Halliburton Energy Services Inc. and Coterra Energy Inc. announced the launch of autonomous hydraulic fracturing technology in North America with the Octiv Auto Frac service, which is part of Halliburton’s Zeus platform.
The tech automates stage delivery execution. Coterra, an E&P based in Houston, is the first operator to fully automate and control its hydraulic fracturing design and execution. It has operations in the Permian Basin, the Marcellus Shale and the Anadarko Basin.
Steven Jolley, the Permian Basin technology manager for Halliburton, described the new technology in November at Hart Energy’s DUG Executive Oil Conference & Expo in Midland.
“Auto Frac is, in simple terms, a push-button frac,” he said. “You can come in, push a button and let it pump the design as intended without any human intervention. And customers are able to access that from an app-based platform and make changes based on what they see as well.”
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Fracture decisions have typically been managed manually while pumping. With its new automated technology, Coterra can configure the Octiv Auto Frac service with precise specifications and automate the entire process.
Coterra and Halliburton said the initial rollout of this service led to a 17% increase in stage efficiency. Coterra then deployed the Octiv Auto Frac service to its remaining completion programs Halliburton handles in the Permian.