Client: Drilling Contractor

Location: Aberdeen / International

Challenge: Following the merger of several companies into one entity, a new international drilling contractor needed to ensure all its drilling operations were aligned through the consistent application of one set of well control policies.

Solution: Led by our Chief Technical Officer, our team of well control experts audited the existing Well Control Manuals, and liaised with the drilling teams while we undertook the technical authoring of a new set of policies and Well Control Manual to meet their needs. We then provided the training and support tools required to introduce the new standards across our Client’s global drilling operations.


Background

As a global training and consultancy company with over 30 years’ experience in the drilling industry, our core services include technical auditing and authoring. Over the years, we have undertaken and completed technical authoring projects, including the creation of, revision of, and gap analysis reporting for technical policy and procedural documentation at the request of clients worldwide. In 2019 an international drilling contractor enlisted our technical services to help develop, introduce and maintain an array of operational and regulatory drilling documentation including their corporate Well Control Manual.

The project was instigated following the merger of several drilling operations into one company. Faced with a range of existing documentation across different operations, we carried out a full audit of all the well control documentation involving gap analysis reporting and cross-referencing exercises. This revealed that the documentation varied greatly in scope and value, so our team was subsequently tasked with providing the technical authoring expertise to create new documentation that would meet the specific needs of all the drilling teams now operating under the one global banner.

Solution

We set out to create one standard corporate Well Control Manual – complete with Golden Rules – that would be as concise as practically possible. Throughout the two-month process, there was a high level of Client interaction as we sought to pull together all the various ideas from the different divisions operating worldwide.

Once the new Corporate Well Control Policies & Procedures Manual was completed and approved, we then helped to roll it out globally across the Client’s international fleet of drilling rigs. This included providing various translations into local languages for operations worldwide, as well as facilitating a series of Well Control Manual roundtable training sessions to ensure the new procedures were adopted.

Outcome

As a proven and valued partner, we continue to provide our Client with technical support – with our technical team regularly liaising directly with the drilling teams to address specific drilling challenges. When required, we have also provided additional support tools including a well control calculator workbook for kick tolerance and a range of crew checklists.


This project relied heavily on communication and collaboration between our technical team and the Client. It’s success is a true testament to the strong partnership built by both sides. We have established an excellent and ongoing working relationship, and we are now the go-to well control partner and technical service provider.– CTO, Aberdeen Drilling School