CRITICAL ISSUES IN DRILLING & COMPLETIONS
organization as we do about downtime
and revenue performance.

What would you say to a young per-
son looking at this industry for a
potential career?
Seadrill is trialing novel fuel additives on its West Saturn drillship (pictured) as a
means to potentially lower the rig’s carbon footprint. Among other investments
into sustainable rig technologies in recent years, the company has also deployed
a battery power system on its West Mira semisubmersible.

the most measurable, impactful improve-
ment that we can make in our activities.

But the interesting thing about it is that a
lot of people are focusing on fuel injection
technology, engine management technol-
ogy and emissions controls like SCRs.

However, we’re finding that the biggest
bang for our buck in terms of improving
outcomes is simply to engage the people
on the rig in tweaking settings on things
like transfer pumps to reduce the ener-
gy demand to run the rig. We’re finding
smarter ways to distribute the energy on
the rig and consume less of it in day-to-
day operations.

It’s interesting that, in just the last few
years, sustainability has shifted from
being something that’s nice to have in
your portfolio to something you must
have in your portfolio.

12 That’s true. We’ve been self-reporting to
the Carbon Disclosure Project, a global dis-
closure group, on our emissions footprint
for the better part of 10 years now. The first
thing you need to do on the environmen-
tal side is measure your emissions and
start tying your activities to a measurable
improvement in what you’re doing.

But what’s more interesting about the
ESG conversation is the governance and
community aspects. They might not be as
sexy to talk about, but we’ve been doing a
tremendous amount of work in terms of
our interaction with local communities in
the countries where we work.

On the governance side, we’re continu-
ally advancing our practice in the area of
corporate compliance to ensure that we do
business in a transparent and accountable
manner. It’s all part of the triple bottom
line. We get as many questions about the
social and environmental aspects of our
What I would say to them is that we’re
in a period of energy “addition,” not “tran-
sition.” Yes, the business has shrunk, but
if we’ve learned anything from what’s
happening in Europe right now, it’s that a
diversity of energy sources is absolutely
critical to a country’s security.

We must get the young talent re-
engaged. They see us as more of a brown-
field tail-end industry rather than some-
thing that’s going to be an enduring source
of employment and professional develop-
ment into the future, and that simply isn’t
the case.

We should also tell them how we’re
applying leading-edge technologies. Some
of the technology that we’ve developed
on the maintenance side with condition-
based monitoring is being used in Formula
One today.

We’re also looking to bring in new types
of workers. The industry used to be cast
as a heroic scene of a roughneck in torn
and dirty clothing. The reality is that our
business is increasingly about equipment
that will be remotely operated. The people
who are going to be most important are
not necessarily the equipment operators
but rather the system commanders, like
data scientists. We’re mining their knowl-
edge to improve the systems that run our
business. Going forward, it’s going to be
less about big muscles and more about big
minds. What do you think will be the next step
change in reducing major accident
risk on the rig?
I think it will be a progression of phases.

The first step is to get the drilling team off
the rig floor so they will be close to, but
remote from, the equipment. The next step
is to get them off the rig and operating the
equipment from shore. The big problem
with that, up until now, has been latency,
the rate at which we can pass signals
backwards and forwards. There’s been
a big step in that with Starlink (satellite
JAN UARY/FEB RUARY 2023 • D R I LLI N G CO N T R ACTO R