Abstract
For years, offshore shuttling to accommodate insufficient bed-space has invoked a safety risk for offshore workers. A North Sea operator has overcome this by implementing tools to dramatically change the normal work flow in decision making.
Since 1999, the mudlogging crew on the Ekofisk Platform in the North Sea has been performing well monitoring from the operator's onshore office in Tananger, Norway. The deployment of a fiber optic network in this area of the North Sea has provided the means for a reliable workflow with the benfit of reduced travel to the rig and improved integration between onshore and offshore teams.
Building on these experiences, a concept was developed to take a "Step Change In Collaborative Decision Making" by building a completely new Onshore Drilling Centre (ODC) and real time data monitoring system. Project planning started in February 2002 and the center was opened and functional by 6 November 2002.
A visualization, telecommunication and data-sharing network and well monitoring system has been developed and installed to assist the offshore operations on a twenty four hours, seven days a week basis
In addition to reducing offshore travel, the objective of the ODC is to reduce the number of iterations in well trajectory planning, reduce drilling cost, improve geosteering decisions and improve integration between drilling and geology, hence reducing unwanted safety incidents while drilling.
This paper describes the technology, people and processes employed to build the ODC. The new work flow in well planning and execution of drilling complex ERD and horizontal wells from the ODC is described. Preliminary results from these new collaborative work processes will be outlined.
