ROGTEC Talks to Gokhan Aker, Drilling Director at TNK-BP: Drilling for the New Era
The world is evolving at a rapid pace leaving behind the technologies and approaches that seemed advanced just a few years ago. The same goes to oil industry and drilling in particular. With the share of hard-to-recover reserves increasing and the scope of new solutions expanding, oil companies around the world are continuously searching for front-end drilling methods that will ensure cost efficiency of oil production without compromising the safety and the quality of operations. ROGTEC talked to TNK-BP Drilling Director Gokhan Aker to find out about the current and the long-term role and goals of the drilling function in the Company.
You joined TNK-BP less than a year ago. How do you see the strategic goals of the drilling function in TNK-BP?
Gokhan Aker: When I joined TNK-BP nine months ago, I tried to understand what had been done here before and most importantly what we are to do in the future, what TNK-BP drilling function will look like in 15 years. It is no idle question. The world has now entered a new technologically advanced era and the same applies to the oil industry as a whole and drilling function in particular. So how are we going to fit in the new time?
TNK-BP business is very diverse. Our areas of operations include Yamal with its arctic conditions, the extremely remote and cold Verkhnechonskoye field, giant yet mature West Siberian assets, and very challenging fields in Orenburg Region. Moreover, with the recent changes in the Company we now have new international projects where drilling will give some valuable input to achieving TNK-BP strategic goals. All this work is to be thoroughly planned and designed so as to ensure that the operations are run in a safe, efficient, cost-effective and environmentally responsible manner. We have to report, analyze, review and highlight the improvements as well as introduce a control mechanism to minimize the risks and improve in a systematic way.
Drilling efficiency is key to cost efficiency and long-term production. What steps are being taken to ensure you are optimizing drilling operations?
Gokhan Aker: Drilling efficiency is one of the most important aspects of our work. Given that drilling costs comprise two elements, i.e. time dependent costs and time independent costs, we are to keep up with the schedule and optimize the time in the time dependent variables, e.g. rig times, number of days per 1,000 m, etc. We also need to ensure high cost efficiency of our operations without compromising safety or quality. There is always this ‘triangle’ of safety, quality and cost and we need to balance these factors in a consistent and repeatable manner. To do so, we need to plan and design the wells in detail and then execute and control our operations to ensure high quality and safety both for people and for the environment. We are also to learn from your previous experience and implement the lessons learned into our new operations.
We’ve actually come a long way: if we benchmark our drilling results as of 2005 to those of late 2009, a 50-percent improvement can be observed. That was quite an achievement but we keep improving even further. This year we have already seen some record-breaking in Nyagan and Uvat where the footage per day exceeded 1,000 m. Notable achievements have been demonstrated in Orenburg as well: here the overall cycle times improved from 200 days to less than 100 days over the past couple of years.
We however need to be consistent when benchmarking our results to the previous performance since wells of different construction require different analysis. It is rather difficult to decide if the benchmark is justifiable and this is one of the functions of the Corporate Drilling Dept. Within this effort we compare our performance not only internally across the target subsidiaries of the Company but externally as well. I can say that in terms rig fleet upgrade and year-on-year achievement in onshore development drilling TNK-BP is one of the industry leaders. I also think we are the best in terms of receiving new technology and implementing it in the Company’s fields. We’ve already had certain success with rotary steerable systems, underbalanced drilling, coiled tubing drilling and other initiatives that are aimed to ensure low cost access to reserves.
Now that drilling is entering a new era, will this call for certain changes in drilling competencies and organizational capability?
Gokhan Aker: In this regard one of the initiatives is to launch our Drilling Support Center in Tyumen and have it up and running. The reason we set up this organization is that we now need to shift our minds to proactive thinking to meet our current challenges. The role of specialists in the Center will be to monitor in real time the execution of drilling operations across the Company while still being located in Tyumen. The Drilling Support Center is not an office but rather a real-time replica of a field: instead of being physically on site, we install cameras, establish data links – and we are there. To this end, the Center is provided with all the necessary resources to ensure 24/7 monitoring of operations and timely prevention of risks and problems.
The other part of our current effort is our young specialists. TNK-BP Drilling Dept. launched an aggressive young specialist development program back in 2006 and the third group of students is about to graduate this year. Competency development of our young specialists is a strategic priority for the Company. To remain leaders in the new era of drilling we need to generate confident, proactive, open, frank young drilling professionals in TNK-BP. To be one, you need the synergy of drilling experience on site and in office. We’ve now reached the era when information is available online and if proper background, training and education are in place the gap between theory and practice can be closed really quickly. And that is what we try to achieve with our young specialist development program.
What is your forecast for drilling operations in TNK-BP for the next couple of years and what needs to be done to meet your goals?
Gokhan Aker: Year on year we need to maintain and improve our performance at acceptable cost level. To do so and enter the new era of drilling head on, I think a step change in drilling is needed. To this end, we have to be proactive in terms of management and explain our goals and objectives to key stakeholders, i.e. TNK-BP target subsidiaries. The alignment of goals across the Company is extremely crucial; otherwise we will not be able to achieve them quickly if at all.
In the coming three years we aim to increase the drilling efficiency by 20 percent to 25 percent. To meet our short-term goals, the primary focus will be low-cost access drilling in mature fields in West Siberia. And while doing so, we are to plan and design our wells in detail and execute these plans in a safe, efficient and environmentally-friendly way. We also need to analyze our previous experience and learn from it. Finally, we need to ensure robust control both at planning stage and at execution stage to minimize the risk. Risk management is an important aspect of our business – we are dealing with uncertainty 3,000 m below the surface where we can’t be 100 percent sure of what to expect.
On the other hand, we in the Drilling Dept. need to assimilate our values to those of the Company. Corporate leadership has recently given us four values: leadership, safety, performance and integrity. I think we as part of TNK-BP have the same values and it is through them that we can reach our goals. Moreover, TNK-BP is a fairly young company with enormous growth potential and we need to evolve our corporate culture in a very solid manner. So we in the Drilling Dept. are to set the example and make our values the top priority not only in words but most importantly in operations.
This interview was conducted as a joint venture between ROGTEC Magazine and Innovator Magazine
