Equinor uses autonomous drilling offshore Brazil

Equinor ASA employed SLB’s fully autonomous drilling operations at the Peregrino C platform in Brazil’s Campos basin.

SLB digital technologies for surface automation, autonomous on-bottom drilling, and directional drilling were combined to enable 99% of a 2.6-km section to be drilled in autonomous control mode. Over a five-well program, a 60% increase in rate of penetration was achieved.

On the rig floor, manual pipe handling and equipment sequencing tasks were automated and on-bottom drilling used AI-driven technology. Autonomous solutions determined optimum trajectory and delivered the well plan, adjusting steering sequences and drilling parameters to reach the target as designed by the cloud-based well construction planning application, SLB said.

Equinor is operator at Peregrino (60%) with partner Sinochem (40%).