ON DEMAND: Analytics and Automation to Improve Drilling Performance

Paul Pastusek is a Drilling Mechanics Advisor at ExxonMobil.  His expertise is in: automation, drill string dynamics, steerable systems, borehole quality, bit applications, cutting mechanics, rig instrumentation and control systems, and failure analysis. He received the 2020 SPE International Drilling Engineering Award and the 2017 GCS Regional Drilling Engineering Award.  Paul has a BSME from Texas A&M University and an MBA from the University of Houston.  He has 43 years’ experience redesigning drilling processes and tools to the economic limit. He is a Registered Professional Engineer, holds 42 US patents, and has delivered 41 papers and presentations on drilling technology.  He is currently leading two industry efforts: upgrading the IADC Code System and creating an Open Source Drilling Community.

Pradeep Ashok is a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and a Senior Research Scientist in the Rig Automation and Performance Improvement in Drilling (RAPID) Group at The University of Texas (UT) at Austin. He manages the data analytics program in RAPID that works towards developing data analytics skills in the future workforce. He actively volunteers his time for the industry and is a committee member in the SPE ATCE and the SPE/IADC Drilling conferences. He is an active participant in the Open Subsurface Data Universe (OSDU) effort that is currently ongoing. He is also the CTO of Intellicess, an oil and gas services software company he co-founded in 2010.