WINNING THE WAR ON WAGES:

Rather than drillers using intuition and experience to seek oil, today a core part of NOV's business is selling technology that lets machines do the heavy lifting. "We are in the golden age of oilfield technology," says Williams.

NOV has been working to perfect its automated drilling techniques for more than three years. At one of the company's nerve centers in Houston, sensors embedded behind drill bits cutting through rock miles underground feed real-time data to charts and squiggles on giant screens. Engineers talk over headsets, using the data to advise workers on board rigs across the country and the Gulf of Mexico. A handful of wells don't get nearly as much human attention, because artificial intelligence is doing the work on some sections. Software sucks up real-time data on well conditions, runs it through painstakingly designed algorithms and immediately adjusts operations-much faster than humans can. Now that NOV has drilled automated wells for the likes of Hess HES -1.85% Corp., ConocoPhillips COP -3.55%, Chesapeake Energy CHK -4.08% and more, the verdict is in: Computers can do it 40% faster than humans.

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