Implementation of a Drilling-and-Completions Advanced Collaborative Environment - Taking Advantage of Change

Abstract

This article, written by Senior Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper SPE 123801, "The Implementation of a Drilling-and- Completions Advanced Collaborative Environment - Taking Advantage of Change," by S.J. Sawaryn, SPE, S. Goodwin, A. Deady, SPE, C. Critchley, and B. Swanson, SPE, BP plc, prepared for the 2009 SPE Offshore Europe Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, Aberdeen, 8–11 September. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Advanced collaborative environments (ACEs) were planned as an integral part of the operator's new Aberdeen office. The move, in early 2008, coincided with a major business reorganization that prompted a critical reassessment of their scope and functionality. The selected approach is well suited to operations in a mature area. During the pilot project, three ACE implementation types were tested. By June 2008, seven rigs were being supported simultaneously, including monitoring the progress of a wired-pipe trial in Trinidad. Introduction The operator's North Sea activities involve both planning and day-to-day management of platform, mobile-rig, and land-rig operations. The assets on which the rigs operate are in various stages of maturity, with older assets characterized by aging infrastructure and infill-well drilling to reservoirs that are progressively smaller. For these assets, any new drilling activity must fit into the ongoing maintenance schedules, and managing the personnel on board (POB) is critically important. Moving traditional rigsite activities onshore and use of collaborative environments played an important role in the success on the Andrew platform. Drilling and completion activities are more data oriented than ever before, and the same information and understanding is needed at both ends of a conversation. Through collaboration, the life of older assets can be extended, and events can be used to learn and to influence development and operations on younger assets. ACEs, therefore, have a critical role. Project Mercury Project Mercury was established to manage all aspects of the operator's new building, including design and implementation of the operations and drilling ACEs. The Andrew onshore operations center (OOC) had demonstrated the value of collaborative environments for POB management, but had not attempted to address the additional needs and issues that might arise with the use of OOCs to improve drilling performance. An earlier comparison of OOC concepts in the North Sea categorized them according to the degree of technical and sociotechnical content involved in the change and the degree of integration across projects or disciplines. Given the wide range of choices, the Project Mercury team elected to pilot various configurations before selecting one for implementation in the new building.