In a $50/bbl oil scenario, everyone is looking for ways to save money. The easiest way to cut costs is to reduce or even stop drilling activity, but we know that doing so will hurt our industry in the long run with less production and fewer discoveries.

A low oil price is good in the way that it forces all of us to look for ways to improve our business. We need to get more value for less money.

Drilling in ultradeep water will still be very expensive, but the cost savings is huge if we can be more efficient. Even if rig rates come down over time, the rates will still be a high portion of well cost.

An ultradeepwater rig is built to be able to do everything, but a lot of the things we use the rig for don’t require the full capacity that it is equipped with. If we can let these rigs do what we need their high capacity for and let other rigs and vessels to do what they are capable of, we could save time and money. We should have vessels doing tophole drilling, plugging and abandonment and leave the more challenging work to highly competent rigs.

As an industry we struggle even more with efficient completions. I believe in having dedicated rigs for completions so they can be good at them. To be good at something, you need to do it often. Challenging operations should not be run by individuals but by competent teams that can challenge and complement each other. These teams need to have a systematic approach to planning, risk identification, problem-solving and learning. Developing and improving best practices over time is the only way to be consistently better. Standardizing equipment and methods can help with avoiding problems.

To learn only from your own operations is often not good enough. Most teams don’t drill that many wells each year. We have to be able to learn from other operations in our own company and other operators. That is the most efficient way to avoid problems, identify challenges and handle them better.

Safe and efficient operations start with a good well design. We need to design robust wells with some flexibility to handle uncertainty. Most lost time is related to uncertainty in pore pressure and formation strength. Well integrity and barriers are essential to preventing a well control situation.

New technology can help us be safer and more efficient. We at Statoil are now implementing a system to control and regulate bottomhole pressure. We have taken different technologies and put together a system we call ECD Management. This should help us navigate through narrow drilling margins and avoid losses and well control situations. It will save us time and money.

Becoming more efficient is not accomplished overnight, and it will take considerable effort from everybody involved. Operators, rig contractors and service companies should all work together to get greater value for less money.

Editor’s note: Scott Weeden will return in the March issue.

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