A new well planning service helps operators turn corners instead of cutting them.

Most of the near future floating projects focus on West Africa or Brazil, where attention to detail is everything when planning a well. Unfortunately, many operators don't have the luxury to spend that kind of time. That's where well planning services can help.
Baker Hughes' well planning service, Oasis, got its start as a collaborative effort with BP. "We trialed a manual process with BP on a well that was part of a development program," said Nigel Meany, director of Oasis Engineering Services. "They were drilling the 13th well while we were doing the study. On the 14th well we had a step change in drilling performance."
A well that was expected to take 62 days to drill only took 40, and the company decided it was onto something. Meany was given the go-ahead to develop a commercial service. His next job was for Statoil, where a section that had required 42 days to drill with 15 or 16 bit runs was drilled in 8 days on a single bit.
"It was headline stuff, very exciting times," Meany said.
What has developed since those early days is a staff of 80 spread throughout the world that works with the operator to determine the best, most efficient practices in drilling. The process evolves through four stages of continuous improvement for drilling performance - planning, execution, post-well analysis and knowledge capture. The planning phase involves a detailed study of offset wells identifying operations where improvements can be achieved. During this process Oasis engineers work with drilling team members to reconcile bit recommendations, bottomhole assembly design, drilling fluid, wellbore positioning and casing program requirements to deliver a series of optimized recommendations addressing the complete drilling system.
During drilling, the well's prognosis is updated on a daily basis. Problems are identified and diagnosed, and strategies are jointly devised to overcome these problems.
After the well is drilled, a post-well evaluation captures lessons that are passed on to the client and worked into the next predrill study. Performance is compared with expectations, problems and accomplishments are analyzed, and recommendations are made for future drilling operations.
"The whole process is to plan and design what you're going to do, execute and adjust as you come across life's little surprises and then measure at the end what it is you said you were going to do and what you actually did," Meany said.
Not surprisingly, this approach requires a fair amount of staff training. So the company has developed a suite of software products that provide training and support for the staff and also serve as a tool to capture learning.
The Drill Bit Advisor is a rule-based system to identify preferred and acceptable generic bit features for the drilling environment under study. "The system was developed to explain its answers," Meany said. "It's not just a black box that spouts out recommendations. It gives you rules as to why it's making that recommendation and explains that recommendation, therefore passing on valuable understanding." The system is used for scenario planning and as a second opinion after the Oasis staff has studied the situation and made recommendations.
Another system is an award-winning adaptation of Lotus Notes software that outlines generic best practices, along with a case-based system that captures learning from each project. Finally there is Oasis University, a detailed training tool that helps fill the knowledge gaps of the staff.
All of these applications link to each other so that, for instance, an engineer who encounters questions about a certain process or terminology while studying the Drill Bit Advisor can link to the university to get up to speed on that particular area.
But Meany stressed there's more to a sophisticated well planning service than sexy software tools. "We're all about facilitation, and we're all about applying our knowledge," he said. "It's common practice to talk about tools, and the industry is very tool-dependent. There is a whole suite of tools that we can apply, but our emphasis is on the knowledge that we apply."
So why do operators need a well planning service? Meany said some clients aren't convinced the service is necessary, and some of the drilling engineers at the client company are frankly threatened by the insinuation that they're not doing their jobs. But he added Oasis is not intended to be a replacement for the drilling team.
"We're decision support for that drilling team," he said. "We're trying to help them do the things that otherwise get left on the table because there's no time to do them. Our value proposition is that we believe there is more value by exercising the data, and doing those activities delivers efficiencies."
Oasis plans to add another module to its service soon that incorporates additional geological and geophysical data analysis, and Meany hopes the end result will be a service that will cover the entire process of well construction and be able to meet any aspect of a client's needs. But the service's basic goals will remain the same.
"We could be bigger than we are," Meany said. "But our focus has been on maintaining performance excellence rather than market share or just trying to grow our size. We know we have some competitors. But we believe we're pushing the envelope harder than anyone else out there."

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