• Sim-Stack service enables a transdisciplinary approach to the science of communications and control theory and its application to electro-hydraulic BOP systems
• - Highly sophisticated and complex virtual replica for the purposes of understanding the data, prediction and decision-making of critical systems
• - From advanced visualization through assimilation and data fusion, Sim-Stack delivers improved efficiencies, lowers non-productive time and reduces the cost of deepwater drilling

Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc. announces the launch of its Sim-Stack service, the offshore drilling industry's first cybernetic BOP service enabling Diamond Offshore to continuously and accurately assess BOP status. When issues arise, the Sim-Stack service immediately determines a proper course of action while providing a third party Statement of Fact to the operator, BSEE and other regulatory bodies.

Acting as the "virtual twin" of a BOP system on a drilling vessel, Sim-Stack replicates the BOP hydraulically and electrically to assess its overall health and regulatory compliance. When component failures are identified, Sim-Stack provides critical feedback without human bias in a systematic method to make informed subsea stack decisions.

"The majority of non-productive time for an offshore drilling rig relates to subsea equipment certification, repair and maintenance," said Marc Edwards, President and CEO of Diamond Offshore. "We have been driving innovation and thought leadership into the industry so as to reduce costs. Our Sim-Stack service is our latest advancement to reduce BOP downtime, resulting in operational efficiency gains for our clients."

Moreover, Sim-Stack serves as a robust training tool for offshore personnel to learn and further develop subsea BOP expertise in a safe and dynamic environment, similar to simulated flight training in the aviation industry.

"We are not only focused on innovative solutions to improve the economics of offshore drilling," Edwards said. "We are also building a robust set of tools to train and further develop our technical talent to efficiently execute our operational responsibilities, and Sim-Stack is a premier tool to drive this talent development to the next level."

In conjunction with BOP Risk Mitigation Services LLC, Diamond Offshore developed and implemented this new service across all eight BOP systems on its four dynamically positioned drillships working in the Gulf of Mexico. In the coming months, the Company plans to expand this service to additional rigs in its global fleet.