GE says it will deploy its marine asset performance management (APM) system on four drilling rigs owned by Noble Corp. By using Predix-based data analytics, GE and Noble hope to achieve a 20% reduction in operating costs across the rigs.

The system aims to provide efficiencies in three areas:

• Enhanced drilling process efficiency—Foresight visibility of equipment anomalies and drilling process deviations to reduce operational disruptions and enhance performance consistency.

• Shift to predictive maintenance—Redefine maintenance strategies with a focus on predictive maintenance to achieve long-term, sustainable opex reductions across the fleet.

• Reduction of third-party service costs—Anytime, anywhere rig visibility and insights that leverage the one-to-many impact of shore-based experts to reduce third-party service costs.

Watch a short video of GE and Noble’s partnership on their Digital Rig solution.

GE’s marine APM offering combines “digital twin” data models and analytics to detect off-standard behavior—often a sign of potential failure or performance degradation—of target assets on the rigs. This can sometimes provide an early warning foresight to operators to mitigate a problem before it occurs.

As the system continues to learn, this ability to predict the future condition of rig-wide assets will also enable a shift from planned to predictive maintenance. Compared to planned maintenance, GE says it avoids unnecessary maintenance as well as mitigates the risk of maintenance-induced problems, reducing unplanned downtime and creating potential cost savings.