Improving safety across a fleet of drilling rigs

Managing large volumes of data at remote rigs

As a leading contractor for offshore drilling rigs across the northern and southern hemispheres, Noble has to deal with huge volumes of data and systems from different OEMs. This data comes from a wide range of sources, from sensors on physical equipment to live video streams.   

As you can imagine, it’s quite difficult to manage this data, especially when we’re talking about offshore drilling rigs which have limited bandwidth and can be 100s of miles off the coast. 

Combine that with the growing scrutiny from rig owners and regulatory bodies on drilling safety measures, and it becomes clear why Noble needed a scalable platform to consolidate its data and gain greater visibility of its operations.

Deciding whether to build or buy a solution

Building a custom platform to handle this data would be very costly and labour-intensive. The platform would need to be compatible with all the different existing equipment and systems across the fleet of rigs, and also be highly secure. 

Helin has been helping companies in the maritime sector to implement edge computing platforms since 2017. So when Noble needed a partner to help integrates its data into one platform, Helin was the perfect choice. 

Developing a solution to enhance MPD operations

The first priority was building a system that could provide greater visibility of Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) operations at Noble’s rigs. 

Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) is a closed-loop circulation system to optimize the bottom-hole pressure by controlling the mud circulation. This makes the drilling operation safer, more time-efficient and minimizes loss of oil.

We set up a live data acquisition and transmission backbone, called Noble Globetrotter 2 (NGT2) for monitoring MPD. The first phase of NGT2 was delivered within 3 weeks. 

Authorized personnel from Noble and its client Shell could now watch the MPD operations in real-time through a secure video stream, from any location in the world.

Before implementing this MPD solution, monitoring MPD operations required hiring external staff at up to $5,000 per day, who could watch the drilling live on location and report accordingly. 

Adding automated reporting and predictive maintenance capabilities

We later enhanced the MPD tool by adding an automated reporting capability that could produce daily reports on MPD operations. This had previously taken technical drilling experts hours to do manually, which was certainly not the optimal use of their time.   

We then agreed with Noble to take this tool a step further by adding predictive analytics for the rubber seals used in MPD systems. 

The unplanned replacement of a seal on drilling rigs causes at least half a day of downtime—which adds up quickly when daily running costs of a rig can reach $300k. So we added the capability to monitor the wear and tear of the rubber seal. 

By closely monitoring the condition of the rubber seal, Noble could schedule maintenance and replacement of the seal to take place at a time that have least impact on the drilling activities at each rig.

Increased visibility with remote CCTV

Happy with the collaboration so far, Noble wanted to continue working with Helin to further improve the safety and efficiency of their drilling operations.  

Next on the list was the Remote CCTV Manager which enables drilling operators to maintain visual control of offshore drilling rigs from their control centers and offices. This means onshore teams can provide guidance and help solve operational problems from afar. 

While implementing CCTV is pretty straight-forward for most sites, it is more challenging at offshore rigs where bandwidth is very limited. 

Noble implemented Helin’s Remote CCTV Manager to provide a live video stream of 20+ rigs to authorized personnel at Noble’s office locations. Optimized video streams are stored in the secure Azure cloud tenant and full-resolution recordings are stored temporarily at the drilling rig to minimize the bandwidth required and data transmission costs.

Noble’ engineers, managers, and clients can easily review the recordings to analyze near misses and identify improvements. The team can also set up automatic alerts that will trigger when certain events happen, such as drilling machinery entering into operation.

Noble is already using Remote CCTV Manager at 20 sites, and plans to roll it out across more locations in the future. 

Improved management of red zones 

Red zones are the highest-risk areas on offshore drilling rigs, where the critical drilling operations take place and where crew members are mostly likely to be in danger.

Noble decided to implement Red Zone Manager to gain greater visibility of the red zone at one of its offshore drilling rigs in Qatar, and create a safer working environment for its crews. 

Red Zone Manager is a modular red zone monitoring system with a simple user interface, powerful analytics and actionable insights that tracks the drill crew and alerts them and the operator when a red zone is breached. This even includes detecting people in ‘blind spots’, without the need to wear sensors or tags.

At Noble’s site, the entire time between a person being captured by the CCTV cameras and the alarm being raised took close to 150ms. This outperforms the end-to-end latency of 99% of all other analytics solutions. 

Unlike other solutions, Red Zone Manager is modular and hardware-agnostic, making it easy for large contractors, like Noble, to implement is across their entire fleet even when the machinery is from different OEMs. 

Insights consolidated in one single platform

Now, with Helin, Noble can monitor activities across its rigs in real-time and access insights on its overall drilling operations in one single platform. 

This of course brings cost efficiencies, but also makes it way easier for Noble to: 

• Onboard and train staff to monitor its operations
• Compare performance between sites 
• Identify best practices and implement across its fleet
• Manage access permissions at a site-by-site level

While the edge computing platform was built by Helin, it is fully customized for and controlled by Noble. Of course, we’re always on-hand to resolve any issues and to help figure out how Noble can get even more benefits from the platform.

How Helin’s platform gives drilling contractors a leading edge

The number of offshore drilling rigs globally varies depending on who you ask, but most sources estimate it at 500+ rigs (January 2025). That’s quite a lot of rigs where incidents can happen, making safety solutions critically important for contractors. 

Maintaining a competitive edge in new offshore rig tenders

There’s been a noticeable increase in offshore rig tenders requiring the successful contractor to implement specific safety solutions. Regulations for cybersecurity, HSE, and working conditions are also becoming increasingly strict, including for offshore rigs. 

Helin’s platform helps Noble to go above and beyond the minimum requirements, and continuously improve their operations based on accurate data that can be easily shared with customers. 

An extra layer of protection for the next generation of drilling crews

Anyone in the offshore drilling industry will have seen the labour shortages that exist for experienced drilling personnel. With 35% of the industry’s workforce being at least 50 years old and due to retire in the next 10-15 years, there’ll be plenty of new entrants. 

This next generation of offshore crews lacks the decades of expertise that existing crews have. And this even more of an issue in emerging regions where governments often make hiring local crews a prerequisite of operating a drilling rig in their waters, even if there is limited drilling experience in the local workforce.   

Using safety tools like Remote CCTV Manager and Red Zone Manager, Noble can help ensure that new crew members at its rigs are trained using the same protocols and systems, and also their activities are monitored to avoid unsafe situations. 

This adds an extra layer of protection against incidents and ensures consistent safety protocols are followed in every region, resulting in less accidents and near misses. 

Noble continues to improve efficiency and safety at its rigs

It’s been 7 years since the initial MPD tool was developed, and Noble is still looking for ways to further improve the efficiency and safety of its drilling operations using Helin’s platform. 

This means not only rolling out the MPD, Remote CCTV Manager, and Red Zone Manager across additional drilling rigs, but also exploring new possibilities to meet the evolving challenges that arise at offshore drilling rigs.

At Helin, solving complex puzzles is one of our greatest joys. We’re delighted to continue our collaboration with Noble, improving our existing apps and developing new apps to ensure our edge computing platform helps Noble to continually enhances its operational effectiveness and create safer working environments for its crews. 

Getting started with Helin’s platform

Are you looking to increase safety at your offshore drilling rigs? Do you have multiple data sources in different systems? Our edge computing platform and safety apps may be just the solution you need! 

Want to learn more? Make sure to get in touch for an introduction call to discuss the entire Helin platform for offshore and maritime industries.