Background
One of the fastest-growing directional drilling companies in the United States was operating across multiple major U.S. basins. As their operational scale grew from dozens to over a hundred simultaneous active rigs, their existing tools — a combination of manual reporting, disconnected SCADA outputs, and spreadsheet-based operations management — became a critical bottleneck.
The operational challenge was clear: managing 120+ rigs, hundreds of directional drillers and MWD operators, and thousands of daily operational data points across multiple basins without a unified, intelligent platform was leaving money on the table — in the form of NPT, suboptimal BHA selection, and cost overruns vs. AFE.
The Solution
The team that would later found Netora was engaged to architect and deploy a real-time directional drilling operations platform that became the operational backbone of the company's field operations.
Core capabilities deployed:
Real-Time Operations Layer:
- Live wellbore monitoring across all active rigs: depth, inclination, azimuth, DLS, WOB, RPM, ECD, torque
- 3D trajectory visualization (actual vs. planned) with real-time anti-collision alerts
- BHA performance analytics across all tool types (motor, MWD, RSS)
- NPT tracker with automatic classification by cause, category, and responsible party
Automated DDR Engine — Structured Daily Output:
Every day, the platform automatically compiled and distributed a structured Daily Drilling Report — eliminating the 45–90 minutes each directional driller previously spent manually aggregating field data. Each DDR was timestamped, reviewed, and ready for distribution within minutes of shift end:
| DDR Section | What the Platform Captured |
|---|---|
| Report Header | Job number, well, field, rig ID, company man, full crew roster: Lead DD, Night DD, Lead MWD, Night MWD — auto-populated from crew scheduling |
| Daily & Cumulative Cost | Per-day operating cost and running cumulative-to-date, pulled automatically from the well cost ledger |
| Drilling Summary | Start/end depth, total footage drilled, drilled hours, average ROP — broken down by rotary vs. sliding mode with split percentage |
| Drilling Parameters | WOB, pick-up weight, slack-off weight, rotary off-bottom, bottom-hole temperature, standpipe pressure (on/off bottom), delta pressure, flow rate, SPM — min and max per shift |
| BHA Description | Tool-by-tool string record: bit size and type, motor specs (bend angle, housing OD, type), MWD tool configuration, float sub, drill collars (size, weight, connection type), HWDP, specialty tools |
| Survey Data | MD-in/out, inclination in/out, azimuth in/out — for every survey station in the drilled interval |
| Casing Record | Last casing string: top, shoe depth, ID, OD |
| Mud Engineering Log | Mud type (WBM/OBM), weight, Marsh funnel viscosity, plastic viscosity, yield point, temperature, water/oil/LGS percentages |
| 24-Hour Activity Timeline | Per-operation chronological log: activity code, start time, end time, elapsed hours, depth interval — with drilling parameters (WOB, GPM, RPM, delta pressure) embedded per operation |
| Narrative Sections | 24-hour drilling summary + next-24-hours operational plan, editable by the DD before distribution |
| End-of-Well Report | On TD: aggregated compilation of all daily records — total footage, cumulative NPT by category and cause, BHA run summary, final cost vs. AFE |
Activity codes tracked automatically: Rotating · Sliding · Survey & Connection · POOH · TIH · Reaming · Circulating · Assembling BHA · Break Down BHA · Fishing · Rig Service · Stand-by · Rig Repair
Multi-Rig Visibility:
- Single unified dashboard for all 120+ simultaneous rigs
- Real-time status: drilling vs. NPT vs. maintenance vs. tripping
- Rig performance ranking by ROP, NPT%, and cost vs. AFE
Operations Management:
- Tool inventory and certification tracking across all service equipment
- Crew scheduling for directional drillers and MWD operators across all rigs and rotations
- Well cost ledger with automatic capture from field operations
AI Optimization (Phase 2):
- Predictive NPT alerts: stuck pipe, lost circulation, BHA failure — flagged before the event
- Optimal parameter recommendations (WOB, RPM, flow rate) by formation type
- BHA selection AI trained on basin-specific analog well databases
Outcomes
At peak deployment, the platform managed 120+ simultaneous active rigs across the Permian Basin, DJ Basin, Eagle Ford, and Bakken — representing more than 10% of the U.S. directional drilling market by active rig count.
| Metric | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| NPT rate (% of rig hours) | 12.4% | 7.2% (estimated avg) |
| DDR completion time | 45–90 min/day | Auto-generated |
| BHA runs per well | 2.8 avg | 1.9 avg |
| Multi-rig visibility | None | 120+ rigs, real-time |
| AFE tracking | Manual, delayed | Real-time per well |
Enterprise Validation
The platform's quality was validated through acquisition by one of the largest drilling contractors in North America — representing enterprise-scale validation of the operational intelligence approach that our team pioneered.
What This Means for Your Operation
Netora Drilling Intelligence was built from the ground up, informed by this enterprise-scale experience. Our team brings the same operational depth and domain expertise — now applied to a new platform purpose-built for mid-market directional drilling companies across the Americas, with expanded AI capability, deeper ERP integration, and full Americas coverage.
Ready to bring this intelligence to your rigs? Talk to a Drilling specialist.
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