Advances in Rig Scheduling Technology
Upstream Technology
April 2008
“In today’s environment of diminishing reserves and higher prices, every day is a race to produce the maximum volume of oil and gas at the lowest possible cost. No one knows that better than those who work in the upstream sector of the petroleum and natural gas industries.
Rig schedulers must coordinate the movement and placement of drilling and completion rigs to meet production targets. It’s not an easy process because several potential variables must be evaluated. Rig/well compatibility issues must be addressed. Operational constraints, like crew availability and readiness must be considered. Drilling priorities can change, and well readiness can slip. What’s more, complications like special equipment delivery delays and unexpected rig breakdowns may arise during actual drilling operations, and these cannot be anticipated
Today there’s an advanced breed of software solution available that is capable of generating optimized resource schedules for multi-faceted scheduling environments. The even better news is that this new software is designed to take into account the multiple objectives, disruptions, preferences and constraints found in the real world, and it’s fast.”