GE, Noble want to improve offshore drilling with data analytics

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GE and Noble Corporation, a drilling contractor in the oil and gas industry, on Thursday launched the world's first digital drilling vessel. Called the Digital Rig, it aims to improve offshore drilling efficiency by combining a digital replica of physical assets, known as digital twin, with advanced analytics.

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The Digital Rig marine solution is powered by GE's Predix Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform and currently deployed on the Noble Globetrotter I drilling vessel. Digital Rig is connected to all targeted control systems, including the drilling control network, the power management system, and the dynamic positioning system, GE said.

Data is collected through individual sensors and control systems, centralized on the vessel, and then sent real time to GE's Industrial Performance and Reliability Center for predictive analytics. GE said its Digital Rig and Predix SeaStream have already captured "multiple anomalies and has produced alerts to inform potential failures up to two months before they would occur."

GE and Noble will soon begin running analytics on vessel equipment's real-time data on the edge, the companies said. Personnel both offshore and onshore can view the vessel's health state and equipment real-time performance.

The partnership was originally announced in March 2017. GE is planning to outfit three more vessels for operational optimization in early 2018. Specific launch details for the remaining vessels haven't been provided.

In a separate partnership, GE provides performance analytics for nine vessels and 110 critical equipment items. Maersk is targeting a 20 percent reduction in maintenance costs.