Great impact of collaboration on overall business performance
Geosteering requires sophisticated technologies, access to relevant data (streamed real time data and model derived data) and most importantly, collaboration of geosteering team members. Whilst the first two components of geosteering have broadly been described, analysed in depth and their impact on the geosteering final outcome evaluated in detail, the latter, for unidentified reasons, has not broken through to the wider audience of the upstream industry.
It has recently become clear, even for technology driven industries like oil and gas, that collaboration has a great impact on overall business performance. Astonishingly non-tangible factors like the decision-making process, communication, culture of knowledge sharing, or lean internal work processes have a higher impact on overall team performance than purely tangible factors like the application of cutting-edge LWD technologies, automation of the drilling process or modern data analytics systems. Obviously, the application of such technologies can boost already existing means of collaboration, but these innovative tools on their own will neither have the same effect nor create team collaboration. From the author’s personal experience, enhanced collaboration generated through objectives and KPIs alignment between the Drilling and Subsurface department (theoretically a non-expensive and easy thing to undertake) will have a bigger impact on the Net Present Value (NPV) of a project than usage of ultra-deep azimuthal resistivity tool for well placement (Nordsøfonden, 2019).
A great example of understanding this mechanism is the giant oil and gas company Shell (which employs 150,000+ people), which despite being at the forefront of technological innovation, still makes collaboration a high priority (Customer stories, Microsoft, 2018). Collaboration is at the heart of every single business and with a 36% impact on overall business performance, it is hard not to make it a priority (Frost and Sullivan, 2006).
According to the mentioned report, collaboration will impact:
- Profitability by 29% (e.g. profitability of a project that involves drilling multiple horizontal wells in a field).
- Profit growth by 26% (e.g. profit from each horizontal well or from a project).
- 41% of forces driving stakeholders’ satisfaction (e.g. governments, partners, service companies, contractors’ satisfaction).
- Productivity by 36% (e.g. drilling 8 wells within the budget of 7 well project or increased well hydrocarbon productivity [PI – productivity index] through optimally placed wellbore).
- Product quality by 34% (e.g. wellbore that produces at rates higher than anticipated due to its placement).
- Product development by 30% (e.g. smooth controlled geosteering process that continuously assures optimally placed wellbores).
- Innovation by 30% (e.g. this would include a “must-have” versus “nice-to-have” exercise for the implementation of cutting-edge technologies as well the implementation of innovative solutions which actually create value).
Drilling faster equals geosteering faster
In the current post oil crisis economic environment, dominated by high oil price volatility and uncertainty about the future of fossil fuels, the average cost of drilling
a horizontal well is absurdly high. An immediate way to mitigate this (and indirectly obtain a low breakeven cost of oil and gas production) is to drill horizontal wells faster. Wells being drilled all around the world take a fraction of the time they took to drill many years ago. It is mainly speed that keeps the industry afloat. As the operations teams are drilling wells faster, they are also required to geosteer them faster. Not surprisingly, this creates problem for geosteerers. At high rates of penetration (high ROPs) and with huge pressure of responsibility and time, a few minutes of doubt or an incorrect decision can considerably affect the overall contact with the reservoir and consequently geosteer the well out of the “sweet spot”. In the middle of that fast-paced process a geosteerer must digest an incredible amount of information and synthesize it into clear and accurate instructions for the direction of the well. Yet a geosteerer does not perform this task in isolation. Collaboration with the entire geosteering team and deriving expertise from all involved disciplines is a must for the ultimate success of the process. This means that “fast” geosteering requires more effective and more efficient collaboration in the geosteering team that will support this process in the most optimal way.
For the full paper see below:
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