Wired Drill Pipe Contracts Awarded
Wednesday 5 December 2018
Equinor is stepping up its use of wired drill pipe to acquire subsurface real-time data during drilling operations, in line with the corporate digitalisation strategy and to prepare for automated drilling.
NOV and Schlumberger have been awarded corporate frame agreements for global deliveries of wired drill pipes to Equinor. Both suppliers use solutions from IntelliServ, which is owned by NOV and Schlumberger.
In addition to the corporate frame agreements with the two suppliers, commitments have been made on the use of wired drill pipe delivered by NOV for specific operations, such as Mariner in the UK, the West Herkules exploration campaign on the Norwegian continental shelf and Transocean Enabler’s drilling campaign on Trestakk. Estimated value of this work scope is around NOK 300 million.
The contracts allow the technology to be used on all Equinor installations globally. The total contract value may exceed NOK one billion during the first three years of the contract period.
The wire inside the drill pipe allows high-speed data transfer. The signals transmitted through the drill pipe are estimated to be 10,000 times faster than the pressure waves of the drilling mud in conventional drill pipes.