Viasat, a global communications company, today announced it has agreed to join Inteliwell, a joint venture (JV) with Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG), and Intelilift AS, a subsidiary of Nekkar ASA. Inteliwell’s mission is to decrease drilling times through rig automation and streamlining of the well construction process using new processes and tools driven by artificial intelligence (“AI”). Inteliwell will offer a suite of applications that will provide an end-to-end, closed-loop workflow for well construction planning, execution, and monitoring.

Inteliwell’s software has been meticulously designed to leverage cutting edge technology and data that will improve consistency in operations by improving safety through reduction of personnel exposure to red zones and reducing well planning and construction time.

For its part, INTELIE™, which was part of the Company’s 2021 RigNet acquisition, will provide operational AI expertise, real-time data analytics, and planning components to the Inteliwell JV.

“The joint venture between Transocean, Viasat, and Intelilift aligns a potent mix of expertise in the areas of well construction, automation, and artificial intelligence,” said Brendan Sullivan, SVP, Intelligent Edge Solutions, Viasat, Inc. “INTELIE is already in use on the majority of drill ships today for real-time analytics and remote operating centers. Through the Inteliwell JV, we are poised to accelerate autonomous well construction while reducing cost and improving safety.”

“By reducing the days needed to drill a well, Inteliwell and its suite of applications creates incredible value to a large addressable market that is primed for change,” said Scott McKaig, Director, Technology & Digital Solutions at Transocean Ltd. “By aligning expertise from the three entities in our platform, we will be advancing the well construction process from preparing a well program to completion of the well. This advancement will streamline planning, increases rig site efficiency, and reduce unplanned non-productive time (“NPT”) to generate significant cost savings that can be realized quickly by the well operators.”

Stig Trydal, managing director of Intellilift added: “In short, the JV will provide software solutions combined with automation that are designed to allow operators to further improve the consistency of their operations while reducing drilling costs through more reliable and faster drilling operations.”

The offering — that can be applied across all rig classes — will be comprised of three key applications: InteliPlan, InteliAutomate and InteliAssist, which will create digital well plans that interface with a drilling rig’s control system to autonomously execute tasks, greatly expediting the well construction process. Additionally, an integrated real-time monitoring platform will measure downhole progress and evaluate conditions in the well to provide critical, precision-enhancing feedback to the drilling control system.

The Inteliwell Suite of Applications

· InteliPlan
InteliPlan will create a well construction program in both human readable and automatable, machine-readable format. The software will enable engineers to input well design data and generate the well construction program, including rig-specific well construction sequences. For standardization, specific operational practices can be embedded in the InteliPlan logic to ensure these critical practices permeate across all ongoing and future programs.

· InteliAutomate
InteliAutomate is a digital drilling control system which will automate well construction tasks by sending instructions from the well construction program, created by InteliPlan, to the rig equipment controllers. InteliAutomate receives feedback from such machines to automatically acknowledge completion of tasks and from InteliAssist for validated adjustments.

· InteliAssist
For operations oversight, InteliAssist will monitor well construction parameters and simultaneously run engineering simulations to allow comparison with real-time observations. The process will allow optimization of ongoing operations, avoid deviations from plan, provides prediction of operational problems, and can identify when human intervention in required.