The Opportunities and Hurdles to Bringing Digitization to Offshore Drilling

IMC-2019 Learning Session 45:10 Minutes

by Timothy White, Valaris

No one will argue that the hottest technology to be introduced to industry in recent times is that of digitalization. This approach to monitoring our assets certainly comes with a new list of its own terms and acronyms as well, things like Digital Twin, IIoT, OPC, AI, etc. This digital disruption began in areas such as media and entertainment, retail and banking before making its way into our workplaces. Ironically, even though Upstream Oil and Gas has been a slower adopter of this technology, studies have shown that we stand to benefit more than any other industry. 

At Ensco, we made the decision to be the disruptor, rather than one of the many disrupted in offshore drilling. This doesn’t come without its own set of challenges. The Oil and Gas industry has been experiencing an extreme downturn over the last four years; one that many argue has been the worst our industry has ever seen. In addition, older assets often do not have the inherent technology required for data collection which adds to the costs for implementation. Furthermore, cybersecurity is at the forefront of many IT departments’ minds, adding to the complications of connecting control systems that were never designed to see the open internet. Entering our 3rd year of implementation, Ensco has approached these hurdles head on and solutions were developed through focused planning and IT/OT collaboration. This presentation will discuss many of those hurdles, how they were overcome, and the benefits realized from our digitalization journey utilizing our Ensco Predictive Intelligence Center. (EPIC System)