AADE-07-NTCE-44 ConocoPhillips Onshore Drilling Centre in Norway - A Virtual Tour of the Centre Including a Link Up with Offshore Mike Herbert, Reagan James and John Aurlien, ConocoPhillips Norway Copyright 2007, AADE This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2007 AADE National Technical Conference and Exhibition held at the Wyndam Greenspoint Hotel, Houston, Texas, April 10-12, 2007. This conference was sponsored by the American Association of Drilling Engineers. The information presented in this paper does not reflect any position, claim or endorsement made or implied by the American Association of Drilling Engineers, their officers or members. Questions concerning the content of this paper should be directed to the individuals listed as author(s) of this work. Abstract “eField or Integrated Operations include the use of This paper outlines the industry-leading experiences of the information technology to change work processes to achieve COPNo. drilling group over the last 3 years within Integrated better decisions, to remotely control equipment and related Operations and real-time operations. processes, and to move functions and operations personnel onshore” as stated in the Norwegian White Paper, number 38, Integrated Work Process Developments 2002. The integration processes are best expressed in the chart Integrated Operations are often characterized by operational shown in Fig. 1. The industry sees the following development concepts where new information and communication scenario for IO2 where the Generation 2 processes develop as technologies are used in real time to optimize offshore oil and a result of more integration not only internally, but externally gas exploration and production resources. This enables large with the Operator’s service providers. volumes of data to be measured, sent to users via high bandwidth computer links that are shared amongst a broader user audience, The Onshore Drilling Centre and Offshore Integrated and data that can be used to form better decisions. Systems Integrated Operations cover all aspects of business activities The Onshore Drilling Centre (ODC) at the COPNo. from Exploration to Drilling to Production though this offices in Stavanger, Norway, consists of a group of inter- discussion will focus on the Drilling aspects. For ConocoPhillips related operations rooms. Norway (COPNo.) to employ this technology there has been a The centre was initially established with a large need to re-organize operations, to investigate new work operations room as can be seen to the lower right in the picture processes and a need to establish a willingness to share in Fig. 2. Large wall screens display drilling parameters such information. as depth, bit weight, string torque, gas levels, mud weight and According to a study by the Cambridge Energy Research volume information. Geological formation information can Associates in 2003, the increased use of new and emerging also be displayed, including real-time visualisation and the digital technologies could potentially boost world oil reserves by recent addition of a high-resolution digital microscope 125 billion barrels over the next 5 years. Petoro A.S. of Norway offshore, to help in the decision-making process. Closed- has estimated the added value of applying eField and Integrated circuit TV (CCTV) is also available from the offshore Operations (IO) on the Norwegian Continental Shelf to be USD operations. The operation room supports all COPNo. drilling 25 billion. A more recent report by the OLF (Norwegian Oil facilities in Norway, and also provides services for UK-based Industry Association) report indicates that the value of IO to drilling operations. Operational geologists, Measurement Norway could be 250 billion Norwegian kroner (USD 35 Whilst Drilling (MWD), data or logging engineers, directional billion)1. In summary, industry studies indicate that the potential drillers, plus others, work remotely from the operations room. benefits for IO are significant. The large central room is primarily for collaboration and Five key digital technologies will substantially improve the video-conference meetings with offshore operations and oil industry’s ability to see reserves more clearly, plan optimal external parties. The communications systems have been set drilling and production strategies and manage operations more up to enable a single morning video-conference meeting with efficiently. They are: all six offshore operations, the drilling contractor and other a. Remote sensing service providers, which ensures that all onshore and offshore b. Visualization operations are up-dated within a 30 minute meeting period. c. Intelligent drilling and completions There is a large 3-dimensional visualization room to the d. Automation, and left of the picture in Fig. 2. The visualization facility enables a e. Data integration. 3-D view of the field area and reservoirs, with any number of 1 http://www.olf.no/io/aktuelt/?32691 2 http://www.olf.no/io/arbprosesser/?30333 2 M. Herbert, R. James and J. Aurlien AADE-07-NTCE-44 selected wells showing. This room is used for well planning - Wireless video and audio communication between and reservoir evaluation purposes. It is also used in a real-time VisiWear units offshore and PCs onshore mode particularly whilst geosteering in the reservoir. Two - Wide variety of real-time data transfers smaller operations rooms are shown in the upper central - Remote support / remote control picture in Fig. 2 together with three offices to the upper right. The ODC and related offshore systems that enable the Video conferencing, once regarded as too unreliable or COPNo. efield operations originally cost USD 4 million to set cumbersome to use - or simply not feasible in an offshore up. This includes refurbishing of office space. environment - is now a business-critical service within Documented savings from using the ODC initially ConocoPhillips in Norway. About 2,200 video conference compared to operating conventionally has shown that the meetings are held each month, the majority of these between ODC was benefiting positively by over USD 1 million per onshore and offshore. Moreover, the demand for point-to- month. This has steadily increased to USD 1.5 million per point and multi-party conferencing continues to increase. month. These savings do not include the benefits of increased oil production volumes gained from the use of the The Learning Curve visualization room while drilling. The ODC is differentiated from other IO centres in that it In addition, over 600 helicopter seats have been saved combines operations rooms, collaboration rooms and the within the 3-year period and the number of offshore days visualization room as an information unit. It also includes both reduced by 4,672 through the use of the remote working Operator and Service providers in the collaborative practices, video-conferencing, and the use of real-time data environment, enables cross discipline and cross company and information. There has also been a positive impact on integration. This ensures improved work processes and HSE as a result of utilizing remote working practices. support throughout the whole process from planning to More recently, COPNo. has moved two drilling teams execution, and including the post-well feedback. It is also into a semi-open plan office arrangement where operations intimately linked to the other IO processes of COPNo., such as screens and monitors have been placed in and around the Production, Logistics, and Planning and Scheduling. teams displaying their respective operations information (Fig. The experiences of working in this environment have 3). This change in work methodology has taken the ODC shown that individuals react to the information facilities and facilities to the drilling teams and engineers instead of information availability in differing ways. The change in requiring them to visit the ODC rooms. It also allows management processes and work processes are seen as key improved collaboration and knowledge sharing within the areas needing more focus. Changes have also been realized teams for each of the Operator’s assets, and also cross asset affecting the offshore positions of COPNo. and service collaboration. providers. For example, the drilling supervisors perceive that Offshore, each of the drilling facilities has video- their decision-making responsibilities can be taken from them. conferencing facilities including portable and wireless It has been made clear that this will not be the case and that Visiwear camera/sound systems. This allows flexible the staff in the ODC is there to support the operations only. communications from most parts of the offshore drilling areas. Onshore, in conjunction with the drilling team overviews, there have been up-grade changes for the COPNo. engineers. Technology and Equipment Enabling Operations To facilitate the availability and broader use of the real- time In 1998/1999, a 714-mile long fibre optics cable with 24 information onshore, all persons in the drilling group have fibre strands was run from Kaarstoe on the west coast of been given dual PC screens improving operations monitoring Norway, via the North Sea oil platforms Draupner, Ula, opportunities. They have access to most data and information Ekofisk, Valhall and Murdoch, to Lowestoft in the UK. that is transferred in real time from offshore. COPNo. utilises part of the capacity of one pair of strands in With the economic benefits of the ODC obvious to this cable for a 2 x 155 Mbits/sec data connection between the COPNo., the drilling group has recently opened up a new Ekofisk field and the offices onshore. The Ekofisk area, which office area. This area has a semi-open office plan, each work consists of many platforms, is interlinked with fibre optics station has two PC screens and there are information screens connections or high-speed radio links, in turn meaning that the placed strategically through the work area. The area has been lowest bandwidth available to shore from any COPNo. set up for wireless operations and each team member is platform on the Norwegian Continental Shelf is 155 Mbits/sec.