University-industry collaboration sparks disruptive technologies in offshore oil and gas

“The Leftovers” team was awarded 1st place for their work on a data storage vault and digital twin, which allows for cross-communication between several of the company's digital systems.

Team captain Xanne Joppe said, "Overall, our solution consolidates several data streams into a single efficient, customizable platform that accelerates informed decision-making and can be deployed consistently across Noble’s fleet."

The final four teams were awarded an overnight stay aboard the Noble BlackRhino drillship, a tour of Noble's training facility, and interviews for Noble’s summer internship.

Offshore chatted with Thomas, the program creator and facilitator and Noble's innovation specialist, about the strategy behind the competition, future plans for involving other universities, and the next steps for the technology concepts presented during the challenge.

Moreover, UT senior Joppe provided insights into her team's thought process and strategies to address data accessibility issues. 

Q&A with Kiara Thomas:

Offshore: What inspired the company to co-organize this competition with the University of Texas, and what was your strategic vision for the students?

Thomas: Early in my start at Noble, our senior VP asked our innovation team to brainstorm and identify disruptive innovation. Since then, I’ve spent a large amount of my time exploring the ecosystem on university campuses. I decided that if I was going to find something that was unique, it would be there. I’ve visited many labs and spoken to university staff from different departments across campuses.

Before long I began to notice some common university barriers. Most oil and gas innovation is operator focused making it difficult to identify a direct fit for Noble. Universities mainly develop early research phase solutions, meaning they need assistance finding industry-relevant applications. University industry engagement and IP [intellectual property]  departments have difficulty gaining commercial licenses from their research or spinning out startups. This means of the hundreds of inventions that universities produce, only a small fraction of them actually exit campuses and enter the ecosystem.

Within this problem scope, I was able to identify the win-win for Noble and universities. Noble could gain first-of-its-kind innovation pipeline by providing drilling-relevant guidance at the idea stage. I created two partnership models: a project-based master research agreement and a co-innovation challenge.

This partnering model is also helping to inspire new talent to join the industry. Nearly 50% of the current oil and gas workforce is over 45 years old, and many are expected to retire within the next decade, creating a major talent gap. We create an enticing dynamic by connecting student teams with mentors. Students are able to determine relevant practicalities of their ideas in the drilling industry. They find a place for their current skills and passions within the industry. That’s huge for a freshmen or sophomore student that’s searching for their place in the world.

The UT Co-Innovation Challenge opened the door for an impact that matters significantly to the future of our industry. We intend on continuing to support the students through mentorship. We will also plan to support initial scaling for select solutions.

Offshore: Are there plans to extend the competition invitation to other local universities and colleges in the future?

Thomas: Definitely. We’re establishing partnerships by way of master research agreements with several universities. I’m also discussing potential challenges and programs we can establish based upon aligned research focus areas and objectives. Additionally, we’re preparing for an improved and extended co-innovation challenge at UT next year. The improvements include a short Drilling 101 course with instructors from Noble’s staff.

Offshore: What’s next for the students' technology concepts? Are there plans for field trials or partnerships?

Thomas: I’ve developed a pre-investment scaling framework based on my startup advisory experience. Using this framework, I’ll partner with professors to assist select student teams in becoming investment ready. Our investment will support MVP development and an initial validation pilot aboard a Noble rig.

I’ll then work with the student teams to decide upon an ideal next step for their solution. They may choose a commercialization path or may want to establish a patent. The university’s avenues for these options will support a smooth transition. I’d also love to see other industry players get involved at this point.

Offshore: What advice would you give to young professionals entering the offshore energy sector?

Thomas: Get as much exposure to the industry as possible. A few of the students told me they were not certain why they chose to pursue a petroleum or geosciences engineering degree prior to this experience. Developing their ideas alongside mentors helped them understand the applications for the skills and passions in the industry. Spending time on our rig helped them gain context they could never gain from a textbook.

Joppe: The main issue we wanted to address was data accessibility for more efficient and informed decision-making to optimize offshore operations. To address this issue, we developed the concept of a data storage vault and digital twin interface to combine Noble’s third-party data platforms into a single customizable dashboard.

Currently, Noble receives much of its operational data from third-party service companies in raw nomenclature with no tags or labels, which slows down interpretation and decision-making. By building a centralized dashboard with standardized labeling and unified access, we eliminate these delays and give personnel a clearer, faster way to understand key operational information.

We also designed the dashboard to be fleet-wide and adaptable. Every drillship has its own layout and equipment variations, even vessels within the same series. Our framework allows Noble to customize the digital twin to match each individual rig design and easily add or remove applications. These applications can also serve a wide range of purposes, whether for HSE, operations, well specifications or other workflows, and process a wide range of data inputs such as digital, visual and audio formats. This modular structure ensures that the dashboard is scalable across multiple vessels without needing to rebuild the integrated system each time.

Safety is enhanced through the digital twin system, which visually pinpoints where issues occur onboard instead of relying on raw data or scattered reports. Combined with historical trend analysis, the system can help identify hazards earlier, reduce unexpected equipment failures and minimize NPT-related risks.

Overall, our solution consolidates several data streams into a single efficient, customizable platform that accelerates informed decision-making and can be deployed consistently across Noble’s fleet.

Offshore: How does your solution improve operational efficiency and safety compared to existing methods?

Joppe: Our solution aims to streamline current offshore operations into a single customizable dashboard while retaining historical data for trend analysis and troubleshooting capabilities. In short, we are building a platform that will allow for greater data accessibility.

Each vessel utilizes multiple software platforms at once, from drilling to marine operations and everything in between. The amount of data being processed at once is extensive, but segregated based on each individual application type. This can cause delays in data analysis or lack of data accessibility that would be required to make an informed decision. However, our solution can bridge the gap between these individual platforms to create a single, easily accessible data analysis platform.

For example, the NOV systems on the rig floor do not interact with the DPS systems from Kongsberg, but both are important when making decisions regarding station-keeping during sensitive drilling operations. By allowing both systems to be put on the same dashboard at the same time, the information can be analyzed more efficiently to allow for more informed and quicker decision-making. With the added feature of the data storage vault, data can be stored for historical trending purposes to identify issues and optimize safety practices.

It is our hope that with greater access to streamlined data, offshore operations can become even more safe and efficient.