BG, Petrobras achieve ambitious ultra-deepwater drilling target

READING, United Kingdom -- In November 2011, BG’s Brasil’s well engineering team and Petrobras set out an ambitious target at a historic drilling performance workshop—to drill ultra-deepwater, pre-salt wells from spud to final depth in 30 days at a cost of less than $30 million.

At the time, many participants were doubtful that such a steep reduction in drilling time and costs was possible, whilst performance levels were also deteriorating.

Through hard work and successful collaboration, the teams have achieved their target in just over three years, well ahead of expectations.

The average drilling time in Lula, Sapinhoa and Iracema fields, in the Santos basin, offshore Brazil, has now dropped significantly.

Shaun Hancock, V.P. of well engineering, said, “The workshop marked the start of a fruitful cooperation between the two well engineering departments, a cooperation based on mutual respect and willingness to share. Ideas and best practices were exchanged, and data-driven performance metrics pushed the teams to overcome technical and even organizational barriers in a never-ending search for the ultimate drilling limit.”