ADNOC and SLB cut rig downtime with AI
ADNOC deploys AI across 120+ drilling rigs, saving time and money
#UAE #energy - ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), working with global technology company SLB, has deployed an AI-enabled Real-Time Operations Center (RTOC) platform across its fleet of more than 120 drilling rigs, connecting onshore and offshore operations into a single monitoring system. Powered by SLB’s DrillOps intelligent well delivery solution, the platform cuts engineering effort by 30-40 percent, letting engineers oversee two to three times more rigs while identifying potential issues before they escalate, reducing incident response times by 4-12 hours and avoiding one to two days of rig downtime. Critical operational data is stored securely in a UAE data centre.
SO WHAT? - Drilling has traditionally relied on engineers physically monitoring individual rigs or working through fragmented reporting tools, which limits how many operations one team can actually oversee at once. Tripling that ratio while also compressing multi-day reporting cycles into hours is a leap in operational efficiency. The RTOC is one of a wide range of breakthrough technologies used by ADNOC in its planning, decision-making and operations. ADNOC’s ambition is to become the world's most AI-enabled energy group.
KEY POINTS:
ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) and SLB have deployed the AI-enabled Real-Time Operations Center (RTOC) platform across more than 120 drilling rigs spanning ADNOC’s onshore and offshore assets.
RTOC replaces multiple existing tools and reduces engineering effort by 30-40%, enabling engineers to oversee two to three times more rigs while maintaining effective monitoring.
The platform turns large volumes of drilling data into automated dashboards and AI-powered insights, cutting reporting cycles that previously took several days down to hours.
By analysing real-time rig data, RTOC identifies potential issues before they escalate, reducing incident response times by 4-12 hours and helping avoid one to two days of rig downtime.
Musabbeh Al Kaabi, ADNOC Upstream CEO, said the platform embeds AI into the heart of ADNOC’s drilling operations to support faster, smarter decision-making at scale.
The platform is enabled by SLB’s DrillOps intelligent well delivery and insights solution, bringing live rig data into a single environment for business, asset and drilling teams.
Rakesh Jaggi, President, Digital, SLB, said the technology, deployed within ADNOC’s sovereign cloud environment, provides a scalable foundation for AI-enabled workflows and supports progress toward more autonomous drilling operations.
RTOC was developed in the UAE and is hosted within ADNOC’s own cloud environment, keeping critical operational data and workflows under UAE jurisdiction to strengthen data security and operational resilience.
The deployment covers rigs operated by ADNOC Onshore and ADNOC Offshore, supporting ADNOC’s wider push to embed AI into core operational workflows across its asset base.
[Written and edited with the assistance of AI]
Source: ADNOC / SLB