the digital cavalry for the oil and gas industry is coming - the world's first digital drilling vessel is released

According to an information from GE's official website, GE and its partner Nobel Corporation jointly launched the world's first digital drilling vessel on Thursday. The goal of the digital drilling vessel is to reduce the operating costs of the target equipment by 20% Failure warning issued before month to improve drilling efficiency (learn more about high efficiency procurement platform for oil and gas click here).

Digital transformation has long been a new term, but the oil and gas industry has not yet widely accepted it until after the oil price downturn in the past few years, digitization has gradually attracted more attention. Today, people are more keen on pursuing higher profits than high volumes, and digitization is one of the tools. The birth of the world's first digital drilling vessel is a solid step forward in exploring and releasing the potential of digitizing at sea.

The world's first digital drilling rig

Well-known drilling contractor Nobel Corporation of GE and the oil and gas industry unveiled the world's first digital drilling vessel this Thursday. Powered by GE's Predix Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform, this digital drilling vessel solution is currently deployed on Noble Globetrotter I drilling vessels. GE said the digital rig is connected to all target control systems, including the drilling control network, power management system, and dynamic positioning system.

Data is collected by a single sensor and control system centered on the drilling vessel and sent in real time to GE's Industrial Performance and Reliability Center for predictive analytics. General Electric said its digitized rig and Predix SeaStream have captured "multiple anomalies and alerted two months ago about potential failures," he said.

"The potential of digitization will go beyond a single vessel and open the door to changing our fleet." The Data Backbone paves the way for automatic drilling, and digital technology is fueling a new era of unprecedented drilling and asset performance improvements. " Bernie Wolford, Noble's senior vice president, said in a press release.

The two companies said they will soon begin analyzing real-time data on the edge of the device for performance improvements and asset intelligence localization. The remaining three "target vessels" were planned to be digitized and optimized at the beginning of this year.

Who will win？

In fact, as early as March 2017, GE and Nobel Corporation have partnered to collaboratively develop digital drilling solutions that are designed to drive data-driven operational efficiencies through the use of data analytics. In a partnership with GE, David W. Williams, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Noble Corporation plc, said that as the market moves, the offshore oil and gas industry is at the cusp of change. Drilling contractors must seize the opportunity to improve their competitive edge. "We believe the shift to data-driven decision-making will have a significant impact on drilling efficiency, and our industry must embrace the digital revolution to remain efficient and flexible, while Noble is the leader."

Andy McKeran, General Manager of GE Ocean Solutions said, "We are in a unique position to work with Noble, from drilling operations to plant know-how and software analysis skills, to synergizing and driving the overall transformation of the offshore oil and gas industry. An important step forward in realizing our vision of a more digital future for ocean operations. "

Prior to this, GE collaborated with Maersk on a digital rig in 2016. Following the successful completion of the 12-month pilot work on Maersk's XLE drilling rig, in July 2017, GE again took the lead in Maersk and expanded its collaboration to extend digitization to nine rigs and reduce platform operating costs by 20%.

On the road to digitization in the oil and gas industry, it is well known that GE is not alone. Digitalization has not yet fully mature to become a full revolution in the upstream oil and gas industry, but it will become. Digitization has the power to help the industry get the most out of its boom times while avoiding serious damage in hard times. At the same time, the oil and gas industry is beginning to fully recognize the power of digitization and more and more upstream companies are racing to seize the opportunity to take full advantage of digital technology. The cautious International Energy Agency (IEA) also predicted last year that digital technology will cut oil production costs by 10% -20%.

As with any revolution, avant-garde people may do better than those who are conservative. In this revolution, oil and gas companies will be tomorrow's winners by leveraging sustainable digitalization to increase efficiency.

As Deloitte, a consulting firm, put it in the 2018 Energy Outlook: "The digital age seems to have developed faster and faster than our previous industrial revolution, with winners and losers spontaneously coming in. Willingness to innovate and invest regardless of global trends in demand and supply Of companies can play their tremendous value and remain financially secure, so digital cavalry is coming, but it may not save everyone - saving only those who have the courage to accept it. "