The Application of Knowledge and Continuous Learning to the Implementation of Collaborative Work Environments at Shell

Abstract

Broad industry trends that are reshaping exploration and production (E&P) operations warrant a rethinking of traditional operating models as part of strategies designed to optimize the development and production of oil and gas assets. Shell E&P is introducing a new collaborative operating model as part of its global digital oilfield strategy. The collaborative model leverages the expertise of its global workforce through redesigned business processes and specially designed collaborative facilities to capture maximum benefits from its investment in smart digital oilfield technologies. Each collaborative environment shares a common, standards-based information technology (IT) architecture that can enable the linking of offices, platforms, and remote operation sites into a single global network providing real-time access to Shell E&P's community of expert practitioners and a common, shared institutional knowledge base. An important contributing factor to Shell E&P's success in introducing collaboration has been its ability to effectively shape a culture of collaboration and teamwork through trust, knowledge sharing, and continuous institutional learning. This paper examines one key element in the success of these collaborative centres by adopting innovative methods that Shell E&P is using to more effectively capture and share its institutional knowledge and experience through a culture of continuous enterprise learning. While this organizational transformation remains work in process, initial findings confirm the initiative is delivering tangible results towards the goal of optimizing production and recovery from assets. Introduction The E&P industry is undergoing a period of significant transition. The business now recognizes that there is no more "easy oil." New developments are more complex and more technically challenging; increasingly, they have multiple sites and are located in geographically remote regions. Operators also face a reality that there are fewer opportunities for new development, resulting in increased competition that is fueling continuous demands from resource owners to increase recovery from existing assets. Enhanced recovery requires operators to adopt new approaches to optimizing production by using sophisticated new "smart" technologies that are operationally challenging. These technologies require significant capital outlays that are accompanied by rising operating costs and the cost of environmental compliance and mitigation. Exploiting these new technologies requires staff to learn new skills, work together in new ways, and develop new capabilities that challenge traditional operating models. This transformation is introducing significant organizational change at a time when the industry faces a shrinking pool of qualified new recruits and a "graying workforce" and is at risk of losing critical institutional knowledge and experience that are essential to overcoming these challenges. How the industry responds to these challenges will determine a new order in the E&P business as well as its ability to meet the resource demands of the world economy. Background Shell E&P is responding to these challenges through its global Smart Fields® initiative, transforming its global assets into smart assets by establishing a foundation of core technologies and collaborative work environments (CWE) that enable offshore and onshore personnel and experts worldwide to work together as teams to improve production performance and recovery of hydrocarbons throughout the value loop. Smart Fields represents Shell E&P's vision and operational principles that provide individual assets the core capabilities necessary to achieve and sustain continuous optimization in the short-term and throughout the asset life cycle.

Business Value from Intelligent Fields

“…Increasingly, assets have implemented a CWE for production optimisation (ref. 15). Such a centre focuses on the daily production surveillance and opportunities for production optimisation.…”

Collaboration and Smart Fields - Experience from Global Scale-Up

“…Around 2005, Shell began the journey to enhance collaborative working within its producing assets (Knoppe 2008). Today the advantages of working in a collaborative environment are well understood and the initiative is widely embraced throughout the petroleum industry (e.g.…”

IT Governance and Organization in Smart Oil Fields (Russian)

“…Нефтедобывающая промышленность в настоящее время переживает значительные изменения (Knoppe & Holloway, 2008). В настоящем исследовании мы выделили три текущих проблемы, с которыми сталкиваются предприятия отрасли: (i) Увеличивающийся спрос на энергоресурсы (Hickman, Guidry & Seaton, 2008;Rawdon, 2003).…”

“…(Babadagli, 2005). (iii) «Замена команды (The Big crew change)» (Brett, 2007;Edwards, Saunders & Moore-Cernoch, 2006;Heaney & Davidson, 2006;Hickman, Guidry & Seaton, 2008;Knoppe & Holloway, 2008;Popham & Edwards, 2009;Tealdi, Kreft & Donachie, 2006). Нетрадиционные ресурсы включают тяжелую нефть, нефть и газ на сверх-глубоководных участках, битуминозные пески и сланцевые углеводороды (Miskimins, 2009;Tye, 2010;Yawanarajah et al, 2008).…”