This paper will detail the engineering strategies utilized from design and planning stage up to and beyond the field execution stage which resulted in drilling the fastest well in a shallow water field, delivering superior drilling performance and successfully targeting the Upper Miocene (tertiary) reservoir in Mexico. From the 9 wells drilled in this field, the fastest well "Y"-200 was drilled with an average well construction index of 179 m/day when compared to the field average of 54.2 m/day. This shallow water field manifests several specific challenges which include tough drilling conditions, fluid property and hydraulic management, logging constraints and critical selection of casing setting depths. In order to enhance the drilling performance results to lower costs and improve production timelines, the project team performed a deep-dive into the well challenges and engaged with multi disciplinary teams and service providers to brainstorm different design improvements and operational practices. By doing so, the performance accelerates the 6000 to 9000 bbls of initial production estimated per well. The application of these creative engineering ideas proves that change, when applied correctly can really create lasting and proven improvements in drilling performance.

Mexico has set challenging oil and gas production to meet worldwide demand. In order to deliver promised oil production outputs in this challenging environment, the operator came up with efficient partnerships with key service providers to leverage resources and technical know-how whilst encouraging knowledge transfer and drilling project cost reduction. By working with various service companies, the operator creates a competitive environment where each strives to outperform the other. One such success case is in the "S" field, a heavy oil field producing via steam injection in the South of Mexico. Utilizing a creative design and execution methodology, the "S" project team succeeded to deliver improved project performance over the course of drilling the 14 wells in the campaign. The average well operational time was successfully reduced by 10%, hence maximizing the well construction index to 122 m/day and reducing overall well costs. The main strategy to optimize performance is to re-engineer solutions for profitability such as performing a study to replace OBM by WBM, designing a new wellhead system, collaborating with the rig contractor to reduce flat time activities, redesigning cement properties for losses mitigation, improvement of ROP by merging new technologies and local practices, among others. Complementary to this, the strategy is to prioritize realistic areas of improvement by the development and utilization of a new tool called Best of the Best (BoB), a methodology breaking down all well activities in order to measure its fastest time per well and then aiming to achieve that aggressive goal. Detailed follow up in the field allows to reduce operational times by allowing the wellsite team monitor and suggest new and improved ways of doing a routine task all of which result in lower costs per foot. Utilizing this BoB approach and stringent performance monitoring while drilling (pre-actual-post) activity analysis, allowed superior performance to be achieved. The project reached a 60% improvement on well times from the first well drilled to the best performing well. The best well was drilled in 8.68 days versus a field average of 18 days (217 m/day construction index). This generated 369,000 bbls of earlier oil production, 176 days ahead vs client expectations. Furthermore, in coordination with field staff, lessons learned were captured. But this is not enough since fast and effective communication is required, and the BoB methodology provides the solution to share optimization tricks quickly and effectively between crews, to continue well to well improvement and overall project and field level learning. Improved well delivery results is possible only by aligning the detailed planning and execution follow up in both the wellsite and a remote operations centre which monitored drilling activity in real time from town. This synergy and proactive communication system is also a key factor in the project delivery. This paper will present the results from the first application of the ‘Best of Best' (BoB) methodology in Mexico. This successful application enforces the idea that by coupling re-engineering practices to develop a more creative well design along with stringent performance monitoring; any field performance can be improved to deliver stellar results.

This paper describes a methodology that can be used to estimate the potential value of implementing digital and automation technologies in the well construction process in the context of a complex deepwater environment during the drilling conceptualization phase. This serves as a guideline for those interested in quantifying the value of applying digitization and automation processes, not only to make informed decisions related to investment in drillship or systems hardware and software but as well as performance improvement.

Digital well construction tools are becoming more widely considered today for well design planning, enabling automated engineering and simultaneous team collaboration under a single solution. This paper shows the results of using a digital well construction planning solution during a project’s conceptual planning stage. This method shortens the time needed to estimate the well times and risk profile for a drilling campaign by applying smart engines to quickly and accurately perform critical offset analysis for defined well types that is required for project sanction. With this solution, the Offset Well Analysis (OWA) process is done automatically based on the location of the planned well, trajectory and well architecture. Various information and reports (both subsurface and surface data) from neighboring wells is stored in cloud solutions, enabling ease of access and data reliability for both large or smaller scale data storage. The software selects the most relevant offset wells, displays the risk analysis and generates the stick chart. For a conceptual design, the risk levels can be manually set higher due to potential unknowns in surface and subsurface risks which can later be refined. Quick validation of the well design allows the engineer to design a conceptual drilling campaign quickly and more efficiently. The solution minimizes the time to perform probabilistic time and risk estimations. It reduces the risk of biased decision making due to manual input and design. This allows for better-informed decisions on project feasibility, alignment of stakeholders, increased design reliability as well as reducing the amount of time and resources invested in OWA. The work presented here is aimed at sharing the experience of applying a digital well construction planning solution specifically on the conceptual project stage and discuss the value it adds to the well design process.