SiteCom: Digital transformation in drilling and well operations

This article summarises a recent conversation hosted by Upstream Content Studio with Kongsberg Digital CEO, Shane McArdle and DN Media Group's Jack Dean. Together, they discuss SiteCom and how it is helping well and drilling operations with digital transformation.

SiteCom has been in the market for over two decades. Why has it remained so central to drilling and well operations in the industry? 

Today, SiteCom covers 30% of drilling operations worldwide with an unprecedented level of uptime. Making technology easy to use is hard, but we make sure to do it in collaboration with our customers. SiteCom is bringing contextualized data to teams both on- and offshore, across geographies and between time zones for consistent decision-making. It solves real, evolving problems – and that’s why operators continue to rely on it. 

How is SiteCom enabling real digital transformation for oil and gas companies today? 

Digital transformation is about changing the way people work – and a big part of that is understanding the workflow processes of end users. We have multiple types of users: those who use it daily for interpretation and real-time decision support, sporadic users that check in to see the status of an activity, and a growing user base that consumes data to train AI models.  

When these users have access to a tool like SiteCom, we get insights into how they interact with our technology. Alongside a huge database of historical data, we can start to identify patterns and use these to start automating workflows. The move from digital transformation to AI transformation is very much supported by the backbone that is SiteCom.  

Integration is often a challenge in digital transformation. How does SiteCom approach this? 

Integration and interoperability are perhaps SiteCom’s biggest strengths. From day one, we focused on data aggregation – it’s essential to have that foundation for data workflow assurance in place. This includes: 

• Global support services 

• Maintaining strong data governance 

• Full WITSML compliance for current and past versions 

How are operators using SiteCom today to navigate market volatility and operational risk? 

SiteCom is applicable to all operations in the well lifecycle. Given our cyclical industry, we shift focus between different activities. SiteCom acts as the master store for the sensory data of all operations – meaning it’s a rich source of knowledge and learning, providing opportunities for improvement.  

Couple that with an open, high-performance system that can host new technologies, and you can start exploring new approaches and working practices. 

What’s next for SiteCom? How will the platform evolve? 

We focus on doing well operations exceptionally well. That means ensuring trust in data-driven workflows, a key foundation for technologies that leverage AI. We are also excited to introduce technology developed in our flagship digital twin product to SiteCom through agentic AI solutions. 

With continued focus on usability, intelligence and impact, SiteCom will continue to deliver tools that make sense and have meaning to end users. There’s a long runway for the platform in this space.