Eric van Oort, Shell E&P Americas
Ricardo Rosso, Halliburton Energy Services
Jesus Cabello-Montero, Shell E&P Technology
Starting with a small-scale “war room” in 2002 with limited scope for real time monitoring, the New Orleans-based “Real-Time Operations Center” (RTOC) now monitors all offshore wells in the Gulf of Mexico, select land wells in the Continental US and Canada as well as major exploration wells globally. The main objectives of this multidisciplinary collaboration center are to enable more pro-active well planning and to improve well execution by reducing non-productive time (NPT) and invisible lost time (ILT). The success of the RTOC has led to significant steps towards global expansion and coverage.
RTOC hub sites are now in place in New Orleans, Houston, Aberdeen in the UK, and Miri in Malaysia, with each connected to multiple RTOC satellites around the world.
Historical evolution
The progression in utilization of operations-center technology in Shell E&P Americas can be captured succinctly in the following three phases:
- Small scale pilot/justification phase: In the aftermath of an investigation into exploration well costs in the late 1990s, a real-time operations monitoring pilot was launched using a small-scale “war room” covering a limited number of exploration wells from early 2002 onwards
- Maturation/scale-up phase: After successful conclusion of the pilot phase, a larger well visualization and real-time monitoring facility was constructed to handle a maximum of 15 concurrent rig operations, monitoring all offshore GoM wells and major exploration wells globally. This facility became operational in 2003
- Global deployment phase: In 2004, a common interest network was formed to guide the deployment of the maturing RTOC technology globally. This network combined all the internal operations center efforts within the Shell Group (e.g., the Virtual Reality center operated by Shell E&P Europe). Meanwhile, several additional RTOC “hubs” and “satellites” have been constructed.
Business case
The justification for adopting a real-time operations center originated from an extensive study on exploration well costs in the late 1990s. It was found that any successful pro-active process or system would compare very favorably, in both cost and performance, with the strictly reactive systems that were in place at the time.
Since that time, the value proposition justifying the use of real-time operations monitoring systems and services has changed and broadened considerably. Key current reasons for using operations center technology include:
- To reduce operational costs by reduction of trouble events and associated non-productive time (NPT) and costs
- To reduce operational costs by improving operational efficiency and by reducing invisible lost time (ILT)
- To meet the challenge of ever-increasing well complexity of both exploration and production wells, and to guarantee high-quality well construction and safe operations for these wells
- To become more pro-active and less reactive for the reasons mentioned above
- To provide a platform for effective communication between the disciplines involved in well delivery (e.g. reservoir engineering, geology/geophysics, petrophysics, well engineering, etc.)
- To capitalize on recent technological advances such as improved IT communications systems, 3D visualization technology, state-of-the-art modeling capability, etc.
The mission of the RTOC can be captured in this simple statement: to improve the quality and speed of well planning and well delivery decision making.
Infrastructure
The staff in the two RTOC hubs in the Americas (New Orleans and Houston), includes a total of about 25 individuals in the following groups:
- 24/7 well monitoring staff: These are expert mud-loggers with ample field experience, dedicated to observing critical surface and MWD/LWD parameters and their trends, with a main intent of preventing well-related problems and the associated NPT and trouble cost
- Well engineering support staff: These are skilled resources that provide detailed well engineering models (e.g., 3D subsurface visualization, hydraulics analysis, torque and drag charts, and swab and surge calculations) in both well planning and well execution phases
- Operator engineering staff: These individuals are responsible for project management, managing resources, facilitating communication with stakeholders, knowledge management, value assessment, benchmarking, etc.
RTOC infrastructure typically includes meeting rooms used for both morning rig calls and multi-disciplinary planning session, a central collaborative workspace, and a secure 24/7 monitoring room. All are outfitted with the latest in data communication and visualization tools.
Activity overview
The term “RTOC” actually applies to both well planning activities and real-time monitoring activities during well execution. Activities during the well planning phase include:
- Providing a collaborative work environment for multi-disciplinary well planning interaction (between geologists/geophysicists, reservoir engineers, petrophysicists, and production and well engineers) from the time that subsurface realizations have matured to the point where more detailed well planning may proceed
- Facilitating 3D subsurface and well visualization for optimum well placement, well trajectory selection, asset development, etc., using state-of-the-art visualization tools that combine relevant subsurface and well engineering information
- Providing offset well analyses using integrated subsurface and drilling information
- Performing detailed well engineering modeling (e.g., torque and drag analysis, hydraulic assessments, swab and surge modeling)
- Dissemination of best practices and previous lessons learned in key well preparation meetings (e.g., Drilling-the-Limit (DtL) and Drilling-the-Well-on-Paper (DWoP) exercises)
- Facilitating through various communication tools, the participation of the necessary local, regional, and global subject matter experts in collaborative well planning sessions (e.g., peer assists).
Shell’s current state of global implementation of operations center (OC) technology, including the links between the RTOC New Orleans/Houston dual hub and operations globally.
Activities during the well execution phase include:
- Real-time monitoring, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by experienced mud logging staff looking at trends and critical parameters from surface and downhole telemetry sensors and comparisons between actual data and modeled/predicted parameter values
- Delivery of high quality data annotated and QA/QC’d by the above-mentioned mud logging staff to decision makers and other relevant stakeholders, wherever they may be located globally
- Capture and dissemination of relevant learnings and applicable best practices
- Data facilitation of any after-action reviews, performance benchmark exercises, root-cause failure analyses, etc.
Communication and decision making
An effective real-time monitoring center requires sophisticated communication tools for collecting data from rigs and relaying data and other relevant information to stakeholders. Besides using all traditional communication tools (tele- and video-conference, internet chat lines, emails, etc.), surface and MWD/LWD data is transmitted (in WITS or WITSML formats) independently of the service provider on the offshore rigs. Transmission is accomplished primarily through satellite communications or microwave links of sufficient bandwidth, with the data itself coming into the center on T1 lines. Some preparatory work is carried out in order to ensure that a safe and secure communication link between the rigs and the RTOC can be established. Moreover, intranet and Internet based real-time data management tools such as Halliburton’s Insite and Insite Anywhere, Schlumberger’s InterAct, and Baker Hughes’ RigLink are used, as well as batch data management sites such as Wellspace, Petrolink, or Wellhub.
A theoretical versus actual casing hookload chart of an RTOC test well, run 0601, that compares real-time with actual drag data during a clean-out trip to guide pro-active decision making.
Fit-for-purpose communication and decision making protocols need to be in place in order for the above-mentioned products and services to have any impact. Communications with field operations poses special requirements. In particular, roles and responsibilities with respect to operational communication and decision making need to be very clearly defined. It is important to note that the way Shell operates its RTOC hubs conforms to the motto, “remote support for improved decision making,” rather than “making decisions remotely.” Consequently, the support model is not about taking any responsibilities and accountabilities away from traditional decision-makers, such as rig supervisors, superintendents, and drilling engineers. Instead, it is all about providing them with the information and tools to make much better and more pro-active decisions.
Communications with operations are structured using the colored “flag” interactions, which come with clear expectations, both for the RTOC and the field staff. For instance, a red flag signaling ongoing or imminent problems with rig operations requires the RTOC staff to follow-up with both operations and office staff until the point in reached where the appropriate response is being taken. Likewise, the field staff cannot simply ignore a red flag and must initiate an appropriate response to the observed problem.
Although standardization of communications and decision-making protocols is desirable in general, it is best to maintain some flexibility for customization to meet the specific needs of different well delivery teams. This is particularly true in dealing with subsurface disciplines. For instance, the RTOC employs customized solutions for communications and decisions regarding pore pressure, fracture gradient, and mud weight and involves petrophysicists and geophysicists as key decision makers.
The value of using real-time data handling and visualization has been well documented. Examples of products, services, and work processes that have added particular value to Shell’s operations are:
- 3D well visualization: Connecting both subsurface and well engineering data has proven to be a powerful way to facilitate multidisciplinary interaction, leading to improved well delivery concepts delivered at an accelerated pace
- Well engineering modeling: High-quality modeling (e.g., hydraulics, torque and drag, swab and surge, etc.) allows for making meaningful plan versus real-time actual comparisons that have been proven to guide pro-active decision making in the field
- Generation of best practices: With expertise and learning centralized in the RTOC, there is a wonderful opportunity to extract meaningful best practices from ongoing operations and sharing these laterally among all wells handled by the RTOC hubs
- Learning from missed opportunities: Mistakes may happen, but it is important to learn from these and make sure that there is no perpetuation anywhere in the operations supported by the RTOC hubs.
New applications
Although rapidly maturing, the RTOC is still an experimental tool that is continually being re-shaped for optimum utility and performance. As a part of this development, we are exploring new ways to add value to our operations using:
- Completion support: A deliberate effort was undertaken not to turn the centers into “drilling-only,” but to explore their utility for completion operation as well. During execution, the ability to disseminate learnings from one completion operation to the design of the next is also very valuable, as it reduces learning cycle times. As a result, a dedicated sub-team is working in the RTOC on completion support, both in the design phase as well as using 24/7 monitoring support during completion operations
- Real-time geomechanics support: The behavior of pore pressure, in-situ stress, formation strength, and desired mud weight to control the former are of profound interest to well engineers in order to deliver stable, trouble-free wells
- Real-time rig activity detection, to identify sources and causes of ILT and take appropriate mitigation steps.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Halliburton Energy Services, Shell E&P Americas, and Shell E&P Technology for permission to publish this paper. Paul Goodfellow and the late Fred Bradburn are recognized for their vision that brought the RTOC concept originally to New Orleans. Special thanks go to past and present members of Shell’s Operations Center CIN (Mitch Flegg, Afif Halal, Kayode Olaitan, Paul Chiew, Brian Wans, Desiree Collins, Joshua Ukoha, Sadiq Lawati, Stephen Williams, Chiam Taw-Huat, Mark Kelleher), the original implementers of the New Orleans RTOC (Michael Humphries, Leendert-Jan Ursem, Jevon Williams, Lizette Coughlin) and several present and former staff members (Paul Daley, Mark Smith, Ricardo Rosso, Maria Paula Carrillo, Bart Landry, Dean Kaminski, Nicky Pellerin, Wayne Crumhorn, Larry Barfield, Gary Venable, Dave Walk, Mike Koukies, Lorenzo Herrera, Chris Amos, Craig Campo, Vaugn Rancharitar, Gil Deville, Kell Luke, Bubba Vannoy, and Bobby Louviere).
Editors Note: This is an updated summary of the SPE 97059 paper.
