In March 2018, Schlumberger experts Ginger Hilldebrand and Juan Restrepo highlighted the important impact that the abbl drilling operations advisor service and the PowerDrive Xcel RSS can have on directorial drilling operations to the Drilling Contractor’s Eva Vigh.

The abbl service increases drilling efficiency while reducing risks and associated NPT—yielding the best cost per “a bbl” of oil. Situational awareness and advisory capabilities are provided to personnel in real time in the context of current activities. The abbl service calculates the safe operating envelope for drilling operations and provides guidance to the drilling crew so that they can operate at the top end of the safe operating envelope.

One of the things Hilldebrand reinforces in the article is the fact that “the abbl directional advisor is becoming increasingly sophisticated as it evolves. Initially the service possessed learned and forecasted sliding tendencies. During the next phase, rotary tendency detection was added, and later rotary tendency forecasting capabilities were included.”

The PowerDrive Xcel RSS was designed for use in high-profile directional drilling operations. In contrast with many RSS units, which rely on a magnetic and gravity field measurement for steering control in areas with high magnetic interference, such as drilling out of a whipstock window and close to offset wells or ferrous formations, the PowerDrive Xcel RSS provides inertial directional control in deviated sections.