Abstract
This paper is about BP's experience with Collaborative Real-time Environments (CoRE) including the Houston Monitoring Center (HMC), which has resulted in enhanced safety, rig site monitoring and its associated planning, and improved operational efficiencies. Real Time Monitoring Centers have been utilized by industry for some years to improve operational efficiency in drilling processes. BP (operator) has explored extending the effectiveness of such centers by embedding them in a CoRE. In its Gulf of Mexico operations area, this operator has been rigorously applying real-time data monitoring technologies on critical operations with the intent to enhance both safety and operational efficiency through more informed operational decision making. The results of this focused operation will be described in this paper.
The term CoRE is used to describe the physical atmosphere and office arrangement of integrated teams, both operations and subsurface, sophisticated data monitoring applications and communications tools from the office to the rig site. Remotely monitoring key rig site data using highly trained and skilled personnel in a newly designed environment called a CoRE, has resulted in improvements in procedural discipline, efficacy in human factors as they relate to drilling and completion operations, and significantly improved operational decision making. These processes are underpinned by highly resilient systems and meticulous planning, delivering an uptime greater than 99.5%. To improve resilience of the system, the ability to transfer monitoring operations to an alternative location within a short time has been demonstrated repeatedly. This paper will describe the principles and demonstrated results from the CoRE philosophy.
An additional benefit of having key data streaming onshore is regulatory compliance verification by the operations team, which also would allow external review by a regulator. This enhances the compliance verification significantly and allows additional items to be verified or inspected in less time and with less impact on the field operations. The potential benefits to both internal and external stakeholders including regulatory personnel are also described in this paper.
The paper will detail the operator's journey on real time data monitoring of drilling operations which has been utilized by the company for several years. Included is a description of the numerous benefits resulting from applying advanced technologies in real-time monitoring (RTM) to the area of operational decision making including being aligned to potential future industry guidelines or standards. This paper describes the management practices which can be used to foster confidence between geographically separated team members because acceptance by field operations personnel is key to the success of any remote monitoring activity. Finally, the overarching management approach which has contributed to the success of this integrated effort is described by this paper.
