Blog · 12 October 2026 · 10 min read

AI for drilling engineers: daily drilling reports, rig overhauls and well-control questions

Drilling engineers spend a large part of every week reading and writing documents: daily drilling reports, programs, recaps, overhaul plans and cost sheets. That is exactly the work an AI assistant does well. Here are the uses that pay off first, with example questions you can try.

1. Daily drilling reports

Upload a run of DDRs and ask for what management needs each morning.

• "Summarise DDR 96: depth, operations by time, mud, problems and what to watch in the next 24 hours."
• "How did mud weight and losses change between DDR 90 and DDR 96?"
• "List every non-productive time event in these reports with its duration and cause."

2. Rig overhaul planning

A 2000 HP land rig overhaul covers the crown block, travelling block, swivel, rotary table, top drive, drawworks, hook, spinners and auxiliary brake. An assistant can turn a scope into a plan with phases (dismantle, NDT, workshop repair, re-assembly, testing), cost per equipment item, manpower and a week-by-week schedule, then keep that plan as the single source for every later question.

Figures in a planning estimate are illustrative until replaced with workshop and OEM quotations; a good assistant says so.

3. Well-control and drilling-fluid questions

Ask the textbook questions and expect the working, not a disclaimer.

• Hydrostatic pressure (psi) = 0.052 × mud weight (ppg) × TVD (ft). At 3,200 m (10,499 ft) with 12.4 ppg: about 6,770 psi.
• Kill mud weight = original mud weight + SIDPP ÷ (0.052 × TVD).
• Driller's method: two circulations, start immediately. Wait-and-weight: one circulation with kill mud, lower casing pressure peaks.

For a live well, any figure must be confirmed against the approved program by the responsible engineer.

4. Cost sheets and presentations

Ask for an Excel cost breakdown per equipment item (workshop, manpower, consumables, NDT, contingency), a RACI matrix, an org chart or a 20-slide presentation in your currency. They should be built from the same project figures, so the deck and the workbook agree.

5. Tracking progress by talking

"Drawworks dismantling is 60% done, the drum bearing seized, two days lost." An assistant connected to the project tracker should update the task, log the delay and its reason, and move the dates of every task that depends on it.