CRITICAL ISSUES IN DRILLING & COMPLETIONS
Can you give us a couple of examples
of digital projects where Aker BP has
seen value?
We put a strategy in place around digital
back in 2017-2018. It was a very simple
plan revolving around the ecosystem I
mentioned earlier — planning a well in a
day and automation. So far, we have devel-
oped the planning piece – we have what
we call collaborative well planning (CWP),
which digitizes the interface between the
subsurface and our Drilling & Wells group,
along with the digital well program. This
gives us a digital twin.

We’re using that in two instances. First,
we take a tactical approach. For example,
in one well we were drilling, we didn’t
manage to follow the planned trajecto-
ry, and the team believed they needed
to go back and sidetrack. But then they
put together a CWP session, where they
worked closely with the subsurface team
to visualize all the various options. They
were able to come up with an alternative
plan that saved around 70 million NOK,
which is roughly $8 to $9 million.

Secondly, we now use the CWP software
on all the PDOs we submit, which allows
us to deliver the well plans within a much
shorter time frame. Moreover, the plans
are much more robust than before – I
believe the improved quality of our plans
will result in large savings without me
knowing any specific number. But it is a
large number.

I will add that we jointly developed
both of these pieces of software with
our alliance partner Halliburton. We work
very closely with them to develop new
software that we can put into our opera-
tions at Aker BP. This type of collaboration
streamlines the process for beta testing
new technology, and they can quickly
scale it and make it available to other
operators. So you’re open to sharing technolo-
gies with other operators?
Yes, the software is open architecture.

So, when those other companies start
developing their apps and digital solutions,
we can use them, as well. Like I said, we
need to lift this challenge together as an
industry because it’s going to be expensive
Odfjell Drilling is one of Aker BP’s several alliance partners. Through alliances, Aker BP
says it is working to build relationships based on trust that will allow both operator
and drilling contractor to reduce cost and, in turn, create more work opportunities.

to develop these types of software and put
them in use.

We have actually met with several other
operators already, like Hess, Shell and
ConocoPhillips. We are sharing because
we don’t see this as a competitive advan-
tage. How we use the tools and interpret
the data — that’s the competitive advan-
tage, not having the tools at hand.

Do you see the industry embracing
the digital mindset as much as we
need to?
I think we are at Aker BP, but I’m not
sure about the rest of the industry. In
many instances, I see the mindset of peo-
ple is still a barrier. Especially when it
comes to things that will impact busi-
ness cases, there’s a lack of willingness
to change.

Do you think that’s because of how
volatile our industry is?
There’s a lot of conservatism in our
industry, and there can be very high con-
sequences of something going bad in
terms of well control. But automation and
digital will require significant investment,
and I don’t think any single company can
do it alone. So change is necessary.

If you take Norway as an example, we
will see smaller and smaller pockets of
oil, so we need to do more with what we
already have. That means more exploration
around existing infrastructure. That means
infill drilling. That means more interven-
tion. For that to be economic, you need to
lower your cost or you won’t be competitive.

And I can’t think of any improvement bet-
ter than digital that can actually help us to
transform and lower our costs.

D R I LLI N G CO N T R ACTO R • JAN UARY/FEB RUARY 2023