications Committee: Published a new book, “Well Integrity for Abandoned Well Re-entries,” which comes with case studies and tips for practical application and is now available on the IADC Bookstore.

• Geothermal Committee: Published well control guidelines for geothermal wells, the second completed section of a comprehensive Geothermal Well Drilling Guideline still under development.
• Cybersecurity Committee: Released revised Cybersecurity Guide for the Upstream Energy Sector, expanding the guide’s scope from drilling assets to the entire upstream supply chain and offering a performance-focused framework, updated standards and an industry-specific operations assessment questionnaire.

Accreditation & Credentialing

IADC’s Accreditation and Credentialing Division (ACD) works with members to develop and maintain training programs that raise safety and competence across the global drilling workforce, reflecting the needs of real-world operations. As of late September, 45 training providers had been accredited this year, bringing the total number of accredited providers to more than 600 worldwide. More than 89,000 trainees had passed an IADC-accredited course up to this point in the year.

For the 20th consecutive year, IADC’s accreditation efforts earned ISO 9001:2015 certification, a milestone that reflects the team’s commitment to quality management and continuous improvement. During this year’s two-day assessment, the team satisfied all 83 requirements without a single nonconformity, extending its record to 11 consecutive years with no findings.

The reach of IADC’s programs extended into the classroom, as well. Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU) in Malaysia became the first approved to deliver WellSharp University courses. All three students who took the exam received passing scores, becoming the first to earn WellSharp University student certifications.

Behind the scenes, work continued on the redesign of the Knowledge Retention & Education for our Workforce (KREW) system. The WellSharp Advisory Panel had identified the need to revamp KREW, including the development of IADC-owned content that raises the bar on well control knowledge retention while creating more standardized content across the industry. Drilling Systems was selected as the vendor in 2025, and throughout 2026 the panel has been working on content module development and database infrastructure and design.

In a related effort, the WellSharp Advisory Panel continued to develop the WellSharp Hybrid Learning option, and a member-led workgroup is drafting a course curriculum to be presented for an additional round of review and approval.

Communications

IADC’s Drilling Contractor magazine strives to connect industry professionals with the latest news on industry trends, technologies and other innovations. The year began with one-on-one interviews featuring executives from EQT Corp, Precision Drilling, Corva, HMH and ADES Group. AI continued to be a key theme running throughout this year’s articles, exploring things like Valaris’ real-time dashboard helping to visualize barrier degradation, H&P’s uptake of a new generation of retrofittable dual-fuel gas-blending kits, and Precision’s AI-driven component life optimization project that has predicted up to 88% of the company’s fluid end failures. The magazine also featured in-depth reports on challenges in the UK market, including the windfall tax and lack of new licenses, and how companies continue to build momentum in the South American offshore market.

Behind the scenes, IADC’s Communications team has been working on a new digital transformation project, which will be rolled out throughout 2027 and 2028 as the association pivots its communications delivery toward digital platforms instead of print. Make sure to sign up for email notifications using the link on Page 5 of this issue.

Another major focus this year was IADC’s industry messaging campaign, a reputational effort to build awareness of the critical role drilling plays in meeting global energy demand. Like so much of IADC’s work, the campaign was guided by members: a member workgroup partnered with the professional agency TRG to produce a baseline perception assessment, creative assets and strategic messaging. Members can access the materials through a dedicated online portal and use them for recruiting, onboarding, leadership communications, website content and social media. DC