Reducing drilling program cycle time, increasing money saved

Recently I read an interesting article written by Jennifer Presley, Executive Editor of Hart’s E&P, about drilling program cycle time being the key to unlocking improved cash flow. In the article, she quoted a study by Westwood Global Energy Group and PPI, which found that, “Better management of the amount of work in process [of delivery of a well] along with a reduction in cycle times can deliver higher returns and increased cash flow.”  Reduction of cycle times is critical and that’s exactly what we at Actenum have been helping operators do for years. In fact, we have helped some reduce time to first oil by as much as two to three days with enhanced rig scheduling.

How do we do it? To begin, we help reduce cycle time by removing “white space” in the well delivery schedule. Our Actenum DSO scheduling software schedules any resource against any type of activity, and takes any type of constraint into account, and then rapidly and automatically aligns the sequence of activities with the operator’s business objectives. It performs the “heavy-lifting” of initial rig schedule creation by searching the set of activities, resources, sequencing/timing combinations, and preferences/policy requirements rapidly and efficiently, to assemble an oil and gas drilling schedule in far less time than using a manual approach. What might take days or weeks to complete manually is done with Actenum DSO in minutes. 

Simplify, eliminate, reduce, repeat

By simplifying rig scheduling and eliminating guesswork, the software significantly improves the efficient use of equipment, personnel, and other resources, which leads directly to a reduction in drilling program cycle time and money saved. To further help reduce cycle time, Actenum DSO oil and gas scheduling software features an AI-powered optimizer that takes existing schedules and looks for ways to tighten up the time in between operations, eliminating non-productive time to shrink the cycle time, automatically. The optimizer processes thousands of schedule combinations per second to identify an optimal sequence of resources and activities. And, it quickly re-sequences the schedule if any changes occur.

Cutting cycle time for a global operator

The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Here’s just one example: by using Actenum DSO oil and gas scheduling software, a global operator was able to reduce their cycle time–spud to first oil–for a 160 well drilling project by an average of 2 days. Using their old rig scheduling approach, activity gaps in the schedule could not be traced, but these gaps were immediately evident in Actenum DSO’s pad-based Gantt chart schedule view. Also, by using Actenum DSO the operator was able not only to configure various reports that showed process inefficiencies but also ensure that this information was available to all stakeholders when it was needed.

Walking the talk

A wide range of oil and gas operators of varying size have echoed the benefits Actenum DSO scheduling software delivers. “It helps reduce cycle times but also determines economics and value so we can effectively prioritize our development areas. It’s highly configurable which makes it easy to use,” said a Planner for a U.S. E&P Operator in the Permian Basin. And in the words of a Project Manager from a super major, “The software improved the ability to estimate and execute sanctioned development programs, minimized cycle times, and provided insight into the impact of changes”.

Having the ability to reduce cycle times is important in any environment, but vital in the current unprecedented oil and gas downturn. By leveraging Actenum DSO oil and gas scheduling software, operators have an automatic way to help reduce the time spent on non-value added activities and streamline the well delivery process to reduce their cost of operations.

If you’d like to see how Actenum can help reduce your cycle times, contact us at info@actenum.com. 

 

Owen Plowman
Vice President Business Development