Lessons Learned in the Implementation of the Intelligent Oilfield and Integrated Collaboration Environments

Ketil Barkved¹, Nicholas Gibson², and Julia Vindasius^3
1Kongsberg Intellifield AS, Stavanger, Norway
²Kongsberg Intellifield Limited, Aberdeen, United Kingdom
³Kongsberg Intellifield LLC, Houston, TX

Despite record prices for oil, upstream oil and gas organizations continue to be challenged to demonstrate that implementation of Intelligent Oilfield solutions will improve business decision-making, achieve higher quality technical analysis, use limited numbers of technical resources more effectively, and provide a rapid return on the organization’s original investment.

This paper proposes an implementation framework to realistically diagnose performance requirements against the organization’s Intelligent Oilfield strategy, and charts an associated Integrated Collaboration Environment (ICE) development path to match. We share lessons learned from recent ICE implementations for drilling, production operations, and production optimization. Whether for new or legacy assets, we are learning that success depends upon:

(a) engaging objective, third-party consultation to help the management and technical teams to articulate a shared vision for collaboration, integration, and real-time support;

(b) investing time and resources in a participatory conceptual design phase that focuses on the end users’ experience; and

(c) compliance to a design and implementation methodology that addresses all the dimensions of change—process, organization, people, technology, and facilities—and is founded upon professional project management for complex system integration projects.

By applying these principles, Intelligent Oilfield solutions that include an ICE implementation will engender a step-change improvement in an organization’s “real-time” decision-making, remote operational support and surveillance processes, collaboration and knowledge systems, and embed the ICE and Intelligent Oilfield as the new, 21st-Century way of working.

Presentation GEO India Expo XXI, Noida, New Delhi, India 2008©AAPG Search and Discovery