The Oil & Gas industry is anything but stagnant. In such an ever-evolving industry, it is imperative that projects are managed efficiently and accurately across the board.
Consider a project such as the plug and abandonment (P&A) of wells. These projects produce vast volumes of data and communication, and this information needs to be seen and shared by multiple parties.
How can we wade through the information to get a clear and concise picture of what has been and what still needs to be done?
How does GMVi Eikos help streamline project workflow?
Eikos was created out of a desire to bridge the gaps and solve the problems that arise out of tracking and visualising a common project process. The lack of a consolidated information and knowledge platform has costly effects on businesses, with these including missed schedules, overrun costs and compromised risk management.
Eikos project management software is used to manage, organise and streamline project requirements transparently, so all parties can operate with the most up to date and accurate information.
Understanding problems with tracking Wells projects in the Oil & Gas industry
Operators and engineers in the industry are well-aware of the fact that tracking a single Well project while following a common process is seldom easy. One common challenge is the uncertainty gap – a reducible gap between how the company (the operator) and the wells manager requires the project to be delivered (the process), and the progress of the project.
Campaign Projects exacerbate this problem (the uncertainty gap) because of the mixture of requirements that are shared across the campaign, and requirements which can be well specific.
Another issue that arises when managing campaigns is how to track and visualise campaigns when using conventional tools like Excel and Gantt charts.
GMVi recognised these issues and set out to provide an improved solution for tracking, visualising and sharing up to date information for a portfolio of campaigns where a common process can be applied.
GMVi’s Eikos software has undergone a major transformation to provide an answer to the complex demands of Oil & Gas campaign work.
How has GMVI Eikos transformed to better enable P&A project management?
© Supplied by GMViThe transformation of GMVI Eikos involved a strategic overhaul primarily focused on the front-end by enhancing the ‘signature screen’ interface and user experience. Previously, the system operated by visualising a one-to-one relationship between common tasks, such as cost estimates, basis of design, or program of work, and individual projects. However, due to the nature of P&A campaigns, GMVi concluded that existing tools did not scale well, and visualisation was poor.
Eikos product manager Robert Farrell described the issue: “A common process, which you might create for well decommissioning, will explain to a project team what is required; however, it does not support you in managing the delivery of these requirements.
“In a well campaign, much of the work on the project may be shared for all wells; however, you may want to track several copies of specific tasks (cost estimates, work programmes etc), to meet the requirements of the campaign.
“We could see how much of a challenge it was to visualise the relationship between a common process and the requirements for a well campaign.”
Our goal with this update was to take the best parts of Eikos and apply them to managing a campaign of work. We wanted to provide wells managers with the capabilities to track a project consisting of multiple well deliveries on a single screen.” – Robert Farrell, Eikos product manager
The key change introduced was the ability to replicate tasks across multiple wells within a campaign. In traditional project management, each task was tailored to a specific project, limiting scalability and efficiency, especially in campaign management where repetitive tasks were common. With the update, Eikos users can generate multiple copies of a task, such as cost estimates or work programs, to improve alignment with the requirements of a campaign. For example, users can pair a copy of a task (such as a risk assessment) with an asset such as a platform and create as many copies of the task as are required.
The development has allowed Eikos to scale a work breakdown structure to a campaign of work such as unconventional development drilling, large scale multi-asset P&A campaigns, or a sequence of exploration wells drilled back-to-back.
The development project took six months to complete, with the update going live in January 2024.
What does it mean for engineers and project managers in Oil & Gas?
Since the update, GMVi has seen rapid uptake and high interest from both current and prospective customers. Robert believes that this is due to the focus on efficient work scheduling to allocate capital and resources to campaigns wherever possible.
Robert said: “Multi well campaigns are beneficial for all well types; however, the benefits can be even more obvious when considering well decommissioning. The ability to clearly demonstrate readiness to decommission inactive wells could offer operators significant costs savings.”
For example, one customer has been able to demonstrate how they are applying a common P&A process scaled for a campaign of over 30 wells on a single screen.
This means that for the customer, the visualisation is intuitive. After the recent Eikos development, no special chart interpretation skills are required to understand the status, detail and pain points of even the most complex of projects.
Now, project teams can clearly and consistently demonstrate implementation and compliance with their project processes, regardless of the scale or type of project.
The new and improved Eikos helps teams establish the right balance between the standardised common process and a fit-for-purpose project plan.
Learn more about how Eikos can help you project manage and reach your goals today.
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