Performance Optimization
Risk Based Assessment on Innovations
- Client
- Major Oil Operator
- Country
- Italy
- Year
- 2013-2014
- Industry
- Oil & Gas
- Service
- Risk Management, Operations & Asset Performance
A major oil company had three technologies under development to prevent blowouts, the most dreaded risk in drilling. kwantis provided a methodology to compare them and define the most effective safety and economic strategy.
The challenge
Major oil and gas operators invest in R&D programs to improve safety, reduce cost and extend the feasibility of drilling operations. Three of the technologies under development in the client’s portfolio aim to prevent blowouts.
The three have completely different installation modes, operability limits, activation systems and fluid containment methods. As a result, the benefits they can bring to drilling operations differ too.
Our approach
kwantis benchmarked the technologies against two objectives, safety improvement and better economic performance:
- Safety: measured on a loss of well control event, by comparing its probability with and without each technology. Detailed fault trees cover every possible drilling scenario and give a blowout probability reduction factor for each technology in different operating situations. Uncertain parameters are described with probability distributions and combined in a Monte Carlo simulation.
- Economics: a detailed probabilistic time and cost analysis weighs savings and losses in operating performance (productive time) and in risk issues (non-productive time). The difference between savings and losses is the net cost or benefit of implementing each technology.
The outcome
Combining the safety and economic models gives immediate feedback on the main critical factors of each technology: operability, reliability, efficiency and cost.
With this approach, the R&D department can better direct its funding and effort toward solving hidden criticalities, and propose a new technology where its benefits are greatest.
