THE AUTOMATED DRILLER’S con-soles and pipe handling capabilities thatbegan appearing in the North Sea as ameans to increase worker safety arenow being used in virtually every area ofthe world, both offshore and onshore.

Now the equipment is increasing drillingefficiency as well as resulting in saferoperations by removing much of thehuman interaction in many of thedrilling operations. Equipment manu-facturers have made great strides injust the past couple of years to expandthe capability of the systems andincrease reliability as well.

Many of the automation breakthroughsoccurred in the past two years, however,the industry has made attempts at vari-ous levels of automation for nearly 20years. It has been only relatively recent-ly that the equipment has become moreindustry accepted.

Automated drilling equipment manufac-turers can provide such differentiatingservices as monitoring their specificequipment from shore to help analyzeand maintain it. One pipe handling sys-tem manufacturer claims its new system

can make up and break out stands ofpipe during tripping at the rate ofalmost one stand per minute.

When automated and mechanized pipehandling capabilities were introduced,most of the rig automation was focusedaround getting manpower off the rigfloor and away from the drilling opera-tion. This was especially importantwhen moving pipe and other tubularsfrom a horizontal position on the rig to avertical position in the derrick when thetubulars are actually in use.

Most of that effort was pushed by theoffshore market and primarily by opera-tors working offshore Norway inresponse to specific safety and manningguidelines aimed at reducing the num-ber of workers on the rig floor.

As the technology has proven itself andbecome less expensive, it has found itsway to drilling operations in less costlydrilling installations in other areas suchas the Gulf of Mexico and on land rigs.

A R E A U T O M AT E D R I G S N E C E S S A R Y ?

Atwood Oceanics has taken a plug andplay approach to automated drillingoperations in their jackup rig currentlybeing built, the Atwood Beacon. Thecompany has an automated Driller'scabin to be installed that is ready toaccept pipehandling equipment. Howev-er, the company is not presently plan-ning to install automated equipmentuntil a client requests it.

"We have everything set up in the con-trol system," said Alan Quintero,Atwood Oceanics' Manager of Engineer-ing. "The derrick and foundation aredesigned for it, we have everythingready to go, but we have not purchasedthe equipment."

"We will not have anything automatedon the rig floor to make up and break uppipe, it will be done manually," Mr Quin-tero continued. "We don't have a piperacking machine and we don't have the(automated) equipment to bring the pipefrom the pipe rack to the rig floor."

The primary reason for this is a directcomparison that Atwood was able tomake several years ago between a rigwith automated equipment and one thatwas completely manual. Two platform

rigs were operating in the Bass Straitoffshore Australia. They were operatingfor the same client, drilled similar wellsand were run out of the same operationsbase.

Rig 19 was a completely manual opera-tion while Rig 200 included a then state-of-the-art star racker machine, ironroughneck and automated Driller'scabin.

"Rig 19 was doing as well or better insuch things as time to trip pipe," MrQuintero noted.

"Drilling itself is not where the advan-tages of the automated equipment comein," he continued. "You drill at whateverspeed the formation and weight on bitand hydraulics allow you to drill."

"It is in the flat spots of the drilling curvethat automated equipment is supposedto be more efficient, however, we weretripping pipe as efficiently or more effi-ciently with Rig 19 as we were with Rig200."

While safety is a factor touted with auto-mated equipment, Mr Quintero pointsout that both Rig 19 and Rig 200 hadperfect safety records. "We find thatwhat really impacts safety performanceis safety systems, training and what wecall a safety culture," Mr Quintero said."That has a more direct impact on per-formance than automated equipment ."

S A F E T Y F I R S T

The focus on automated drilling systemsas a means to increase safety hasoccurred only during the past half dozenor so years.

The Norwegian companies were drivingsafety rather than pure economics withautomated pipe handling systems. Whenthe first systems were installed on theNorth Sea rigs and platforms, contrac-tors and operators rarely realized pro-jected operational efficiencies.

Safety has become a high priority, espe-cially in the past few years.

”I don’t believe we would have seen a lotof these systems sold purely on safetyuntil during the last year and a half,”said David Reid, Vice President of Mar-keting and Business Development forVarco.

12 D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R September/October 2002

Automated systems increase safety and efficiency

Automated Driller’s consoles such as this oneon GlobalSantaFe’s drillship Glomar Celtic Seaenable the Driller to monitor all facets of thedrilling operation

“Safety has become a large enoughissue today that it is resulting in the useof the systems on middle range jackupsand even land rigs.”

“There are various stages of pipe han-dling throughout the drilling operationsthat are very human intensive,” saidJason Whyte, New Product Implemen-tation Manger for National Oilwell.

“That is where a lot of the accidentsoccur and that’s where we have focuseda lot of our development in the past fewyears.”

Mr Whyte said that drilling efficiency isalso a factor in pipe handling with theability to trip in and out of the well anddrill faster with an automated systemcompared with a manual system.

However, once the manual tasks of pipehandling are eliminated and a machineis allowed to perform those tasks, thenan element of risk is removed.

“Safety is the reason why contractorsbuy pipe handling equipment,” saidDanny McNease, President and COOfor Rowan Companies.

“That’s the reason Rowan buys it, and Ithink if you really get down to it thatwould be the reason why other contrac-tors buy the equipment.”

“With this equipment you don’t haveworkers coming into contact with slipsand tongs,” Mr McNease continued. “Ithink about 54% of our accidents hap-pen around the drill floor, so if you caneliminate one accident, that has a bigeffect on your accident rate.”

Still, Mr McNease doesn’t forget the effi-ciency resulting from pipe handlingequipment. The company drilled 33wells deeper than 15,000 ft since April2001, according to Mr McNease.

“That efficiency has improved as welearn how to drill deep wells and (pipehandling equipment) has made it costeffective to drill. That’s the only waysome operators can drill these wells.”

Mr McNease noted that a deep wellcould cost $12 million to drill a few yearsago but the cost is now around half thatamount due to greater operational effi-ciency resulting from automated pipehandling equipment.

R E D U C I N G N U M B E R O F P E O P L E

Automated drilling operations increasesafety since it reduces the number ofworkers on the rig floor. That doesn’tnecessarily mean the total crew comple-ment will be lower because of thesemachines, however.

On the contrary, some contractors havefound that while most or all of the rigfloor hands are eliminated, they some-times end up with more workers, ormore expensive workers.

“One thing I have learned with thesethings,” said John Vecchio, Senior VicePresident of Technical Services for Dia-mond Offshore, “is I never have seen ususe fewer people on the rig with theautomated systems.”

“Even if you eliminate four floor hands,you need an assistant driller, another

14 D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R September/October 2002

person that is a computer operator, anelectronics technician and others.”

“You end up with the same number ofpeople,” Mr Vecchio added, “but nowthey are more expensive people.”

GlobalSantaFe has automated Driller’scabins and pipehandling equipment on anumber of its rigs, including a couple ofjackups under construction in Singa-

pore that were inherited with the merg-er of Santa Fe Drilling. These will havehorizontal piperacking systems.

But in Global SantaFe’s situation, thatdoesn’t mean fewer people on the rigfloor.

“The automated equipment doesn’t nec-essarily reduce the number of hands onthe rig floor,” said Marion Woolie,

Senior Vice President of Operations forGlobalSantaFe, and IADC Secretary-Treasurer.

”It reduces where the hands put theirhands on the rig floor.”

I N C R E A S E D R E L I A B I L I T Y ?

Reliability of the automated Driller’sconsole and the pipe handling equip-ment has increased significantly sinceserial number 001, but which segment ofthe technology is more reliable is up todebate.

Rowan Companies’ experience is thatthe automated Driller’s console is reli-able and if anything is going to causeproblems it is the pipe handling equip-ment.

Diamond Offshore, on the other hand,apparently has experienced more prob-lems with the computer equipment thanwith the mechanical equipment.

“Pipe handlers, rackers and skates aremore of an extension of existing tech-nology,” Mr Vecchio said. “There weresome headaches (with the equipment)but they were not as major as in the con-trolling system in the Driller’s console.”

“It was a quantum leap in technology,”Mr Vecchio continued, “and the comput-er aided controls have not had a longtime to develop.”

Mr Vecchio says the problem was a com-bination of the long drought of activity inthe industry that led to a hiatus inresearch and manufacturing coupledwith the extreme upswing in demand todrill more deepwater and deep, morecomplex wells.

“The equipment became larger andmore difficult for people to manage plusthere was an increased awareness insafety at all levels,” Mr Vecchio said.

“Basically, there was a demand forequipment to be delivered in anextremely short time and an obligingvendor core. It went from concept tosales without development.”

“The testing was the first units deployedto the field,” Mr Vecchio said.

Still, Mr Vecchio is not completelyagainst automation. “There are bene-fits, and the equipment is getting bet-ter,” he said. “The last installation wedid had a pretty easy startup.”

16 D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R September/October 2002

He said while it still is expensive, thehands-free type of equipment is safer,and it doesn’t take eliminating manyaccidents to make up an expense whenviewed from an economic standpoint.

Rowan Companies’ experience has beenthat if there are going to be problems itwill more likely be with the mechanizedpipe handling equipment.

“The controls have been pretty reli-able,” said A J Ortiz, Project Engineerfor the Tarzan Class rigs for RowanCompanies. “It’s been the mechanicalequipment that is subject to break-down.”

“If it’s a piece of equipment that’s liftingheavy pipe and it has to grab the pipeand move it around, that wears on pinsand clamps,” Mr Ortiz said. “You getenough wear on it and it takes only onepiece to break and the entire system isdown.”

Mr Ortiz also noted that an advantage ofthe pipe handling system being separatefrom the drilling system is that if thepipe handling equipment malfunctions,it can be shut down and those opera-tions can be performed in the tradition-al fashion, i.e., manually.

While Rowan says it has had little prob-lem with the Driller’s console, the com-pany does include a familiar piece ofequipment should problems occur thatshuts down the automated drilling sys-tem.

“We have the traditional brake handle incase something does happen,” saidEddie Robertson, Operations Engineerfor Rowan Companies. “This covers usso we can at least get out of the hole.”

“A lot of the contractors don’t includethe brake handle,” Mr Robertson said.“From what I understand, we are theonly contractor that wanted the old reli-able brake.”

“Most of the other contractors wanted toget away from (the brake) so they cansay they have an automated state-of-the-art drilling system,” Mr Robertsoncontinued.

“We wanted to say that, too, but in casesomething happens we want to be ableto (drill) the old fashioned way.”

Rowan says, however, that reliabilityhas improved, and Mr McNease pin-

points increased reliability primarily onbetter software.

“Reliability has improved because therehave been major advances in the soft-ware,” Mr McNease said. “There wereproblems with the software and duringthe past two years the software hasbeen re-written for the pipe racking sys-tem.”

Previously, Mr McNease said, softwarewas designed to interface the threemotors that operated the pipe rackingsystem.

This meant that if there was interfer-ence or noise in the system, it couldaffect all three motors. The equipmentmanufacturers re-designed the systemso one set of software operates onemotor, eliminating interference from theother motors.

“That solved basically all of the electri-cal problems,” Mr McNease said.

The other issue the manufacturersimproved was with service loops,

according to Mc McNease. These electri-cal loops were re-designed, resulting inlonger life.

DEVELOPMENTS IN AUTOMATED SYSTEMS

There have been several new develop-ments in increasing the efficiency andsafety of automated pipe handlingequipment and the monitoring andmaintenance of that equipment.

Maritime Hydraulics now offers a pipehandling system that is so automatedthat it can be preprogrammed to per-form sequential operations.

The Driller needs only to confirm thatthe operations have been performed.Rowan Companies is considering theuse of such a system on its newbuildTarzan Class jackups targeted for shal-low water deep drilling in the Gulf ofMexico.

Varco recently introduced a land-basedremote equipment monitoring and diag-nostic system that provides its productexperts on a 24/7 basis worldwide. And

September/October 2002 D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R 17

National Oilwell’s newly launchedHAWK suite of applications access anddistribute information to and fromdrilling facilities and transfers it to theappropriate location via the Internet.

The first Maritime Hydraulics’ automat-ed programmable pipe handling systemwill be installed this year on BP’s Val-hall field platform offshore Norway.

To operate the system, the Driller wouldchoose the trip in sequence, for exam-ple. Instead of running the drawworks,top drive, pipe handling and slips in sep-arate operations, it is all prepro-grammed.

The Driller merely confirms everythingvisually and indicates that the sequencehas been performed. Even the optimalweight on bit is preprogrammed.

“There will be people in the Driller’scabin but there will be absolutelynobody on the drill floor,” said ArntLauen, Technical Sales Manager forMaritime Hydraulics in Houston.

“It will be completely hands off for strictNorth Sea and BP requirements.”

“BP has tried to lift the standards,” MrLauen said. “The hands-off portion ofthe system comes from Norwegian safe-ty requirements, but BP has tried toraise the bar on control systems andautomation.”

The system is dubbed the ConfigurableAutomatic Drilling System(CADS). Maritime Hydraulicsprograms the various sequen-tial operations working withthe contractor and operator.

The system also includesoffline stand building with anadvanced collision avoidancesystem to prevent interferencewith other operations. TheIron Roughneck is on aturntable to serve both themousehole and well center.

Another new feature is theautomatic E-Tally®. This is ameasuring and recording sys-tem keeping track of all tubu-lars going in and out throughthe V-door and down-hole. Thesystem measures and recordsthe type of tubular, size andlength, position in set-back ordrillstring and even how manytimes and at which torque thetool joints have been made up.

Redundancies in the CADSabound. The Driller’s andAssistant Driller’s chairs areidentical so if one chair mal-functions, the other chair andcomputer can take over thedrilling operations.

Pushbuttons and switches typ-ically seen in an automated Driller’scabin are eliminated and replaced withtouch screens that can be configured inany manner.

There is a manual fallback with the pipehandling system.

“BP wanted to have a manual fallbackso the fingerboards and racking systemare set up to allow the monkey board tobe folded down to manual operationshould that be required,” Mr Lauen said.

“Additionally, all of the computer andcontrol systems can be bypassed andthe floor hands can go back to manually

operating the drawworks, top drive andpipe handling separately.”

Because everything is optimized, andthe operation does not depend upon theDriller to choose when to perform differ-ent functions, tripping time on the rig isextremely quick, up to 55 stands perhour. That’s a much higher rate thanproven available in the industry today,according to Mr Lauen.

“We have taken the operation anotherstep with sequencing and have beenable to greatly improve upon trippingtimes as a result,” Mr Lauen said.

Varco’s e-drill service is the industry’sfirst system for remotely monitoring anddiagnosing their equipment on rigs any-where in the world. It is available 24/7and Varco in fact guarantees that it canput rig personnel in touch with a Varcotechnician in less than an hour from ini-tial contact.

Data is accessed directly from intelli-gent systems built into Varco equipmentto maximize the performance of theequipment such as top drives, pipe rack-ing systems and V-ICIS controls.

With the monitoring system, rig person-nel have access to a database ofarchived solution information, trendreports, event records, rig activity sur-veys, training aids and call logs. Infor-mation can be shared among rigs.

The goal is to achieve optimal drillingperformance while preventing minor dif-ficulties growing into downtime events.Should a problem be identified, a Varcoe-drill technician will contact the rig toanalyze, troubleshoot or advise a main-tenance operation.

Transocean’s drillship Discoverer DeepSeas was the first offshore rig to useVarco’s e-drill to monitor, analyze andhelp maintain drilling equipment.

A four-month pilot program saved therig several hours of downtime, accord-ing to Transocean. As a result of thepilot program Transocean has addedseven more of its ultra-deepwater rigs tothe service.

The rigs to be connected with e-drill areDiscoverer Spirit, Discoverer Enter-prise, Cajun Express, Deepwater Nau-tilus, Deepwater Horizon, DeepwaterPathfinder and Deepwater Millennium.

18 D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R September/October 2002

The Assistant Driller abaord GlobalSantaFe’s drillship C RLuigs operates the pipe racking machine.

Helmerich & Payne drove the conceptoriginally for their new fast moving landrigs and have a number of their rigsmonitored by Varco’s e-drill system,according to Mr Reid, including one ofH&P’s rigs in Argentina.

“We have a dedicated facility in our M/DTotco facility in Cedar Park, Texas, tomonitor and support the H&P land rigs,”Mr Reid said.

Varco originally planned to open e-drillcenters in Singapore and Aberdeen aswell as Houston but decided to utilizeonly the Houston location since it ismanned around the clock.

National Oilwell’s HAWK suite of moni-toring applications is designed to simpli-fy the way the Driller monitors thedrilling operation.

“HAWK monitors the entire drillingoperation,” Mr Whyte said.

“That includes monitoring everything,from how your mud pumps are operat-

ing to knowing in which direction yourdownhole drilling tool is drilling.”

The applications include HAWK On-LineSupport, WebDriller and Support Cen-ter. The On-Line support is a 24-hourservice center while the support centeris how the user chooses to utilize theinformation. With the software, theDriller will have the capability of askingfor advice from National Oilwell techni-cians around the world.

Following the monitoring and measure-ment of any operation on the rig, theinformation can be distributed to expertteams and support centers offsite viatelephone and/or computer. After trans-ferring the information it can be storedand used for training.

With the software, wells could bedesigned offsite and transferred to therig to be loaded into National Oilwell’sCyberbase Driller’s console as graphsand 3D models for the Driller to follow.

20 D R I L L I N G C O N T R A C T O R September/October 2002

Maritime Hydraulics’ Configurable AutomaticDrilling System (CADS) will be installed on BP’sValhall platform in the North Sea. The bridgecrane and fingerboard are pictured above.