CRITICAL ISSUES IN DRILLING & COMPLETIONS
TOP Petrobras awarded a 5.8-year
contract last year for the Petrobras 10000
drillship, which offers Transocean’s
patented dual-activity technology.
BOTTOM Petrobras plans to implement
18 new FPSOs in the next fi ve years,
including the P-71 (pictured) . The NOC
says it’s investing signifi cantly in new
FPSO designs that will allow for reduced
emissions. What do you think of when it comes to
the future of drilling and wells?
We would like to have autonomous
rigs and disruptive drilling technologies.
In the long term, we would like both
our drilling rigs and our FPSOs to be
unmanned – but, of course, this is not
going to be easy. When you talk about
an unmanned operation and autonomous
rig, everything must be redesigned, and
we need to have much higher levels of
reliability than what we have today. I
don’t think we can just take today’s rigs
and transform them into an autonomous
rig; it will require a completely different
approach. Digitalization will be a key enabler, and
we need to automate the processes around
well planning, design and operation, as
well as have integration with the supply
chain. We will need well structure alterna-
tives, high-performance completions, real-
time integrity monitoring, rigless mainte-
nance, and wells that can self-stimulate
and be self-abandoned.
Of course, this is all a vision for the
future. We don’t have a project saying we
will have an autonomous rig within a cer-
tain time period, but these are things we
are always studying and thinking about.
Along the way, it can also inspire the
development of other new technologies
that we can implement today.
In October last year, Petrobras
selected seven rigs from a “mega ten-
der,” and all the rigs are required to be
ready for operation in 2023. What is
Petrobras doing to make sure that it
will be ready to start so many drilling
rigs and campaigns?
From Day 1 after signing the contract, we
are working closely with the rig contrac-
tors to review lessons learned with previ-
ous rigs that have undergone acceptance
tests. We also have careful planning and
talk about how we will commission the rig,
then look at their people and skills. When
we start a new rig, it’s important that we
are not just taking experienced people from
other rigs that are already in operation.
Also, I would also say it is not unusual
for Petrobras to start multiple rigs in a short
time period. In addition to the rigs, from
2023 to 2027 we will also be implementing
18 new FPSOs, which will be half of all the
FPSOs delivered worldwide in that time
period. We will do very detailed planning,
and we’ll be successful in starting these
operations in the schedule that we need.
Petrobras has invested significantly in
the Equatorial Margin. How does that
region fit into your plans for the next
few years?
Nearly half of Petrobras’ $6 billion of
exploration CAPEX from 2023 to 2027 will
go to the Equatorial Margin. It is very
important to Petrobras to start working in
this new frontier region, and we hope to
begin drilling the first well there in early
2023. We believe this frontier has significant
potential, and opening this new explora-
tion area will bring a lot of value both for
Petrobras and Brazil.
Q&A with João Henrique Rittershausen,
Petrobras, continued on page 31
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