SiteCom Link: Closing the gap between disconnected systems and real-time well operations

Disconnected systems cannot keep up with modern well operations

The old assumption was that integration is a finite project: connect two systems, map standardised objects, and move on. That assumption no longer holds in modern drilling and well operations.

Planning and operational data does not live in one or two systems. The success of a single operation can depend on real-time data, planning data, geological context, specialist engineering calculations, AI and ML algorithms, historical post-processed data, and the collective expertise of engineers.

What is the hidden cost of disconnected systems?

At the low end, disconnected systems manifest as repeated manual effort across teams. Engineers reconcile information between systems, while analytics teams spend a disproportionate amount of time preparing data rather than using it. In practice, setup is often performed manually, with mismatched units and inconsistent objects requiring users to locate data across systems, map equivalents, or recreate them using WITSML-based tools.

At the higher end, the impact shifts from inefficiency to decision quality. Drilling engineers may be operating against outdated trajectory revisions where updates have not been synchronised. Geosteering workflows can depend on manual export and reformatting of revised formation markers from central repositories. Visualisation applications frequently present live well data without aligned planning context, forcing engineers to compare information across systems. The outcome is not only operational friction but material risk: real-time applications, digital twins, analytics workflows, and operational decisions proceed on incomplete or outdated planning context.

The clearest signal of this cost appears in simulation setup, where assembling the required datasets from multiple sources can take days or weeks. To achieve near-real-time prediction and advisory from simulations, setup and updates must be completed within minutes.

This is where real integration and mapping must be in place.

How do you connect different systems together?

Connecting different systems cannot be treated as a one-off integration project built on custom scripts, manual mapping, specialist support, and lengthy coordination. That traditional pattern becomes burdensome to maintain as APIs evolve, mnemonics change, infrastructure is migrated, or planning systems are updated. The real operational challenge is not simply to store more data - it is to keep planning context and real-time execution continuously connected in a way that remains usable as wells, revisions, sources, and environments change.

To achieve this, integration must address three connected dimensions:

• Connectivity: Operational and planning data is distributed across WITSML servers, EDM (Engineer's Data Model) environments, OSDU platforms, and third-party engineering applications - each exposing data through different mechanisms (APIs, databases, streaming protocols, or proprietary interfaces).
• Contextual alignment: Connected systems still fail to align without common identifiers and conventions - well and wellbore IDs, naming, hierarchies, units, schemas, and data models - forcing manual reconciliation.
• Operationalisation: Integrations must adapt continuously as new wells appear, plans are revised, and environments evolve. Without holistic management, they become fragile and impossible to scale.

What does SiteCom Link do?

SiteCom Link acts as the integration layer between external operational systems, planning platforms, and SiteCom Store. It provides a set of configurable connectors and integration services that enable systems to communicate without the need for extensive custom development.

At the foundation is source connectivity. The platform is designed to connect to multiple EDM and OSDU sources, reflecting the operational reality where engineering activities run in parallel across specialised systems, each optimised for a specific domain.

The next layer is mapping and transformation. SiteCom Link enables configurable mapping, transformation, and data fetching to align planning and operational datasets into a consistent operational context. This is essential in environments where object structures and naming conventions differ, and where manual mapping would otherwise be required to reconcile equivalent objects across systems.

A key capability is managed, subscription-based data synchronisation. The platform includes a dedicated backend service responsible for job management, data fetching, and resynchronisation. Once configured, data updates at defined intervals, reducing the need for continuous user intervention and ensuring that changes from source systems are consistently reflected.

Finally, governance is implemented through configuration. Effective integration relies on clearly defined system-of-record ownership, consistent identifiers for wells and wellbores, standardised naming conventions, unit mapping and conversion rules, and structured handling of object states and planning packages. These elements form the foundation required to move from fragile, manual integration towards scalable and automated workflows.

How can SiteCom Link be used?

Consider a simulation-driven operational workflow that combines real-time, planning, and model data into a single execution context. Real-time data is sourced from SiteCom, planning data for upcoming sections is retrieved from EDM, and both subsurface model and revised data are integrated from OSDU data stores. These datasets are used together to enable simulations that reflect both current operations and forward-looking well execution scenarios.

On the planning side, EDM contributes key engineering objects such as tubulars, trajectory, wellbore geometry, and operational reports including drilling and fluids data. From the subsurface domain, OSDU provides model curves, with the potential to extend towards additional contextual elements such as revised formation markers. Simulation outputs are then written back into SiteCom, ensuring that results remain part of the operational data environment throughout well execution.

For example, simulation outputs enable direct comparison between physics-based dynamic models and real-time responses from rig systems and well environments, supporting more informed decisions in drilling, cementing, and pore pressure–fracture control. By stacking simulated scenarios against actual operational data, engineers can detect deviations early, optimise parameters, and reduce the risk of instability or loss events. This effectively creates a hyper-fast digital twin of the well, significantly accelerating hazard identification and enabling proactive operational optimisation.

In practice, SiteCom Link combined with the SiteCom Data Platform (WITSML Store, GM Hub, Data Quality) eliminates manual data assembly. Once mappings are defined, setups are repeatable and automatically synchronised across systems.