A New Way of Managing Drilling Required Bridging Old Divides

Drilling a well by the book has its downsides. A major downside of these plans in a PDF book format is they “do not include all the information needed to drill a well.” For those doing the work, they have the added downside of “not being formatted to match the real-time workflow.” And the plans are a one-way form of communication. “The pre-spud meeting might be the first time the driller is exposed to that well program,” said Matt Isbell, senior drilling engineering advisor for Hess who presented an alternative to that system at the 2021 IADC/SPE International Drilling Conference and Exhibition (SPE 204050). The paper coauthored by Hess, Nabors, and Halliburton described a process to replace the book with instructions and information delivered on a screen as needed while drilling. The goal was to provide a common view of the plan and the information needed to build a well for the driller and other parties working on the rig or remotely. The new digital system streamlined a process that included 20 separate documents using various templates plus multiple file-sharing sites and emails. “As the pace and complexity increases, how do we better manage this as a single system,” said Isbell. His response to the rhetorical question: “Why not just email files back and forth?” was “We believe we have reached the point where we cannot just send information back and forth in time to efficiently drill the well.” In addition to offering a step-by-step version of the plan, this resource offers a range of instructions and resources—from the well geometry and potential hazards to best practices and instructions on automated procedures. It replaces the book which was never a good problem-solving tool. “If you wanted to find out anything afterward, you had to troll though a 100-page document,” said Moray Laing, director of digital value well construction engineering for Halliburton. The paper coauthor remembers those books when he was working offshore many years ago. Halliburton helped address the technical challenge with a system it has been working on for 3 years, which is also being used by Aker, BP, and Maersk, who are working on a system for remote operating centers to manage offshore operations. Other companies, such as Schlumberger and drilling advisors Corva, are working on new ways to deliver drilling instructions which incorporate the drilling plan in the displays. What was different, and difficult, about the Hess-led effort was the collaboration to create a unified plan for the display. “The goal was a system pulling it all together, integrating a series of steps,” Laing said. He was referring to what he described as a complex well-construction plan based on Hess’ design that would be executed by Nabors. The digital well plan required Hess and Nabors to agree on how the work should be done and how that should be communicated to those building the plan. When the partners began meeting to figure out how to do that, however, they discovered some very basic differences such as differing definitions of the word “activity.”