Our Innovation Analysts recently looked into emerging technologies and up-and-coming startups working on innovative solutions for the energy sector. As there is a large number of startups working on a wide variety of solutions, we want to share our insights with you. This time, you will discover 5 promising oil & gas drilling startups.
Heat Map: 5 Top Oil & Gas Drilling Startups
Using the StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering 1.379.000+ startups & scaleups globally, we looked at innovation in the field of oil and gas. For this research, we identified 181 relevant solutions and picked 5 to showcase below. These companies were chosen based on a data-driven startup scouting approach, taking into account factors such as location, founding year, and relevance of technology, among others. Depending on your specific criteria, the top picks might look entirely different.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights 5 startups & scaleups developing oil & gas drilling solutions. Moreover, the Heat Map reveals regions that observe a high startup activity and illustrates the geographic distribution of all 181 companies we analyzed for this specific topic.
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Crude Oilfield Solutions – Directional Drilling
Directional drilling refers to the practice of non-vertical drilling, often used when vertical drilling is impractical or prohibitively expensive. While the method has been around for a long time, it only gained popularity after digital technologies started advancing at a faster rate enabling better planning of drilling operations. This method also allows for a reduction in costs, an increase in the speed of installation, and causes lesser disruption to the environment.
Crude Oilfield Solutions is a US-based startup that develops tools for directional drilling. The startup provides drilling tools and real-time monitoring for all kinds of projects, including complex offshore tasks. The startup’s Drilling vs Days (DvD) process further maximizes the return on investments (ROI) by enabling faster delivery of quality wells. The solution also enables significant savings for oil & gas companies by reducing days off authority for expenditures (AFE).
Raptor Rig – Automated Drilling Rig (ADR)
Faulty drilling equipment leads to worker injuries, causing severe burns, fractures, spinal cord injuries, and sometimes even deaths. To this end, startups are working on solutions that reduce or eliminate the presence of human workers on the rig floors. With the rise in automation, ADRs are an emerging solution. These are land-based drill rigs that autonomously move to well sites faster than conventional rigs.
Canadian startup Raptor Rig offers fully automated drilling rigs for the oil and gas industry. The Velociraptor Rig is a style jointed pipe rig that performs simultaneous connections with the speed of a coil rig. Moreover, the startup’s rig platform reduces drilling time and eliminates the need for workers on the drilling rig floor.
Phoenix RDS – Drilling Optimization
Drilling, particularly in inhospitable environments like turbulent seas, comes with its own risks. Events that cause physical damage often lead to downtime and additional expenses. Drilling optimization aims to manage the risks to minimize the impact of such events. Depending on the particular location and use case, drilling optimization accounts for a range of different factors.
Phoenix RDS is a Scottish startup that provides services for the upstream oil and gas segment. The startup’s drilling optimization solution combines theoretical knowledge with practical experience to reduce risks. The solution analyses offset wells to benchmark performance and identify potential hazards and risks. Moreover, the solution also determines the causes of non-productive time (NPT) and invisible lost time (ILT).
Heavelock – Well Planning
Oil well planning is the primary step in any drilling project and factors in geography, corporate factors, and engineering challenges. The objective is to make the well as safe as possible while reducing costs in infrastructure and operations. The geology, temperature, budget, and size of the drill hole often constrain the designing of wells. Drilling startups offer services to drill minimum-cost holes that serve the needs of their energy customers for a long duration.
Norwegian startup Heavelock develops an autonomous valve to stabilize downhole pressure. The startup’s proprietary technology simulates downhole pressure variations and other parameters. This enables managing risks related to downhole tools, as well as well pressure margins, in off-shore rigs. The solution also saves costs by optimizing tripping speed.
Kinetic Pressure Control – Subsea Drilling
Offshore drilling is more challenging than onshore drilling due to the harsher environment, as well as the turbulent nature of the waves. The ocean is hundreds to thousands of meters deep, necessitating a very long fluid column. Energy startups are working on solutions that tackle the complex engineering needs of subsea drilling.
Kinetic Pressure Control is a US-based startup that manufactures wellhead and pressure control equipment. The Kinetic Blowout Stopper (K-BOS) is a retrofittable, pyro-mechanical gate valve for shearing and sealing during drilling and other oil well control related operations. For subsea applications, K-BOS also eliminates the need for subsea accumulator bottles, saving weight and maintenance. The solution finds use in completion, intervention & workover applications, and surface drilling.
What About The Other 176 Solutions?
While we believe data is key to creating insights it can be easy to be overwhelmed by it. Our ambition is to create a comprehensive overview and provide actionable innovation intelligence and enable you to achieve your goals faster. The 5 oil & gas drilling startups showcased above are promising examples out of 181 we analyzed for this article. To identify the most relevant solutions based on your specific criteria, get in touch.
