Tech innovations transforming onshore and offshore drilling

AI and automation are redefining drilling by cutting costs, boosting efficiency, and environmental compliance, while unlocking new energy frontiers across the globe's most challenging geologies

- ABDULAZIZ KHATTAK

AI and automation are redefining drilling by cutting costs, boosting efficiency, and environmental compliance, while unlocking new energy frontiers across the globe's most challenging geologies

AS global energy demand steadily rises amid mounting decarbonisation pressures, the oil and gas industry is tasked with producing more oil and gas, more safely, at lower costs, and with fewer emissions.

Nowhere is this dual mandate more evident than in the fast-evolving domains of onshore and offshore drilling.

Emerging technologies, such as automation, artificial intelligence (AI), digital twins, and remote monitoring systems, are enabling companies to meet these challenges head-on.

From the shale basins of North America to the pre-salt reservoirs of South America, and from the ultra-deepwater fields of the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea to the high-capacity offshore developments of the Arabian Gulf, the drilling landscape of 2025 is smarter, faster, and greener than ever before.

Onshore drilling operations, particularly in North America and the Middle East, are increasingly powered by AI, machine learning (ML), and automated control systems.

Operators like Chevron and Devon Energy are leading the way, leveraging advanced analytics to optimise well placement, predict downhole conditions, and reduce drilling nonproductive time (NPT) by as much as 30 per cent.

Chevron's ‘triple-frac’ method, which fractures three wells simultaneously, has cut per-well costs by up to 12 per cent while boosting production efficiency by 25 per cent in the Permian Basin.

The system relies on real-time feedback loops, smart valves, and Al-driven pumping schedules that dynamically adapt to pressure and flow data to maximise stimulation across each wellbore segment.