The need for petroleum-based energy self-sufficiency has led nations to continually seek new discoveries and to maximize hydrocarbon extraction, whether based on optimization and technological improvements in exploration and production processes, or by expanding exploratory horizons to search for hydrocarbons.
The 1950s marked a great increase in exploratory activity and the intensification of sea expeditions, made possible by the emergence of new exploratory techniques. Over the years, a wide variety of marine structures have been developed, including vessels and platforms equipped for drilling. Currently, some of these drilling units operate in water depths greater than 3,000 meters.
New frontiers in deep-water oil exploration have imposed a series of challenges for the oil industry. One of these challenges is to provide a high level of service for offshore platforms and drilling rigs in order to keep them operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week (24/7) in the most cost-effective manner. Thousands of people have to be transported to the platforms as well as food, maintenance parts, equipment, bulk, fuel, water and other fluids. Support boats and helicopters are used to meet such mobilization needs. Drilling operations are expensive and require continuous allocation of equipment, in some situations this allocation could be difficult to foresee.
A complex onshore logistics comprising a network of reliable suppliers, support base, seaports, airports, heliports, associated services, etc., is needed to support offshore operations in remote areas. Currently, most offshore logistics activities are still carried out in a traditional way, breaking or segmenting the logistics chain into “silos” with little synchronization throughout the process.
In order to successfully meet required logistical support needs for offshore exploration well, it is highly recommended to conceive each well as an operations establishment autonomous PROJECT, in which a Well Project Logistics Plan is carefully designed, with integrated planning and management of all areas involved.
The suggested approach allows for a paradigm shift, merging the concepts of integrated operations and supply chain practices, while applying the Well Delivery Process to improve project performance. The well delivery process execution-flowchart accounts for FEL methodology which provides the means for organizations to develop plans and oversee operations by reviewing the information furnished by project technical teams and stage-gates for reviewing project planning, where the management team decides whether the project may proceed to a next stage with adequate level of risk and uncertainty.
The proposed methodology is based on the available literature, articles and essays presented at international events of the oil and gas industry that deal with projects executed in remote areas, and on the professional experience of the author. This methodology shall serve as a contribution to the implementation of best practices and the development of governance guidelines & structured project methodology, focused on logistic support to establish exploratory drilling operations.
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