Benchmarking Drilling Performance of MODU Operating Practices for Deepwater Drilling

Abstract

This article, written by Assistant Technology Editor Karen Bybee, contains highlights of paper SPE 92235, "Benchmarking Drilling Performance: Achieving Excellence in MODU's Operating Practices for Deepwater Drilling," by Hugo Valdez, SPE, and Jurgen Sager, Transocean, prepared or the 2005 SPE/IADC Drilling Conference, Amsterdam, 23-25 February. Practical and straightforward application of continuous-improvement and bench-marking techniques to monitor, document, analyze, and detect best practices during the drilling process can improve operational efficiency and reduce well costs significantly. The full-length paper describes how a rigorous approach to performance benchmarking, with documented objectives, user-friendly and meaningful reports, and critical process and task analysis, can help identify nonvalue-added activities and performance gaps in the well-construction process. Introduction Since the early days of offshore drilling when operators first mounted land rigs on piers, mechanization and automation gradually have changed the way oil wells are drilled. As the industry moved into deeper waters, while targeting even deeper pay zones and requiring large wellbores to achieve the production rates to support costly projects, drillpipe, casing, and riser sizes and weights continued to increase. Safety considerations drove the need to mechanize pipe handling and minimize manual intervention. Drilling-rig technology evolved from the traditional rig-floor configuration of slips and tongs to the highly sophisticated mechanized multi-activity designs found on the latest generation of semisubmersibles and drillships. While significant improvements in safety have been achieved by use of more mechanized and automated equipment, some critical-path operations—particularly those involving moving drillpipe, casing, and tubing into and out of the wellbore—were slower than expected. After noting that rigs with exactly the same capabilities performed differently when operating under similar conditions, an internal benchmarking program was launched to identify, understand, compare, measure, and adapt best practices from top-performing mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs) to help improve performance of a particular drilling rig.