The world’s biggest provider of the technique that unlocks oil and natural gas from shale rock has a vision of push-button fracking that’s still years in the making. But for now, the Houston-based contractor unveiled a new service that will help move in that direction.
“This is new territory for the industry,” Scott Gale, who oversees the new fracking service at Halliburton, said in an interview on the sidelines of Halliburton’s annual technology conference in Houston. “We recognize that digital technologies are descending on our industry, so expectations are high.”
Typically, workers have to rev up the pumps manually, which can lead to inefficiency and delays, Gale said. Before wells are fracked, automated rigs are already being used to drill them.