DEO application: Case study on delivering top quartile performance in PDO

Field X is an exploration/appraisal gas field located in North Oman. Four wells had been drilled up to mid 2012 where drilling performance was poor. A promising gas discovery in the fourth well drove a decision to accelerate the delivery of another four wells in a short period of time in order to further appraise the prospect and hence accelerate field development. The time constraint for planning another four wells and the poor drilling performance experienced in the first four wells called for a step change in the approach of planning and execution of these wells. A dedicated team was formed to plan the wells applying DEO concepts. The DEO approach looked at offset wells and nearby fields' practices with detailed time breakdown, taking best practices for replication and addressing risks/pain areas to remove performance limiters. It then looked at new technologies available in the market that can be implemented to overcome or eliminate performance limiters. Such new technologies implemented included casing drilling, inhibited drilling fluids, bits and BHA's. The approach also looked at the different strategies for casing setting depths combined with mud programs and bits & BHA programs. Detailed BHA modeling and analysis was conducted to choose optimum bits/BHA combinations with optimum parameters per formation. A direct and continuous communication and engagement with the execution teams, office and rig teams, was maintained throughout the planning, execution and post drilling. This was one of the key success factors in implementing the improvements. The results were stunning by delivering those wells in an average time half that of the first four wells, bringing significant cost savings and making the project economics for the field development even more attractive. This paper will explain the DEO methods implemented that enabled the top quartile performance in these wells and share lessons learned from such implementation.