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Nabors Industries has unveiled its PACE R801 fully automated drilling rig, being tested in Midland County.

Nabors Industries has unveiled its PACE R801 fully automated drilling rig, being tested in Midland County.

Nabors Industries has unveiled its PACE R801 fully automated drilling rig, being tested in Midland County.

Happen upon Nabors Industries’ newest drilling rig in Midland County, and one might think the rig is drilling a well by itself.

The new PACE R801 rig is the industry’s first fully automated land drilling rig. But there are humans helping keep the rig operating as intended.

“There’s a driller in the control room operating the rig in a safe location that looks over the drill floor,” said Travis Purvis, senior vice president of global drilling with Nabors.

There are other crew members maintaining the engines and pumps and ensuring the necessary materials are available when the rig needs them, he told the Reporter-Telegram in a telephone interview, putting to rest concerns that the fully automated rig was eliminating jobs.

There is no difference between the number of crew members needed for the new rig and those needed for the company’s traditional rigs, he said. A benefit is that the company can now offer its employees career advancement opportunities and the chance to reskill or upskill their talents.

Even today, he said, Nabors is actively seeking new workers, especially as drillers are ramping up activity, bringing rigs back into service and crew members back into the business.

Like other industries, finding workers has been a challenge, but Purvis said Nabors has had success in recruiting those returning to the industry and those new to the industry. “We have a robust competency program to onboard and train those new to the industry and give them professional opportunities,” he said.

The company is looking for experienced drillers, mechanics, maintenance technicians, derrickmen and floor hands, Purvis said, especially those wanted to be on a high-performance team and committed to technological advancement.

The overriding goal of developing the fully-automated rig was safety, he said – finding ways to get crew members off the drilling floor and away from areas where they risked being hit by falling objects or pipe. This new rig takes moving crew out of high-risk areas to a new level, he said.

The second main goal was operational efficiency through repeatability and the ability to get predictable results without human intervention, he said.

Launching the PACE R801 was the culmination of a five-year development journey that expanded on Nabors’ advanced robotic technology and automation, according to Purvis.

The rig was built in Houston and deployed to XTO’s leases in Midland County because the two companies have worked together on developing Nabors’ technology in real-world applications. Purvis said the Permian Basin was chosen for the rig’s first utilization to underscore its significance as one of the most important producing basin in the world. 

Nabors technicians and engineers have been on site to help make adjustments to help increase operational efficiencies and integrate the rig’s operating systems. After each task, Purvis said engineers and technicians look at lessons learned and move on to the next step in the process.

The lessons learned from this rig will be incorporated into the next generation of the PACE R801, he said.

“We want to spend time with this rig and develop its capabilities and build our confidence in it,” he said.

A fully automated rig is not the only technology Nabors is investigating. Purvis said the company is active in developing what he called smart energy – managing its engines to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – which is being integrated into the new automated rig. Carbon capture is an area the company is considering, as is energy storage, Purvis said.

“We’re also looking at geothermal energy and excited about that work,” he said.

Purvis said expectations are the operators that put Nabors’ rigs to work will be drilling oil and natural gas wells for a long time. At the same time, he added, it’s important to focus on not meeting the company’s own sustainability goals but helping its customers meet their own sustainability goals. 

He called 2021 the year the industry came out of the COVID-19 pandemic and went back to work, as reflected in a rising rig count. Still, he observed that integrated operators showed a lot of fiscal discipline and rig activity growth was not what would be expected with oil prices above $60 a barrel.

“We do see movement higher in rig activity for the rest of 2021 and into 2022,” he said. “We have a positive outlook with improved commodity pricing and a higher rig count.”

Mella McEwen is the Oil Editor for the Midland Reporter-Telegram.