Data-driven Performance ‘What gets measured, gets managed’

At the heart of any Digital Transformation is a data strategy that sets the foundations required to leverage the value of digital commodities. At Stena Drilling, we don’t view data strategy and digital transformation as separate, we see a connected, data-driven technology landscape that sets the scene for organisations to get the most value out of their digital technologies. 

Digital transformation has improved customer experiences, employee productivity, and streamlined many processes, however, many companies fall into the trap of running cutting edge Artificial Intelligence projects without first understanding and structuring their own data landscape. After all, for a machine to learn it requires data. The better quality the data is, the better the machine will learn.  

Stena Drilling's Operational Performance Using Digital Technology Over the last two years, Stena Drilling undertook a significant project to overhaul the collection of drilling-related performance data. We deployed a new operational reporting software along with a performance monitoring system using rig sensor data to compute “rig state” which can be used to calculate accurate and quantifiable performance KPIs.

This has proved to be a massive benefit to the drill crew on shift by auto-creating the time-event log the driller normally manually maintains for reporting purposes.

By deploying this software across each unit, we are able to compare drilling performance accurately across our fleet. We learn and improve our procedures where a consistent approach is key.

Stena Drilling currently operate 2 out of 6 drillships in Guyana, all operating for the same client, and where a healthy competition takes place between the rigs. By accessing our performance data, we’ve been able to measure and better manage our operations. Our teams onboard Stena DrillMAX & Stena Carron are already harnessing these new capabilities and have made considerable improvements on operational drilling performance.  This has been demonstrated by Stena DrillMAX winning ‘Rig of the Month’ 3 times this year so far, with Stena Carron winning for July. The winning rig holds the coveted oilfield hard-hat trophy!

Because of the hazardous environment of offshore drilling, we don’t incentivise speed, it is not a race; but we aim for optimised efficiency in the safest manner. By being able to compare how one crew performs against another, we can work out how and why differences can occur. This is not used to penalise, but to develop a consistent approach from each of our crews. Then we can apply the same logic across different Stena Drilling vessels – sharing knowledge and best practices.

We’ve recently formed a dedicated Drilling Performance Team, which includes Toolpushers with extensive offshore knowledge and experience, combined with onshore engineers with rig operational knowledge and data analysis skills. With the complementary strengths of these individuals, and the technology to support them, we can manage performance on a micro-level. The team work closely with each vessel to measure, manage and strengthen performance. 

We collaborate with our clients to continuously improve performance, but not just in terms of drilling operations. We’re looking into many new areas from emissions to equipment reliability to open-data sharing plus many more. It is a mutually beneficial arrangement as we share many fundamental goals and objectives. One of the main enablers is data! We’ve never challenged ourselves to the degree we do now and having access to data is the key to unlocking the insights we’ve never had previously.

With ever-increasing communications speeds, and ever-improving technologies’, we receive more data from offshore than ever before. The onshore team at Stena Drilling have always supported the offshore teams on all our vessels; but now walking through any Stena Drilling office you will see screens with live, operational data on display.

Stena Drilling Improving Safety Performance through Digital Technology
Safety performance is always our top priority; we are always looking to contribute to our safety culture. We developed our own in-house behavioural-based safety system: Care (Continuously Assessing Risk Everyday) Observations.  A dynamic web-application, accessible from any PC/tablet/smartphone on our vessels and on strategically located tablets onboard, where our employees participate in the Observations system. STOP processes have been around for many years; the difference with our Care system is the technology in the backend.

Through artificial intelligence we automatically assess and categorise observations as they come in; saving hours for our offshore supervisors who previously had to manually read, assess, and categorise. We analyse all data entered and using machine learning, the system itself can determine a new category relevant to the data being entered. This provides us with new insights to understand and improve our policies and procedures; something we would never have been able to do without the use of this technology. 

Smart Chain Services (SCS)

Alongside our technology partner Smart Chain Services Ltd. (SCS), we have developed a smart contracting solution that enables new commercial models that can be of benefit to parties by delivering a level of data auditability, trust, transparency & security that is not available in any non-blockchain technology. For example, with a delivery-based contract, rather than traditional day-rate based, rig teams are incentivised to complete the operation as efficiently and safely as possible, but all parties can share in the success of a successfully delivered operation.

Digital Technologies have been a true enabler, the way we work has changed, the workplace has changed and how we learn and interact with data has changed.  Through this improved operational performance, we are delivering client value and are evolving to become a digital leader in offshore well construction and decommissioning.

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