Oil and gas operators are forced by rising investor expectations and a declining resource base to both improve operating standards and reduce the cost of operations. During the past 5 years, the authors' firm has studied the costs and methods of oil and gas operations for nearly 2,000 fields. These studies include Western Canada, most producing basins in the US lower 48 states (onshore & offshore), and focus on developing an understanding of leading practices of successful operators, and identifying areas for remedial action to enhance cash flow.
The paper examines various methods operators use to identify specific high cost areas in field operations for remedial action, and then detail examples of successful remedial work. We will focus on cost saving opportunities and practices utilised in Offshore Operations (Shelf and Deepwater).
The fields come from more than a dozen North In the dictionary, Benchmarking has American basins, from the Gulf of Mexico several definitions: (Shelf and Deepwater) to Alaska, including most producing basins in the US lower 48 · a point of reference from which states and Western Canada. A recent measurements can be made; or expansion of the database now includes fields · something which serves as a in Trinidad & Tobago, Venezuela and Standard by which others can be Indonesia. Our work also focuses on measured. developing an understanding of the practices of successful operations and on identifying Our working definition is that areas for remedial action. benchmarking is a continuous process of comparison against peers to improve your
Figure 1 illustrates the ten step process of A key question asked by many benchmarking. individuals is why are we doing benchmarking now? The principal reason is that oil and gas producing companies are being forced by rising investor, regulatory, and societal expectations, and a declining resource base, to both improve operating standards and reduce the cost of operations.
Even with the current levels of energy prices, the recent gyrations in oil prices have proved to most companies the notion that, in the long run, low cost operators survive, and that producers cannot rely on high prices to save the day every time. Therefore, they must focus on a continuous cycle of improving Figure 1 - Benchmarking in Ten Key their operations. Benchmarking is a perfect Steps tool for understanding improvement Like the forest in Figure 1, the start is opportunities in field performance, and acting chaos. This is the situation which most upon that information to implement changes companies find themselves in when trying to that drive costs down. understand and improve upon their operations The authors have studied the costs and performance. There is usually too much methods of oil and gas oper
