Industrialization of autonomous drilling in parallel with consistent data exchange are the first topics to be adressed
The DigiWells Innovation Program is an industry-financed program that will further develop technologies from SFI DigiWells, a NORCE-led centre for Research-based Innovation. The center’s focus is on digitalizing and automating the well construction process which results in a reduced CO2 footprint in a cost-saving and safe way.
The Innovation Program is a tool to further develop, and get closer to industrialisation of the DigiWells ideas, especially within autonomous drilling including consistent and standardised exchange of data. This will be achieved through the execution of projects with annual demonstrations. Aker BP, ConocoPhillips, Equinor, TotalEnergies and Vår Energi finance the center
The explosion of automation solutions and players, which in itself is very positive, has made clear the lack of interoperability within the drilling ecosystem.
-- We work towards the "develop once - deploy everywhere"-philosophy. Our goal is to increase both interoperability, security and efficiency, and we are very excited to continue our work with our industry partners, says Erlend Vefring, centre director at DigiWells.
Board of the chair at DigiWells, Tron Golder Kristiansen from Aker BP, emphasizes that the industry needs to evolve:
-- One of the enablers to evolve, or change our industry is digitalization and the technology being developed at DigiWells, says Kristiansen.