In context
In early 2023, the oil and gas industry was increasingly turning to automation and digitalization to improve drilling efficiency and safety. Nabors, a major drilling contractor, sought to strengthen its Smart Suite of automation products by acquiring specialized engineering technology firms.
What was reported
Nabors acquired MindMesh, an engineering technology firm known for its downhole simulation and modeling technologies. MindMesh co-founder and CTO Raju Gandikota joined Nabors as a Director in the Controls and Automation group.
The acquisition aims to integrate MindMesh's digital modeling and visualization technologies into Nabors' Smart Suite. Key to this is the RiMo Real-Time Digital Twin platform, which uses physics-based and AI/ML-driven models to simulate drilling operations, predict dysfunctions in real time, and provide post-job analytics.
Nabors plans to embed a basic engineering workstation leveraging MindMesh into its RigCLOUD ecosystem in 2023. RigCLOUD is an open platform for hosting drilling and analytics software at the rig site, on the web, and on mobile devices.
Why it mattered
This acquisition underscored the growing importance of digital twin technology in industrial automation, particularly for predictive maintenance and operational optimization. By integrating MindMesh's capabilities, Nabors aimed to reduce drilling variability, improve equipment reliability, and enable customers to de-risk projects before actual drilling, setting a precedent for similar moves in other manufacturing sectors.
“The idea is to get to TD as quickly as possible without breaking tools.”
Source: Robotics & Automation News (roboticsandautomationnews.com) · Published 2023-01-29 · “Oil and gas drilling contractor Nabors acquires digital twin developer MindMesh”