OMV Petrom Premiers New Automatic Drilling Technology in Romania

• A state-of-the-art automated drilling rig has begun operations in Romania
• The new technology improves efficiency of operations

OMV Petrom, the largest integrated energy producer in Southeastern Europe, is running a new drilling campaign using a state-of-the-art automated drilling rig owned by Foraj Sonde Videle.

The campaign is initially focusing on several fields in Oltenia, Muntenia and Moldova, with plans to continue across the OMV Petrom portfolio thereafter. The objective of the campaign is to deliver new resources from mature fields, while improving safety and efficiency of drilling operations. To date, two new gas wells have been completed on time and on budget with increased efficiency compared to traditional methods.

“The new technologies support us to increase production on mature fields and contribute to the minimization of the environmental impact. We are very proud alongside our colleagues from OMV and our partner Foraj Sonde Videle to use one of the most energy efficient onshore drilling rig in the world,” Cristian Hubati, member of the OMV Petrom Executive Board, responsible for the Exploration and Production activities, said.

The automated drilling rig is a product of OMV’s DigitUP digitalization program and underscores the synergy between OMV and OMV Petrom. This integrates innovative thinking with operational excellence.

The rig is manufactured in the Netherlands, by Huisman, a highly innovative company that designs, manufactures and services equipment for the renewable energy, oil and gas and other industries. Automation of extractive activity reduces human errors, while improving efficiency and safety of drilling operations, as operators can monitor and control drilling operations remotely. The electric central power system of the drilling rig improves fuel efficiency and reduces carbon footprint.

The drilling rig is designed to meet today’s demand for faster and more flexible operations – it is a highly mobile rig, able to move quickly between multiple wells on a pad, and between different locations. While operating, the system collects a large amount of data about the drilling process, which is analysed to improve extraction efficiency and prevent geological, technical or operational difficulties.

The applicability of this new technology goes beyond traditional oil and gas operations as it can be used also in geothermal and carbon capture and storage projects.

 

The DigitUP OMV Petrom program

Through the DigitUP program, OMV Petrom’s vision is to become a digital frontrunner in the industry, thus enabling the company to promote innovation, become scalable, safer, faster in deployments and adopt agile methodologies.

OMV Petrom DigitUP is an integral part of the global OMV DigitUP Program. Therefore, they managed to obtain a readily accessible technology to be used in our day-to-day work.

This digital transformation will come to life by targeting:

• Increasing the Digitalization level through the deployment of the projects inside the Lighthouses (collections of initiatives per discipline): Digital Subsurface, Real-time Digital Energy Operations, Integrated Digital Development Twins and Digital Office of the Future.
• Expand the Digitalization level with focus mainly on hard copies (e.g.: well files & logs) and existing processes.