ABERDEEN-BASED deepwater drilling consultancy Exceed has secured a performance improvement contract worth up to $1million with Tullow Oil to support the massive Jubilee oilfield development offshore Ghana.
The firm is providing an inclusive performance management service and, as part of the project, will supply two performance coaches to support drilling operations in the 1.8billion barrels potential field.
Based on the deepwater semi-submersible, Eirik Raude, Exceed’s coaches will support the offshore team in the transition from drilling to completion installation. Their aim will be to positively contribute to the HSE (health, safety and environment) agenda and support the drilling team to continuously improving drilling and cost performance to maximise field productivity.
Phase one of Jubilee will focus on the core area of the field utilising a 120,000bpd production ship and a suite of subsea wells. The project is on target for first production in the second half of 2010.
According to the firm, a previous, similar project in the region helped an operator save more than $65million in 18 months by improving drilling productive time from 72% to 88%, increasing the wells drilled from the planned seven to nine actually completed.
Exceed founder and director Ian Mills, who has 25 years’ experience in the oil&gas industry, including senior drilling roles at Shell and BP, said: “Every time we do something, we should do it better than the last time. We must be able to repeat our successes and learn from our mistakes.
“Our coaches have an excellent track record of achieving step changes by going back to basics with rig teams to help them embrace new ways of working. We don’t change technology, introduce new systems or make other capital investments, we simply work with the most important asset, the rig team.”
Exceed was initially formed to specialise in improving operational performance and has delivered multimillion-pound savings for several major operators, including BP and De Beers’ offshore diamond mining fleet.
A recent project with Talisman in the North Sea saw Exceed’s coaches delivering $1.7million in direct savings, along with an increase in productive time of 60 rig days – generating multimillion-dollar efficiencies.
Exceed also provides the world’s first drilling consultancy to specialise solely in deepwater projects.