KEY POINTS
- SLB secures a 15-year digital drilling deal with TotalEnergies.
- DrillPlan will connect geological data with well engineering and planning.
- The partnership aims to improve consistency and operational efficiency.
SLB, a global energy technology company, has secured a 15-year agreement with TotalEnergies to deploy digital drilling planning and engineering solutions across the French energy company’s global upstream operations.
Announced on October 8, 2026, the agreement will see TotalEnergies adopt SLB’s DrillPlan technology to connect underground geological information with well design, engineering and drilling plans.
The partnership is aimed at improving planning consistency, strengthening collaboration between technical teams and making well construction workflows more efficient. It also reflects a wider shift in the oil and gas industry towards digital platforms that can support complex operations across multiple locations. Under the agreement, TotalEnergies will use SLB’s DrillPlan solutions to create a more integrated digital environment for planning and engineering wells.
The technology is designed to bring together information that is often handled across different stages of the well construction process. This includes data from previously drilled wells, planned well trajectories, casing designs, completion requirements and other assumptions used by engineers when preparing drilling programmes.
By bringing these elements into a shared digital environment, the system is expected to help technical teams work with consistent information when making decisions about well design and construction.
The 15-year agreement represents a significant extension of the companies’ digital collaboration and provides a long-term framework for integrating the technology into TotalEnergies’ upstream operations.
Upstream activities cover the exploration and production of oil and natural gas, where effective well planning is essential to managing costs, reducing operational risks and ensuring projects are executed according to plan.
Digital platform connects subsurface data with drilling plans
A central objective of the agreement is to connect subsurface insights with well engineering and drilling planning.
Subsurface information helps energy companies understand geological formations beneath the Earth’s surface and identify the conditions that drilling operations may encounter. Engineers use this information to determine how wells should be designed and drilled.
When geological data, well trajectories and engineering requirements are handled through connected workflows, teams can make decisions using a common set of information and assumptions.
SLB’s DrillPlan solutions are designed to support this process by integrating the different inputs required throughout well construction.
The approach is expected to reduce fragmentation between planning activities, improve coordination among technical teams and provide a more consistent basis for engineering decisions.
For a company operating across several countries and geological environments, standardising these processes can also make it easier to apply established practices across a large portfolio of projects.
SLB said the agreement reflects growing demand among oil and gas operators for digital platforms that can be expanded across large and diverse operations.
Rakesh Jaggi, president of SLB’s Digital business, said energy companies were increasingly seeking scalable technologies that support more consistent planning decisions.
He explained that the agreement demonstrates how digital solutions can strengthen collaboration, improve consistency and create opportunities for further innovation in engineering workflows.
The platform is designed to accommodate existing customer processes while allowing companies to connect different workflows and introduce additional digital technologies over time.
This flexibility is important for energy companies that have already invested in internally developed software and specialised engineering processes. Rather than replacing every existing system, the approach aims to integrate established workflows into a broader digital environment.
The ability to connect different tools and processes can help companies maintain operational knowledge while improving how information moves between teams.
The partnership brings together SLB’s experience in well construction and digital technology with TotalEnergies’ existing engineering expertise and internal processes.
The companies intend to combine their respective capabilities to develop a planning environment that can be used across TotalEnergies’ global upstream portfolio.
The agreement also reflects a broader industry effort to balance customised digital tools with commercial platforms that can be deployed and maintained at scale.
Internally developed solutions can be tailored to a company’s specific operating requirements, but managing separate systems across a large organisation can create challenges involving compatibility, maintenance and consistency.
Commercial digital platforms can help address these issues by providing a common technological foundation while accommodating established customer workflows.
SLB said the DrillPlan environment would support workflow integration, scalability and the continued introduction of digital technologies.
The companies did not disclose the financial value of the 15-year agreement or provide a detailed timetable for deployment across individual operations.
