Drilling and Completions
Keep a clear goal in focus
minutes reading time
Rod Gibbons
Drilling and completion allows the development of hydrocarbon reserves. This activity is unseperable from oil and gas production, but most times the connection between the team that constructs the well and the team that operates the well have limited connections.
By bringing these teams together and forming a common purpose, our managment of drilling and completion projects are more successful because it is understood by everyone involved what the key goals and risks are to a D&C activity.
Other projects: Well Intervention
Working Inside-Out
A truly successful D&C project can only occur by starting from the reservoir management plan and clearly defining the goals for new well construction (or a workover, or an abandonment). From the reservoir goal the next step is to develop a concept for the completion, from sandface, to tubing size, to surface tie-in, and it quickly becomes clear the requirements for the flow-wetted parts of the production process.
The well architecture is then designed around the completion concept and it is now easy to see the impact of engineering choices on the project goals. By working "inside out", well construction trade-offs can quickly be understood and high quality decisions made.
With a design concept in place, the D&C team can be staffed based on the equipment and people required to provide the expertise to plan and execute the desired solution.
This approach rejects the idea of "we have always done it this way", and gives an unbiased evalution of all reasonable alternatives without a bias for alternatives that may not support the ultimate project goal.
Execute, execute, execute
When the execution phase approaches and the activity levels start to increase (designs complete and long leads ordered, for exampe), it is important to establish schedule and cost control processes. When established early, it is relatively simple to continue this process through execution where costs and schedule reporting become critical.
Value can be ensured during the execution phase by ensuring the original reservoir management goals are not compromised through necessary execution decisions and actions.
Keeping communication open and clear ensures stakeholders are sufficiently informed, and decision makers have the correct information in a timely manner.
"Well construction aligned with asset management"
Understanding the goals and issues faced by both asset and drilling team members is critical to ensuring drilling and completions project success. Ensuring the well construction activities are aligned with asset strategy is the key to a project that has a lasting contribution to the oil and gas company.
By working together, multiple stakeholders achieve success in Drilling and Completions and the risk of negative outcomes is signifacantly reduced.
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