When you walk into SLB’s Performance Live Center in Mexico City, it looks a lot like any other modern office space. But not everything is what it seems on the surface. It represents an entirely elevated and enhanced way of working for the industry that’s just getting started.

The recently opened center in Mexico City is one of four SLB regional hubs that provide a range of services to SLB’s customers across the well lifecycle — from drilling and well construction to production. It joins a broader network of six other local centers that cover needs in specific countries for data residency or other regulatory requirements.

But what makes SLB’s Performance Live Centers special?

That requires a little knowledge of what came before.

At the Mexico City center opening, we spoke to SLB’s Performance Live Center Manager Cadu Guedes who gave us some perspective on this.

“For as long as our industry has existed, operations have required the presence of engineers and experts in the field. Now, technology has advanced and made it possible for an engineer to perform operations from the office here in Mexico City for example, even if the field is hundreds or even thousands of miles away, while providing significant added value to the customers.”

The journey to now

The Performance Live Centers are an evolution of SLB’s pioneering work in real-time remote operations monitoring, which began more than 20 years ago.

Thanks to advances in edge processing, high performance compute (HPC) capabilities, and an increase in digitally connected devices in the field, SLB’s engineers today do far more than monitor operations remotely — they control them in real time.

“Performance Live Centers are at the heart of our digital operations ecosystem. Our objective is really to elevate the digital experience of our customers, delivering better performance and more efficient operations. That applies to every single part of an asset’s life, from evaluating reservoirs to drilling wells and producing them,” said SLB’s Vice President of Customer Digital Experience Mikki Corcoran.

Tell me more

From Mexico City and the three other Performance Live Centers located in Houston, Pune and Abu Dhabi, SLB delivers real-time monitoring and execution that enhances decision-making for operators. Performance Live engineers can leverage AI that is embedded in SLB’s digital solutions to oversee autonomous operations that optimize operations and reduce risks.

At the core of these centers is the integration of advanced software with field-proven hardware, connected through a secure network infrastructure. Real-time data from downhole tools, surface equipment, and sensors is processed through analytics and control systems to support remote operations, enable automation, and maintain consistent decision quality.

Why it matters

A Performance Live engineer has the capacity to oversee and deliver more jobs in a given time span compared to a field engineer by leveraging a large connected equipment footprint as well as intelligent and autonomous solutions. From the Performance Live Center, an engineer can perform more efficient drilling operations, bring a well online faster and increase production by managing connected equipment such as artificial lift pumps and multiphase surface flow meters.

When working at a Performance Live Center, an SLB engineer not only sits near cross-domain experts that can provide immediate support, he or she is also connected to the wider network of technology centers that can address field challenges under all angles – and then some! Careers can expand through disciplines thanks to the highly collaborative environment, and that also means that SLB’s customers get best-in class support throughout the years.

“When you’re working in the field, you don’t always get an opportunity to work with other engineers upstream or downstream of your role,” said Mikki Corcoran. “We love that all domains are under one roof at our Performance Live Centers. A drilling engineer can have a discussion with a production engineer to solve a problem for a customer before it even becomes a problem. Our engineers are organically uncovering opportunities like this through their interactions and that’s what makes the center model so valuable.”

Final thoughts

“For our customers, it’s always an eye-opening moment,” said Guedes. “They see first-hand how this new operating model can benefit their operations. The digital transformation of our industry is only possible through collaboration and partnership, and we look forward to continuing this journey with them.”