Abstract: As an ideal paradigm of intelligent drilling, digital twin technology shows great potential. However, due to the complex industrial system characteristics of drilling engineering, the research and development (R & D) of digital twin technology has been difficult and is still in its infancy. Therefore, on the basis of analyzing the development status of digital twin technology in the petroleum industry, six supporting technologies involved in drilling digital twin were clarified. Adhering to the business needs of drilling engineering, the overall architecture of a drilling digital twin system was designed, and the function and model designs were described in detail. Through three R & D tests of wellsite data standard collection, mechanism calculation model coupling and three-dimensional (3D) dynamic fusion display, the feasibility of implementing the drilling digital twin technology was verified from a technical point of view. The research takes the position that the construction of the drilling digital twin system should take drilling engineering data as the foundational bases of data. The “mechanism + data” dual computing core should be built based on the business needs, and the twin model and business application module should be developed as carriers, so as to realize the application of the drilling digital twin system. The research results are of great significance for promoting the application of digital twin technology in drilling engineering.