ADIPEC 2026: AI won't replace the drilling superintendent

Walk the halls at ADIPEC this year and AI will be on almost every stand. It deserves the attention. Real-time drilling data, rig automation and remote operations centres are changing how wells are delivered.

But there's a conversation that happens away from the stage. The people who know what a well is doing before the data shows it are drilling superintendents and wellsite supervisors with 25 or 30 years on rigs. Many of them are a few years from retirement.

Experience is not a dataset

AI can flag an anomaly. It cannot make the call at 03:00 when the indicators are ambiguous and the crew is waiting for a decision. That judgement is built on the drill floor, under the eye of someone who has made those calls before. It takes years, and only part of it can be shortened.

The model that built today's supervisors

Most of today's senior wellsite people came through structured operator programmes: a graduate intake, staged study and exams, rotations, and years of mentored site time before sole responsibility. Some of those programmes still run. The downturns of 2015 and 2020 thinned graduate intakes across the industry, and more supervision moved to contract, where development often falls to the individual.

Where AI does help

Simulators, digital twins and real-time operations centres can let one experienced superintendent support more junior supervisors across several wells. Used well, AI makes site hours count for more. Used badly, it becomes a reason to cut them.

Five questions worth asking at ADIPEC

1. What is your pipeline from wellsite engineer to drilling superintendent, and how many years does it take?
2. Who is mentoring your next supervisors, and is that time protected or squeezed around operations?
3. How much of your wellsite supervision is contracted, and who owns those people's development?
4. Is AI in your plans replacing site hours or making them more valuable?
5. If your three most experienced superintendents retired next year, which wells would worry you?

Meet Richard at ADIPEC

I'll be in Abu Dhabi for ADIPEC from 2 to 5 November. If your supervisor bench is on your mind, I'd welcome the conversation.

Meet Richard at ADIPEC