Final week, drilling contractor Helmerich & Payne purchased Motive Drilling Applied sciences for as much as US$100 million. The deal handed with out a lot fanfare due to its measurement, maybe, however it definitely deserves consideration as a harbinger of what path the oil business is taking: automation—and additional down the street, autonomy. Motive is the creator of the Bit Steerage System, which makes use of algorithms to information the method of directional drilling, successfully taking cost of drilling decision-making. In line with the 2 corporations, the know-how…