CRITICAL ISSUES IN DRILLING & COMPLETIONS
ADNOC Drilling looks to digital
and integrated services solutions
to drive better well deliveries
Automation, decarbonization and accelerated
training programs among other key strategies
to drive efficiencies, prepare for the future
Abdulrahman Abdulla AlSeiari, CEO,
ADNOC Drilling
BY STEPHEN WHITFIELD, SENIOR EDITOR
What do you see as the biggest chal-
lenges that the global drilling industry
currently faces?
With the current situation of the drilling
business globally and in the Middle East,
the biggest challenge is the availability
of talent. It will be quite difficult for the
industry to operate without new talent.
The new energies are perhaps more attrac-
tive to them than coming into the drilling
industry. As industry leaders, we need to work on
attracting talent in our direction. That may
require us to show off some of the work
we’re doing related to technology adoption,
digitalization and other things that might
resonate more with that talent.
What is ADNOC Drilling doing to attract
new talent?
We have put a lot of investment into
different kinds of programs that allow us
to secure those people. For UAE nationals,
we have dedicated programs for develop-
ment where we’re targeting young people
for positions within the organization. One
of these programs is designed specifi-
cally for junior students, and they work
full time as a derrickhand for a mini-
mum of six months before they move
on to another position. We train them
in both theoretical and practical aspects
of different positions on the rig, and we
promote them to different positions over
the course of two to three years. They’re
assessed at each position, and we see
where they fit.
12 We have another program for gradu-
ates where we develop their competencies
until they’re good enough to become full-
fledged drillers – that’s also a three-year
program. We’re trying to capitalize on
these individuals and push them faster
up the ladder – not so fast where they
don’t gain the knowledge, but fast enough.
We’ve had guys come into our organi-
zation as roughnecks, and after going
through this training, they’re in the posi-
tion of a driller.
You mentioned showing off the work
our industry is doing with technology
and digitalization. Can you talk about
some examples of ADNOC Drilling’s
digital projects?
One example is our real-time monitor-
ing center at our headquarters, where we
see the performance of wells on a daily
basis, and we can work with our clients to
overcome any inefficiencies, or invisible
lost time, using data. It’s a win-win for
the drilling company and for the opera-
tor. We’re both benefitting from using that
information. We’re also managing some
of the oilfield service operations through
the monitoring center. That has allowed
us to reduce the number of people needed
to be onsite because we put our subject
matter experts in the center to monitor our
operations. These efforts have been focused primar-
ily on directional drilling and geosteering,
and this has helped us to realize substan-
tial efficiency improvements.
Moving on to the subject of autonomy,
what do you see as the key barriers to
achieving fully autonomous drilling?
Do you think that’s something we can
realistically achieve?
I think it is something we can achieve,
but we’re always going to require some
integration with the human on the rig.
When you’re drilling, not every hole is
going to require the same method, and you
have to interact with the well, deal with
certain issues, troubleshoot in some areas.
When we talk about offshore, there are
opportunities to automate certain process-
es. We’ve tried to do this on our jackups in
the past where we automate certain activi-
ties. It worked, but somehow it was more
inefficient than what we were doing before
because of the processes we had to work
through. Now, there are other technologies
that we have to work with, particularly with
moving pipe from the deck to the rig floor –
that’s something we can look at. With our
island rigs, we’ve done quite a lot of automa-
tion, and it’s been quite successful for us.
The biggest challenge for us has been
with land rigs. We’ve found automation
has been quite difficult for us to achieve
there, simply because we keep changing
locations every few weeks from one well
to another. We have to dismantle the rig,
move it to another location, assemble it
again . We’ve found challenges with short
circuits damaging some of the equipment
on the rig – sometimes we’d have cables
and fittings not going together, and then,
say, the top drive would short circuit and
that would cause NPT.
JAN UARY/FEB RUARY 2024 • D R I LLI N G CO N T R ACTO R
CRITICAL ISSUES IN DRILLING & COMPLETIONS
Nevertheless, I see there is a big oppor-
tunity when we’re talking about the whole
process of drilling the well. I think it’s
something we can work out, maybe get to
a point where we can have a well drilled
on autopilot but still have someone around
just in case we need to interrupt the pro-
cess or something goes wrong. That’s pos-
sible, and it doesn’t require major technol-
ogy investment.
What are some of your main consid-
erations when deciding whether to
invest in a new digital/automation
technology? Do you see that capital
discipline and cost are holding the
industry back from achieving more
technical advances?
For us to invest in anything, we have to
look at what we’re going to get out of it.
What is the end result of the investment?
We’re not just going to invest in something
and not expect to get something out of it.
Look at our investment in remote opera-
tions, which is something we can justify
and which can make our clients happy.
The payback is there. We definitely want
to go for those types of investments. But
it’s a case-by-case basis in terms of look-
ing for opportunities for investment.
Beyond remote operations, one area
where we’re really looking to invest is in
decarbonization of the rig, especially the
newbuilds. If I look at investing in electri-
fication of the rig, there’s a direct benefit:
We can stop burning diesel. There are two
elements to that – one, the net-zero ele-
ment, and two, we lower our fuel costs.
Diesel is very expensive these days. Those
are definitely things that attract us.
I know that ADNOC Drilling has already
invested significantly in reducing its
carbon footprint over the past few
years. What further efforts can the
world expect to see from your com-
pany in the next 2-5 years around
ESG? The major part for us is the engines that
we use to operate the rig. Electrification
will be a major solution for that. For the
new rigs we have coming in, it’s much
easier to incorporate the systems needed
to electrify the rigs into the design from
While ADNOC Drilling ordered 16 newbuild hybrid power land rigs in 2023, it is also
prioritizing the electrification of existing land units like Rig 52. The contractor also
continues to seek ways to achieve value through automation on land rigs, which
can be challenging due to the frequent moves involved in onshore drilling.
day one. For our existing rigs, there will be
a lot of work required. Those are going to
be focus areas for us.
Another area we’re looking at is the
amount of waste that gets created in the
drilling process. How can we manage that
waste in a way that protects our environ-
ment? That could mean thermal treatment
of the cuttings, reinjection of the cuttings or
other different ways for us to look at that.
Right now, we have 30 mobile camps for
treating wastewater, and because they’re
working in remote locations, we have to
use diesel engines to power them. We’re
looking into using solar power for those
camps. If that goes successfully, just imag-
ine having all of those camps equipped
with a solar system. On top of that, we’re
working on battery energy storage sys-
tems for our land rigs. So, there’s a com-
bination of several different technologies
that we’ll continue to work on in the near
future. As we move forward, we’re going to see
more activity. We’re going to target cer-
tain production capacities that have to be
sustained. As that happens, the amount of
ESG activity within our company is going
to increase. We want to deliver 25% emis-
sions reduction by 2030 and become net-
zero by 2045. We have to deliver.
Let’s talk about the rigs some more.
You’ve already spoken about electrifi-
cation and low-carbon systems going
on the rigs, but what upgrades to the
rig are you considering in order to
improve drilling efficiency in the near
future? To me, that is not just a question of
efficiency. It’s about improving safety on
the rig and protecting our people. We take
safety as one of our major priorities – if
there’s an area where we can invest that
makes people safer, we will not hesitate.
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