Drilling and Completions
Drilling and completions account for the majority of capital expenditures in the upstream oil and gas industry. Creating operations excellence is critical for long-term success of the upstream company:
- The development of a portfolio of drillable locations: Having an effective location selection to release to drill process that sustains an ongoing inventory of approved drilling locations greatly facilitates the achievement of operational excellence
- Improved cycle time to get through the drilling and completions of specific well projects
- Improved revenue performance: Obviously, the faster the upstream operator can bring wells on line, the greater the revenues from increased production
- Lower costs are associated with an orderly, reliable, and high-quality drilling and completions functions
- Better safety performance is facilitated when well projects are managed through an effective, disciplined wells development process
Among the business activities that must be addressed for drilling and completions operations excellence are the following:
- Legal rights for the acreage is an obvious prerequisite
- Strategic intent for the development of the wells program in the play, including long-range objectives
- Well spacing plan for the play
- Permitting and compliance to all local, state, and federal regulatory bodies
- Infrastructure needed to carry out drilling and completions activities
- Construction of the site
- Final permitting and approval to drill
- Drill-well and complete-well design, planning and execution excellence
- Knowledge-creation and learning
- Creating sustainable operations excellence throughout the organization
