CRITICAL ISSUES IN DRILLING & COMPLETIONS
I think one of the silver linings of the
pandemic was that we were forced to col-
laborate in ways that we wouldn’t have
seriously considered before. We used to
fly people all around the world to attend a
one-hour meeting. Now we have the abil-
ity to share information, solve problems
and develop cross-functional teams better
than ever before.
A lot of it just comes down to collabora-
tion and remote communication. The pan-
demic meant that we needed to be more
agile and create a platform that we could
update remotely without having to send
a technician on site to physically look at
something. Also, we had to create ways
to transfer knowledge when we couldn’t
send somebody out to the rig.
really across the US shale market, look at
how much more footage is being drilled
per day with how many fewer rigs. These
significantly reduced well cycles mean
less emissions across the board.
Decreased engine use is just one exam-
ple. Our carbon footprint has decreased
significantly while, at the same time, our
footage and production have increased. I
think that’s one of those things that people
don’t fully appreciate and understand. We
need to talk about that, as well as our plans
for the future.
What impacts have you seen from
inflation and supply chain bottlenecks
on your business? What do you think
drilling contractors can do to minimize
the impact of these issues?
We have to have these stories in our
playbook. We have to talk about the things
we’ve done and get people excited. We
have a lot of work to do, but we’re a part of
the solution for the future, not part of the
past. We need them to continue to come
up with ideas of how to decrease emis-
sions while we continue to provide all the
benefits of hydrocarbons. It’s not about
hydrocarbons and fossil fuels; it’s about
the emissions.
We’ve been successful in attracting tal-
ent. Yes, it’s going to be harder in the
future, but if you have the right story and
you help people understand the role they
can play in improving lives around the
world, that can get people excited.
We have a longer planning cycle inter-
nationally than in the US. We also have
a robust planning cycle within H&P, so
most of the time the assets we need come
from our US operations, where we have a
large volume of standardized components.
Obviously, we’re not completely insulated
from those supply chain issues, but we can
plan for them.
The industry has seen a lot more focus
on reducing the rig’s carbon emis-
sions in recent years. What is your view
on this, and has the energy transition
had any impact on H&P’s business?
The desire to transition away from fossil
fuels and the speed with which that takes
place, from our view, has to be in proper
balance with the need for energy security
and the importance of energy affordability.
We would love to see solutions grounded
in collaboration and objectivity based on
data. Certainly, reducing emissions is impor-
tant to H&P, and we will continue to look
for ways to reduce emissions in the
future. But we also, frankly, as an industry,
need to emphasize what we’ve already
accomplished in that regard. If you look
at increased efficiencies in our fleet, and
18 The younger generation of workers
coming up have placed an increased
value on sustainability. How do you
reach out to them?
H&P has been a proponent of perfor-
mance-based contracts, calling them
the “next phase” in its evolution as a
service provider. What are some of the
hurdles to widespread adoption of
performance-based contracts, and
how might they be overcome?
One of the hurdles is that you have
to have a foundation of trust with the
customer because, in the end, the reason
that performance-based contracts are so
attractive to us and to our customers is
that we’re focused on the same goals.
We’re talking about shared successes, and
we’re talking about outcomes that we both
see as beneficial to us.
In order to do that, you have to do it
based on a foundation of trust where we
have clarity around how we can both win
together. If you really don’t have clarity
on how we’re going to work together, and
you have different views on what suc-
cess looks like, it won’t work. But we see
customers like it because everybody is
focused on the same outcomes. When you
do that, we can all benefit from it.
The other hurdle is change manage-
ment, and you have to have buy-in all
the way from the rotary table to senior
management, both with H&P and with
the customer. If you don’t have that, you’re
just going to stumble all the way. It’s a big
change, but it can be hugely impactful
when everybody is really clear about how
we’re going to win together.
What are your main concerns around
rig safety right now? What do you see
as the next step-change in keeping
personnel safe?
So, as I said earlier, the cycles that we’ve
gone through in the past have made it
difficult because you have people mov-
ing around between rigs, whether you’re
going into a down-cycle or an up-cycle; it
just changes the dynamics of the rigs and
the crews. It changes what these crews
know and how they access data, how they
access information and how they interact.
Technology is key to creating a consis-
tent set of processes and having up-to-date
information for pre-job planning steps and
so forth. We want these crews and these
leaders to have the right tools and infor-
mation at their fingertips. That, to me, is
really the central aim.
The other part of this is, we should
always ask what’s working and what’s not
working. We have to be careful not to over-
complicate programs and lose sight of the
core elements of what our safety program
is all about.
Several years ago, we shifted away from
a model of focusing on recordable inci-
dents to focusing on serious injuries and
fatalities. We overhauled our program and
changed our mindset and entire approach
to safety. We have to make sure our crews
understand why we did that and what that
means. We have to continually enhance
our processes to make sure that we control
and remove exposures that can cause seri-
ous injuries and fatalities. DC
JAN UARY/FEB RUARY 2023 • D R I LLI N G CO N T R ACTO R