pads, and classrooms, they also house laboratories in which technical staff can
develop consistent maintenance skills.
Centralized training promotes tremendous standardization—ensuring that every
operating engineer, every maintenance engineer, and every crew member is trained
to the same level of competency. After all, the training of maintenance engineers is
just as important as that of the operating field engineers, particularly since the
consistency of their work has a direct bearing on the performance of the equipment
in their charge.
The growing intensity of oilfield operations increasingly favors differentiation not
only through superior technology but also through operational performance.
Excellence in Execution responds to this by significantly improving the way
Schlumberger delivers its services and products.
Reducing Operational Risk—Putting It All Together
There is no question that oil and natural gas will still be the major source of the
world’s energy supply for decades to come. New and innovative technologies will
solve many of the challenges in producing the more diverse hydrocarbons that will
form part of that supply, but there is no doubt that drilling intensity will have to
increase—both on land and offshore. Integrated engineering of drillstring
components will be a major contributor to achieving that intensity.
Schlumberger market positions in directional drilling, measurement while drilling,
and logging while drilling combined with Smith’s leading positions in drill bits,
drilling tools, and drilling fluids through M-I SWACO as well as the expertise of
Geoservices in mud logging will help customers reach the three key objectives
of improved drilling efficiency, better well placement, and wellbore assurance.
Improved drilling efficiency will be achieved by the interoperability and full
compatibility of drillstring components with each other and by the increased
understanding of the interaction of the drilling process with the rock formation—
hydraulically and mechanically.
Better well placement comes through the correct acquisition, interpretation, and
application of a combination of surface and downhole petrotechnical measurements
to enable precise and accurate wellbore steering while aiding reservoir characteriza-
tion and increasing productive reservoir exposure. The core Schlumberger skill of
petrotechnical metrology represents an unassailable competitive advantage.
Last, greater wellbore assurance results from key Schlumberger skills in subsurface
understanding and expertise to ensure wellbore integrity over the life of the well.
Schlumberger leadership in petrotechnical skills, workflow processes, and
subsurface engineering is the clear differentiator vital to such assurance.
The seamless integration of drilling technology and workflow is the ultimate enabler
for increasing drilling intensity while reducing operational risk. To achieve this,
there must be a clear drive toward drilling as a science and the implementation of
initiatives that encourage equipment reliability and operational consistency. As such,
the span of optimization encompasses the design and development of integrated
drilling systems, continues through the training of both field crews and maintenance
staff, and leverages new-generation facilities for state-of-the-art operational bases,
multidisciplinary training centers, and remote operational support locations.
Excellence in Execution—
Centralized Maintenance Facilities
Larger-scale facilities provide more
standardized and robust maintenance
practices. The Drilling & Measurements
base in Commerce City, Colorado, USA,
is an excellent example of what can be
achieved through the centralization of
resources. This base manages the
maintenance and movement of the
entire US land equipment fleet, covering
an operating area of 3 million square
miles. The maintenance technicians
follow a global training and development
program and are actively engaged in
continuous improvement of their facility.
The layout of the shop floor and move-
ment of assets through the maintenance
process have been optimized, and
monthly objectives are set to further
improve efficiency by identifying and
eliminating wasted time and resources.
The maintenance team’s ownership of
its performance has delivered dramatic
results. In the two years since the
facility began maintaining the US rotary
steerable fleet, the daily throughput
of tools has doubled without any
significant increase in people or
resources. Efficiency gains like this
enable quicker turnaround of tools,
which reduces the number of assets
required. Equipment reliability has also
increased with standardization and
specialization at one operating base.
Logistics are managed by a dedicated
control center, which plans the
movement of assets for maximum
utilization. This implementation of
Excellence in Execution benefits
customers through improved reliability
and equipment availability while
Schlumberger benefits from cost
and efficiency savings.
15
