Technology

SLB's digital business is growing. (Image source: SLB)

As the oil and gas sector accelerates the deployment of AI and digital technologies to optimise operations, SLB has reported two collaborations as its digital business goes from strength to strength

SLB, which reported 18% revenue growth year on year for its digital division in its second quarter results, has announced that Chevron Technical Center, a division of Chevron, has joined the digital subsurface collaboration established by SLB and TotalEnergies in 2024, boosting capacity for the co-development of next generation digital technologies for reservoir engineering and geoscience.

As operators manage increasingly complex reservoirs and growing volumes of subsurface data, the collaboration, known as Arena, will focus on technologies that help improve decision-making across reservoir engineering and geoscience workflows. By embedding TotalEnergies and Chevron subject matter experts within SLB technology centres, the collaboration will shorten traditional feedback loops between operators and product development teams, bringing operational perspectives directly into technology development. This model progresses the delivery of scalable, open and extensible digital technologies.

Chevron will contribute investment, intellectual property and technical expertise to the collaboration, as well as its expertise in uncertainty analysis, optimisation and field development planning, that will help shape the roadmap for scalable digital subsurface technologies.

“This collaboration brings SLB’s digital and subsurface expertise together with operator knowledge to help develop technologies for reservoir engineering and geoscience,” said Rakesh Jaggi, president of SLB’s digital business. “Chevron adds valuable experience and perspectives that will help strengthen how we address complex subsurface workflows and field development decisions.”

“Chevron is working to advance digital capabilities to unlock greater value from our subsurface resources,” said Jitendra Kikani, Chevron vice president of Subsurface. “Through Arena, we are combining our world-class expertise in uncertainty analysis with digital technologies and AI-enabled workflows to improve decision quality, accelerate insights, and enhance operational efficiency.”

Optimising well construction

Meanwhile a 15-year agreement with TotalEnergies to use the DrillPlan well planning and engineering solutions will strengthen the digital collaboration between the two companies, supporting TotalEnergies’ transition to a digital planning environment. The collaboration will enabled subsurface insights to be connected with well planning and engineering workflows as operators move toward scalable, interoperable digital platforms to improve engineering and well construction execution.

The DrillPlan solutions will enable TotalEnergies to streamline well design and engineering activities by integrating offset well data, trajectory designs, casing and completion inputs, and planning assumptions used throughout the well construction process.

“Operators are increasingly looking for scalable technologies that can support more consistent planning decisions across large and diverse portfolios,” said Rakesh Jaggi, president of SLB’s Digital business.

“This agreement demonstrates how customers are moving toward digital solutions that improve consistency, strengthen collaboration and provide a foundation for future workflow innovation.”
Drawing on domain expertise from both companies, the environment is designed to connect workflows, integrate custom processes, scale across operations, and enable ongoing deployment of new digital technologies.

The initiative will help asset-intensive sectors move beyond their legacy tech systems towards AI-embedded operations. (image source: Adobe Stock)

IFS, the leading provider of industrial AI and enterprise cloud software, is growing its footprint in Saudi Arabia through a new strategic partnership with Echelon, the Riyadh-headquartered AI company, to bring its industrial AI solution to Saudi-based enterprises

What is industrial AI?

Industrial AI is the application of artificial intelligence to the physical world and enables enterprises to analyse massive amounts of data from sensors, machines and networks. Industrial AI platforms then provide and execute actions to automate production optimisation, quality control, condition-based maintenance, and supply chain tracking.

Industrial AI uses machine learning, predictive analytics, and data processing to optimise complex industrial environments in real-time, enabling systems to anticipate issues—whether by foreseeing equipment malfunctions or adjusting supply chains dynamically. Examples include:

• Oil & Gas: AI-driven predictive analytics, can help operators better monitor and manage assets, reduce environmental risks, optimise energy consumption and facilitate regulatory compliance
• Utilities: Industrial AI for Utilities can optimise power grid performance, predict equipment failures, and enhance resource distribution, making energy delivery more reliable and efficient.
• Engineering and Service: Engineering AI and Services AI-driven maintenance schedules and PSO will allow these sectors to extend the life of critical infrastructure and streamline complex service operations.
• Manufacturing: In smart factories, Manufacturing AI is optimising assembly lines and reducing waste, leading to faster production times and lower costs. Machine learning models can predict and preemptively correct equipment malfunctions, increasing productivity.

How is Saudi Arabia embracing industrial AI?

Saudi Arabia is strengthening its position as a global hub for AI and advanced technologies, underpinned by robust digital infrastructure, continuous investments, and an enabling environment for innovation—driven by Vision 2030 objectives which including positioning Saudi Arabia as a global leader in AI by 2030 and transforming industry through technological advancements.
Saudi Arabia has witnessed rapid progress in the adoption of AI across its industrial sectors, including energy, manufacturing, and logistics.
With the largest industrial base in the Middle East and Africa, totalling 45% of the country’s US$1.1 trillion GDP in 2024 across verticals such as manufacturing, oil & gas, mining, construction and utilities, the Kingdom is actively promoting itself as an industrial hub and a gateway market for regional industrial supply chains as part of the country’s Vision 2030 strategy. To promote its competitiveness, the country is investing in advanced manufacturing and many of Saudi Arabia’s largest industrial enterprises are digitising their operations and integrating AI, IoT and robotics in manufacturing and supply chain management.

How is IFS driving the deployment of industrial AI in Saudi Arabia?

IFS has proven success with organisations across the Kingdom helping advanced manufacturers modernise operations and strengthen supply chains, telecommunications providers deliver services at scale, maritime organisations build their industrial capabilities, and critical infrastructure operators improve asset reliability.

Echelon will work with IFS to drive the deployment and localisation of its industrial AI solution, IFS.ai, across its heavy industry customers in Saudi Arabia, enabling asset-intensive sectors such as energy, manufacturing, oil and gas, aerospace and defence, logistics and telecoms move beyond their legacy tech systems towards AI-embedded operations. Through IFS.ai, Echelon's customers will benefit from an AI enterprise layer across enterprise asset management, field service, maintenance planning, and asset investment decisions.

“Ever since we founded Echelon, our aim was to bring the most exciting AI solutions to Saudi Arabia, to benefit our economic diversification and growth,” said Prince Khalid Bin Bader Al Saud, founder and managing director, Echelon. “IFS offers cutting edge technologies to heavy industries and manufacturers, and the IFS.ai platform holds the promise of tangible, real-world benefits. Our customers are excited about the potential of IFS’s innovations for their operations.”

"Saudi Arabia is building some of the most complex, regulated and asset-heavy operations in the world. Running them successfully means making thousands of decisions every day, safely and at scale. That's exactly where Industrial AI delivers the greatest value, and it's where IFS thrives. For decades, we've helped the world's most essential industries turn operational complexity into competitive advantage," said Mark Moffat, CEO at IFS. "We're excited to work with Echelon and the Kingdom's industrial base to raise efficiency and help make Saudi Arabia one of the most competitive places in the world to manufacture."

the new design enables safe intervention in confined environments previously inaccessible to standard BOP equipment. (Image source: Unity)

BOP (blow-out preventer) valves play a safety-critical role in stopping the uncontrolled release of hydrocarbons from a well. However, the size and complexity of conventional BOP systems can constrain operations in environments where space is limited

Unity, the global well integrity and decommissioning specialist, has addressed this issue head-on with the development of a revolutionary ultra-compact blowout preventer (BOP) valve, named Unity Qb (‘cube’). Measuring just one-third the width of conventional systems, the new design enables safe intervention in confined environments previously inaccessible to standard BOP equipment, opening new possibilities across wireline, slickline, coil tubing and future drilling applications.

How does Unity Qb differ from conventional BOPs?

Conventional BOPs are placed at the top of a well and are large and cross-shaped by design, which limits where on a platform they can be positioned. In the event of a hydrocarbon leak, they seal or shear using rams that move in a straight line, clamping in from opposite sides of the well bore. In contrast, Unity Qb’s rams rotate around a central cartridge within the housing, making this proprietary technology a hybrid between a conventional BOP and a ball valve. It performs all conventional BOP functions in a fraction of the space and opens up the possibility of installing a BOP where historically only a Shear-Seal Ball Valve could fit.

The recently patented solution is rated to 10,000 psi, twice the pressure rating of Unity's existing compact shear (CSS) Valve and other traditional systems, while weighing the same. The higher rating means Unity Qb can be deployed on higher-pressure wells that lower-rated equipment cannot service. It is also stackable in single, dual or triple configurations.

Gary Smart, CEO at Unity said, “The future of well intervention will be defined by technologies that deliver more capability from a smaller footprint - Unity Qb represents exactly that step-change. Our engineering team reimagined the design from the ground up. The result is an ultra-compact BOP valve that delivers the performance operators expect while dramatically reducing the space required to deploy it.

“By unlocking access to constrained work environments and creating greater flexibility in system design, Unity Qb has the potential to reshape how intervention operations are executed offshore.”

He added that while the company will continue to offer its CSS Valve, the new Unity Qb is intended to extend the range of interventions it can support.

Mud-cooling performance is defined by a number of factors.

Othman Soliman, founder, SC DrillTech explains why temperature drop is not the only indicator that defines mud-cooling performance

In high-temperature and HPHT drilling operations, mud cooling is often discussed through one simple number: the visible temperature drop between the mud cooler inlet and outlet. That number is useful, but it is not enough to define performance.

A mud cooler does not work in isolation. It is part of a circulating drilling system where flow rate, mud properties, hole section, surface volume, residence time, solids loading, rig layout and operating practice all influence the thermal condition the system has to manage. When those factors are ignored, a temperature reading can create either false confidence or unnecessary concern.

The better question is not only, “How many degrees did the cooler remove?” The better question is, “Is the cooling system managing the thermal load required by this well, under these circulating conditions, with this drilling fluid?”

Why surface temperature can mislead

Flowline temperature is easy to observe, so it naturally becomes the value discussed first. It is visible, measurable and operationally important. In HPHT drilling, however, surface temperature is only the final expression of a much wider thermal process.

The mud temperature returning to surface is influenced by downhole exposure time, formation temperature, circulation rate, annular velocity, mud density, rheology, surface tank volume, ambient conditions and the time the fluid spends moving through the active system. A change in pump rate, surface volume or well section can shift the observed trend without any change in the cooler itself.

Temperature drop is not cooling capacity

A common mistake is to treat temperature drop as cooling capacity. The two are related, but they are not the same. Cooling duty depends on how much fluid is moving through the cooler and how much heat is removed from that moving mass of fluid.

A small temperature reduction at a high circulation rate may represent a greater heat removal duty than a larger temperature reduction at a much lower flow rate. Without flow and fluid context, the temperature drop alone is an incomplete performance indicator.

This matters in HPHT operations because the cooler may be protecting more than the drilling fluid. It can help reduce thermal stress on elastomers, instrumentation, surface handling equipment, pumps, shakers, centrifuges and downstream components. A cooler that appears weak by temperature drop alone may be working near its practical duty limit. A cooler that appears strong may simply be operating under easier conditions.

The drilling fluid is part of the cooling equation

Mud weight, base fluid, solids content, oil/water ratio, salinity, rheology and contamination all influence how the circulating system responds thermally. A clean, well-conditioned fluid will not behave the same way as a fluid carrying excessive low-gravity solids, poor flow properties, unstable emulsion characteristics or barite sag risk.

Thermal management should not be separated from drilling fluids engineering or solids control performance. The cooler is one component. The condition of the fluid determines how the system behaves around it.

Operational conditions change the result

Mud cooler performance can look different depending on the operational moment. During steady circulation, temperature trends may stabilise. During connections, flow interruptions, reduced pump rates, wiper trips or changes in drilling parameters, the thermal profile may shift. A reading taken during a transition may not represent stable cooler performance.

A reliable field assessment should consider circulation rate, inlet and outlet mud temperatures, mud weight, fluid type, active system volume, well depth, hole section, cooling-medium conditions, circulation duration, solids loading and any restrictions, bypasses, fouling or flow imbalance through the cooler.

Common evaluation mistakes

One frequent mistake is comparing cooler performance between wells without normalising for flow rate, mud properties and thermal load. Another is assuming that a lower outlet temperature always means better system performance. In HPHT wells, colder is not always the only objective. The objective is controlled and reliable thermal management within the needs of the well and the drilling fluid.

Another mistake is treating the mud cooler as a standalone package. Poor tank circulation, dead zones, incorrect valve line-up, fouled heat-exchange surfaces, insufficient cooling medium and unstable flow distribution can all affect the result. The cooler may be installed correctly, while the surrounding system prevents it from performing properly.

A third mistake is evaluating the cooling requirement too late. If the requirement is reviewed only after surface temperatures are already high, the available corrective actions become limited. Mud cooling should be part of planning and system readiness, not only a trouble response.

A practical assessment approach

A practical mud-cooling assessment should combine field measurements with engineering interpretation. At minimum, it should answer five questions: expected thermal load, measured flow rate and mud properties, stability of mud flow through the cooler, adequacy of the cooling medium, and whether the observed temperature trend fits the well section and operating conditions.

This approach moves the discussion away from a single temperature number and toward a more useful performance picture. It helps determine whether the issue is cooler capacity, fouling, flow distribution, rig system configuration, fluid condition or simply a misunderstanding of what the cooler can realistically achieve under the current operating envelope.

System thinking matters

HPHT wells leave little room for simplified assumptions. Mud cooling, solids control, drilling fluids, hydraulics and surface equipment performance are connected. A weakness in one part of the system can appear as a symptom somewhere else.

Temperature drop matters, but it is only one indicator. True mud-cooling performance is defined by heat load, flow rate, fluid condition, system stability and whether the cooling package is achieving the operational objective required by the well.

The question is not whether a mud cooler can produce an impressive temperature drop on paper. The real question is whether the complete circulating system is being managed well enough to keep the drilling fluid, equipment and operation within a controlled thermal envelope. That is where better evaluation begins.

Further technical reading

For readers looking for additional practical references on mud cooling, drilling fluids and solids control system performance, SC DrillTech maintains a technical knowledge cluster here: https://scdrilltech.com/articles/drilling-mud-cooler-system.html

About the author

Othman Soliman is the Founder of SC DrillTech, an independent technical platform focused on solids control, drilling fluids, drilling waste management and practical field engineering. He has more than a quarter century of experience across drilling operations, equipment performance, rig evaluation, troubleshooting and technical support.