Equinor has hailed as a success its collaboration with Baker Hughes and KCA Deutag to implement a new way of managing drilling operations.

The Integrated Operations Level 3 (IO 3) scheme involves increased liaison between onshore and offshore offices and more use of real-time data, integrating people, disciplines, organisations, work processes and information and communication technology to make smarter decisions.

Equinor and Baker Hughes revealed to Upstream their plans to upgrade the first of several offshore rigs to the most advanced level of integrated operations possible.

During the past year, the newbuild Cat J jack-up Askepott, owned by the Equinor-operated Oseberg licence group, implemented and tested the new drilling scheme.

The aim is to reduce well construction and logistics costs, reduce health, safety and environmental risks and optimise personnel resources.

Automated and remote-controlled systems have been installed on Askepott, allowing operations such as cementing, fluid engineering and directional drilling to be carried out remotely from an onshore operating centre via a fibre-optic cable.

“This is a milestone for the industry which demonstrates we are able to find new ways of working in a safer and more profitable way," said Erik Gustav Kirkemo, Equinor’s senior vice president for drilling and wells.

He explained that Equinor plans to implement the model on 22 installations in Norway and on one fixed and one mobile unit at the Mariner field in the UK.

“We are also co-operating with other rig owners and other drilling service contractors as we believe this is the future,” added Kirkemo.

Apart from Askepott, the new operating model is being implemented on Transocean’s semi-submersible rigs Equinox and Endurance and on the Oseberg B and C fixed platforms.

Baker Hughes’ vice president for oilfield services in Europe, Chris Jones, emphasised the global applicability of the new way of working.

“I believe this is like the iPhone — it will catch on everywhere,” he told Upstream, adding that the timing and the rig were both right for the implementation.

Now Baker Hughes intends to integrate IO 3 into its global organisation.

“We are now in a post-IO 3 world,” he said.

Neither Kirkemo nor Jones wanted to share specific figures about improvements in drilling performance, costs and safety, except to say the joint team had drilled 10 well sections safely with no non-productive time and that a successful cementing exerise had been carried out from onshore.

Kirkemo believes the companies have only seen the beginning of what is possible with integrated operations.

“This opens up a whole range of benefits and opportunities, and I believe we are just scratching the surface,” he said.

Last year, the Askepott carried out its first job at the Oseberg Vestflanke project.

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Equinor cheers push for integrated drilling drive