The oil and gas industry faces a confluence of events never experienced in its long history: the technological innovations of the past two decades unlocked resources previously thought to be uneconomical to produce.

A tight labor market has led to higher attrition throughout the energy industry as employees are promoted or depart oil and gas outright. Meanwhile, well plans have grown increasingly complex, which results in drilling equipment being operated at its technical limit in increasing duration and frequency. Maintenance behaviors and programs were designed for conditions, which now seem tame, yet the demand for consistent performance has never been greater.

The use of data to measure, monitor and improve performance is nothing new; buzzwords like “Industry 4.0” and “Fourth Industrial Revolution” encompass broad technology offerings which can transform our decision-making processes and behaviors. These technologies include, but are not limited to, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, Digital Twins, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML). However, these technologies offer little value if not designed and deployed with the end-user in mind: the field. In a world awash with acronyms and technical jargon, one must step back and remember it’s the people that execute and deliver success, not the latest machine learning model. To address the problems mentioned above, one must understand the challenges and resultant behaviors of field teams. As drilling speed increases, our field teams are tasked with doing the same amount of -or more- work in less time. Something must give, and often that involves running strained equipment until it fails. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” remains a staple in oilfield circles and operational ethos.

As an industry, running to failure is no longer an acceptable option. Spending discipline and reservoir economics demand flawless execution and minimal budget variance. New technology will not create an epiphany into how we maintain our equipment, but it can aggregate the decades of operations and support experience distributed across the field and technical centers. Technologies like a digital twin help summarize and succinctly communicate calls to action, reducing time spent diagnosing and troubleshooting equipment. The digital twin isn’t a tool to replace thought, it’s a tool to support it. Field personnel constantly need to prioritize work, a tool that offers an intuitive visual summary of an asset’s health allows one to plan maintenance activities away from the operational critical path or act before minor component failures cascade into a major asset failures. The successful solution isn’t a technological silver bullet, but a solution which influences and changes behavior away from running equipment to failure.

Changing behavior is not only tough, its incredibly ambitious. Rig personnel adopt behaviors to perform jobs safely and efficiently, and they have decades of experience to reinforce that these behaviors deliver success. Scoping conversations build empathy and increase understanding as to how personnel make decisions in the notoriously challenging environment that is a drilling rig. As we understand how personnel make decisions, we can display data that aids these decisions. Integrating the expertise of maintenance personnel unlocks a dimension of knowledge previously inaccessible to every remote field employee, no matter how many hours maintenance managers and technicians spend on the phone or sending emails. Universal conventions, like traffic light signals, successfully summarize decades of experience and real-time sensor awareness into a simple, intuitive indicator: look at the red component, this needs your attention now.

The use of user stories focusses the development teams on an over-arching objective. Technology solutions are built (or should be) for the end user and not to be a fancy dashboard. The digital twin user story focused on the field personnel: “As a user, I want to know the health of a mud pump and what needs my attention in 30 seconds.” Feedback from the field proved invaluable, as the current deployment shares very little with the first iteration of the solution. However, the objective to reduce the burden of assessing and diagnosing mud pump health remains present. In fact, beyond the technical solution exists an infrastructure of support that converts the digital twin from fancy dashboard to impactful solution.

The digital twin solution relies on the integrated support of a remote operations center (ROC) to effectively influence and change field behavior. The logistics of deployment such as passwords, access, training and user feedback are often neglected in the design and implementation of complex solutions; after all, the hard part was writing the code, right? However, one must remember that a digital twin is just a tool. The field personnel deliver results, and the field needs support from subject matter experts that understand the dynamics of a remote drilling rig. In designing the digital twin solution, one must not only consider the information the field needs, but the information ROC personnel need to offer advanced support. Leveraging the pipeline of thousands of data points, the ROC personnel can quickly assess the health of the assets and the digital twin solution. Real-time monitoring nodes integrated into the digital twin solution help ROC teams assess battery life, internet connectivity, and complex data pipeline operations; things that need not concern the field team and don’t directly affect the operation of the assets. Without the mission control-style support of an ROC, solutions like the digital twin will fail to launch.

Digital Twins, like many Industrial 4.0 technologies, have a deserved reputation as buzzwords and lacking in substance. However, when designed and deployed with the end-user in mind, they can profoundly influence the behaviors that produce business results. The oil and gas industry faces many headwinds, some familiar and some new. However, as the industry players have shown time and again, it is a resilient lot that will embrace innovations like asset digital twins and thrive as a result.

Company Description

Precision is a leading provider of safe and environmentally responsible High Performance, High Value services to the energy industry, offering customers access to an extensive fleet of Super Series drilling rigs. Precision has commercialized an industry-leading digital technology portfolio known as “Alpha™” that utilizes advanced automation software and analytics to generate efficient, predictable, and repeatable results for energy customers. Additionally, Precision offers well service rigs, camps and rental equipment all backed by a comprehensive mix of technical support services and skilled, experienced personnel.