GE and Maersk Drilling accelerate their digital partnership to drive industry transformation

Following the positive outcome of their pilot project, GE (NYSE: GE) and Maersk Drilling have extended the scope of their digital partnership. The collaboration brings the next big step in innovative efficiency services to the offshore market and constitutes great value for customers by enhancing drilling productivity, GE said in a media release.

During the extended partnership, Maersk Drilling and GE will expand the scope of the 2016 pilot project—one vessel, one asset, one year—to nine subsequent vessels, targeting 110 key equipment assets, such as the top drive, draw works, thrusters and main engines, over a multiyear contract starting later this year.

GE’s SeaStream Insight Marine Asset Performance Management (APM) solution will be implemented to enable more consistent and predictable drilling performances on nine selected units across Maersk Drilling’s fleet, ensuring an accelerated basis for time to value of the digital transformation.

Enhancing drilling productivity presents true value to customers by reducing total well cost. By offering performance analytics for the rig, Maersk Drilling can reduce deviations and increase productivity enterprise-wide in drilling operations such as Drilling, Tripping In, Tripping out, Running Riser and Pulling Riser.

Another digital milestone enabled through this partnership is predictive maintenance. Maersk Drilling and GE have developed digital twins — virtual representations of key equipment on the rig tuned through sensor and other equipment data - for the major drilling and marine systems equipment. By using the digital twins in combination with GE’s zonal analytics, the digital solution can reduce unnecessary maintenance and its associated cost. In addition, the solution is able to detect equipment anomalies that could result in an equipment breakdown, providing foresight weeks in advance of pending issues.

GE’s SeaStream Insight APM solution provides real-time efficiency reports and performance indicators based on data gathered during daily offshore operations. The implementation of digital APM for the additional nine vessels will commence later this year and target 20 percent maintenance cost reduction and improvements in drilling efficiency.

About Maersk Drilling
Maersk Drilling’s modern fleet counts 24 drilling rigs including drillships, deepwater semi-submersibles and high-end jack-up rigs. Maersk Drilling employs an international staff of 3,200 people and generated an underlying profit of USD 743m in 2016.

About GE
GE (NYSE: GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the "GE Store," through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry.

About GE’s Marine Solutions
GE's Marine Solutions is dedicated to power and propulsion systems for customers in the workboat, merchant, offshore and naval industries. Through smart engineering coupled with software analytics, we provide customers with data-driven efficiency. Connecting the physical and digital worlds, GE helps power, propel, position and predict the marine industry for operational excellence.