The value of drilling optimization

Abstract

The well construction time and cost on the Norwegian Continental Shelf has increased drastically since 2001. The production is declining and there is a strong need to bring more wells on production while at the same time there is an increasing amount of development drilling scheduled for the upcoming years. The industry is in a time squeeze and it is crucial for future value generation on the Shelf to reduce the well construction time and cost. It is claimed that Drilling Optimization services increase drilling efficiency, reduce NPT and failures. However, it is very difficult to measure the exact effect Drilling Optimization has on the drilling operations. This thesis aims to identify and in best case quantify “The Value of Drilling Optimization” in 8 carefully selected North Sea wells. The work revealed that there was a clear improvement in drilling efficiency, but it was not possible to quantify the effect of drilling optimization. This was because the reported information did not allow the source of the improvements to be identified. An estimate of the value of the total improvements was generated based upon the difference in performance between the two batches the wells belonged to. The estimated value suggested that the improved drilling efficiency for a well designed as an average of the sample wells would reduce the drilling time with 2.54 days. The study also revealed valuable elements both with respect to the development of total drilling efficiency through the two batches and key elements related to the process of studying drilling performance. Some of the key findings were: - The optimization often gets camouflaged by other events affecting the performance targets and the absence of an identifiable effect of drilling optimization measures on/in the performance targets, does not necessarily imply that they have not been present. - Contract Incentives affects performance - Increased performance does not come for free and needs to be encouraged through contract incentives that impact all parties involved. - Real value is generated when all parties involved are working together while using their best of knowledge and ability to reach the required targets. Communication, feedback, consistency and cooperation are vital ingredients in such an approach.