Big win for SLB as ‘major’ AI-enabled deepwater oil drilling gig lands on its task list

U.S.-headquartered technology player SLB has tucked a multi-well drilling assignment, which will incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), under its belt at a deepwater oil project 30 kilometers south of the Mexico-U.S. maritime border, which Australia’s energy giant Woodside operates.

SLB describes this deal as a “major” drilling contract, which will allow it to oversee the delivery of 18 ultra-deepwater wells using an integrated services approach and AI-enabled drilling capabilities to improve operational efficiency and well quality at Woodside’s ultra-deepwater Trion development project off the coast of Mexico.

The U.S. player’s full scope of work entails digital directional drilling services and hardware, logging while drilling (LWD), surface logging, cementing, drilling and completions fluids, completions, and wireline services.

Wallace Pescarini, SLB’s President of Offshore Atlantic, commented: “With water depths of up to 2,500 meters, the Trion development presents challenging technical conditions for drilling and well construction.

“SLB has extensive expertise in ultra-deepwater drilling projects globally and advanced technologies, including AI and digitally enabled hardware, to bring these wells online safely, efficiently and reliably.”

This assignment is set to begin in early 2026 and will be managed through SLB’s Performance Live digital service delivery centers. Woodside, which is developing the field in the Perdido Belt of the western Gulf of Mexico in partnership with Pemex, is targeting the first production in 2028.

The new contract follows another deal for the Trion development, which was awarded by Woodside to the SLB OneSubsea joint venture in 2023, encompassing subsea horizontal trees, controls, and topside equipment. The manufacturing process is currently on track.

“We will also leverage the strategic investments we’ve made in local talent and supply chains in Mexico, which will help support the on-time delivery of this project,” added Pescarini.

Following the final investment decision (FID) in June 2023, the Australian giant got a stamp of approval from the Mexican regulator, Comision Nacional de Hidrocarburos (CNH), in August 2023 for its Trion field development plan (FDP).

This project comes with an estimated total capital expenditure of $7.2 billion and is portrayed as the first deepwater development in Mexico at a water depth of 2,500 meters. With a production capacity of 100,000 barrels per day, the Trion floating production unit (FPU) will be connected to a 950,000-barrel capacity floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit.

SBM Offshore recently confirmed the ceremony to mark the first steel cut of the disconnectable turret mooring system for the Trion FSO project, which was held on February 12, 2025, at Cosco Shipyard in Qidong, representing the start of the construction phase.

Many companies have secured jobs on the project, including Wood and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries, which assigned a commissioning contract for the FPU to Houston-based Gate Energy. 

In addition, Corinth Pipeworks is on the list of contracted companies, alongside COSCO Shipping & Guangzhou Salvage Heavy Transport (CSGS) and AXTech.