Currently, the hydraulic fracturing industry is in a similar position with regard to automation as the transportation industry is with driverless cars. Much of the sensor and software technology that enables automation already exists but switching from legacy systems requires incremental steps. We need to get comfortable with features like automated collision avoidance first and it'll be a long time before it's safe to watch Netflix while "driving" from A to B.

This week Darcy's members met at a Frac Automation Forum featuring Cold Bore Technology to discuss the current state of innovation and what the future may hold. While it is clear that the industry is capable of highly efficient operations on any given day, the industry struggles to achieve these results consistently on an average day.

Whether it's a manufacturing process or a field operation, one of automation's biggest strengths is improving consistency. While it may seem obvious that automating parts of the fracturing process, like switching wellheads during zipper operations, would improve consistency and overall efficiency, survey data suggests the industry is highly split when it comes to the role of automation in frac operations.

About half of Darcy members view automating wells swaps to be a significant value add and only a third of respondents believe closed-loop automation with humans providing oversight is the future. Perhaps asking completions engineers about their views on closed-loop automation is akin to asking a taxi driver for their thoughts on self-driving vehicles but the story is more nuanced. The skepticism likely reflects that many operators still see low hanging fruit for efficiency gains through simpler tasks like tracking data and investigating where any why non-productive time occurs. With 70% of operators now collecting standardized frac data, these low handing fruit will eventually be found and the need to chase improvements through other means, such as automation will increase.

That being said, about 25% of Darcy members are already deploying predictive models for on-the-fly adjustments. As these deployments prove value and case studies emerge, operators will be able to leverage the data they are collecting now to fuel future predictive AI models. The fact that E&Ps are actively deploying automated solutions and predictive analytics shows that these concepts are not a mirage, however it is also clear that a future state of full automation is on a more distant horizon than the one in front of us today.

Have a different perspective on this topic? Let us know in the comments below!