ConocoPhillips – sharing in the supply chain

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Submitted by ConocoPhillips

Impact

Third party operator faced a very costly delay in imminent drilling operations (three months) in the absence of the equipment that was shared.

Description of Best Practice

Who hasn’t had a neighbour knock on your door to ask if they can borrow something?  A lawnmower, rake or a power tool perhaps.  But borrowing a riser equipment system costing £1.5MM?

That was the request that ConocoPhillips received on Wednesday 2 September.  The request came through the supply chain and was ultimately for a third party operator.   The supplier to the third party operator had suffered a manufacturing delay and needed the equipment imminently for ongoing operations over the next six months.

ConocoPhillips reviewed its needs and assessed that it did not need the equipment in the requested time frame.  With the right attitude and cooperation between all parties the necessary arrangements were put in place within the week.  The riser equipment was mobilised with no delays incurred in the third party operations.

Lawyers are very often the last party in the chain when it comes to negotiating agreements and occasionally are seen as a bottleneck in the process.  In this case, in the absence of a standard agreement, they moved quickly to draw up something fit for purpose.

External Affairs Manager Barry King comments: “I was only briefly involved when the request came in but I was curious to find out how it had concluded.  I asked a few questions and was so pleased with the behaviours and outcome that I felt the need to share the story with others.”

Contact: Barry King, ConocoPhillips (U.K.) Limited

Chevron takes a new approach to organising its marine logistics

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Major operator, Chevron Upstream Europe (Chevron), is making optimum use of the platform supply vessels which support its installations in the North Sea by taking a new approach to organising its marine logistics which involves greater input from its employees and more effective integration across different departments.

A spokesperson explains: “Marine logistics, involving the delivery of plant, equipment and materials from suppliers to our offshore installations, are a sizeable proportion of lifting costs which are some of the costs associated with producing oil and gas from wells on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS)).  In 2014 Chevron launched an initiative to look at how the business could manage the costs of marine logistics more effectively.

“As part of Chevron Upstream Europe’s operations department, our marine logistics team is responsible for supporting the installations and key projects we manage on the UKCS, including the Alba, Captain and Erskine fields. Working together with the TEAM Marine Consortium, which we looked at ways to make better use of Platform Support Vessels (PSVs), share resources with neighbouring offshore installations and maximise every inch of each vessel’s deck space capacity.

“Chevron, as a member of the TEAM Consortium for the past 20 years, is well aware of the benefits of pooling resources such as platform support vessels. We therefore took this co-operative  working approach a step further to pinpoint opportunities  where we could improve  marine logistics efficiency.

Along with being integrated into Chevron’s operations department, the marine logistics team has been working with cross functional input from our operations planning, offshore workforce, , drilling & completions and facilities engineering groups plus various service providers  to raise awareness of the need for further efficiency across our assets.  We looked at areas where we could help reduce offshore standby times and unscheduled sailings as well as prevent cargoes from being ‘round-tripped’ which is when materials remain onboard taking up valuable deck space.

We have been using tools such as Lean Sigma to help our onshore and offshore teams assess potential opportunities for contributing to smarter ways to tackle both day-to -day and long-term strategic planning across the business. This approach is helping us to generate in our teams a sense of empowerment where they are encouraged to think creatively and constantly challenge themselves to find potential opportunities for efficiency improvement.

Together with raising awareness of the efficiency initiative across these teams, we also reviewed existing processes for tracking costs across the business and identified systems which have enabled us to avoid the rise in costs that can arise from sub-optimal planning or reactive work onshore, offshore and through supporting third parties and suppliers.

As a result of launching our efficiency initiative last year, we have been able to streamline work processes. We have also been able to reduce the cost per ton of cargo transported by platform support vessels and increased utilisation of deck space to 75-80 per cent of each vessel’s capacity

 

Chevron – achieving smarter well operations

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Submitted by Chevron Upstream Europe (CUE)

Impact

As a result of launching the efficiency initiative last year, Chevron has been able to streamline work processes.

The company has also been able to reduce the cost per ton of cargo transported by platform support vessels and increased utilisation of deck space to 75-80 per cent of each vessel’s capacity and accrued over £9 million of savings and service provider non-productive time has more than halved.

Wells are being brought online sooner and additional wells can be added to the rig schedule, which ultimately helps increase production.

Description of Best Practice

Chevron Upstream Europe (CUE) has improved the efficiency of its well operations and saved over £9 million in six months by defining distinct operations and performance teams and making more effective use of data.

Over the last few years, inefficient practices and a significant amount of non-productive time on the part of service providers have caused delays of several days to weeks in drilling and completions operations.

For all future wells, the performance team carries out extensive historical benchmarking to identify where ‘performance gaps’ leading to non-productive time have occurred in the past. Each service provider must also carry out root cause analysis on past issues and then work with CUE planning engineers to develop a well performance plan to resolve them. Progress through the plan is monitored in collaborative meetings and service providers are held accountable with the help of key performance indicators.

Improving how data is used has also been key. Simpler methods of analysing data and real time benchmarking of mudlogging data allows areas of lost time to be understood and captured more quickly in order to improve operational efficiency.

The efficiency drive is focused not only on CUE’s existing producing fields but also applies to new projects such as Alder, Rosebank and Captain as well as non-rig operations.

Andy Mayeux of CUE said: “To combat the drilling delays we were experiencing we have employed a consistent well planning process and made better use of data. The first three wells of 2015 have been completed early, we have accrued over £9 million of savings and service provider non-productive time has more than halved. Most importantly, by reducing well days, wells are being brought online sooner and additional wells can be added to the rig schedule, which ultimately helps increase production.”

To maintain the workforce’s engagement in the initiative both on and offshore, cross-functional well performance reviews are conducted within 30 days of drilling ending. Measures of success against the performance plan and overall well performance data is communicated daily on monitors as well as via posters reminding rig crews of the impact of their support to the delivery of the business plan.

Contact: Sam Howard, Chevron Upstream