Top Three Methods to Improve Intervention Planning

When planning an intervention operation, there are several factors that need to be evaluated to develop the best plan in terms of cost, time, and risk. 

As of today, this evaluation is done by manually gathering relevant data, and preparing the rest of the procedures to finalize the plan. 

However, innovative software tools and a data-driven approach can facilitate a new way of planning. In this blog, we will discuss three methods and factors you need to consider to discover your improvement potential.

As this article is somewhat extensive, we have for your convenience highlighted the content here:

1. The Process Today
2. Automating Processes
3. The Power of Global Data
4. Collaboration
5. Conclusion

The Process Today

To plan a successful intervention operation today, the factors that needs to be evaluated includes well information, integrity concerns, operating procedures, tools, methods, and risks. In addition, you need to implement learnings from similar operations that have been completed.

As previously mentioned, this evaluation is done by hand by manually gathering and then ranking and rating the relevant data and the different options to decide on the optimal plan. This process is iterative and requires many meetings, reviews, decision gates and follow up to communicate new information along the process.

After a plan is decided, it needs to be prepared in the form of multiple procedures which are written by the engineers, and every change or adjustment requires a new update and revision.

Needless to say, this complicates the planning process. By considering the following three methods, you can improve your well intervention planning. 

Read more: Can Well Intervention Be Digitalized?

1. Automating Processes

It is estimated that engineers and planners spend at least 50 percent of their time working on manual iterative tasks. This includes writing procedures, capturing decisions, running simulations, and manually collecting, checking, and processing the data that they need. They need information such as the well history, the integrity status, the well details, selection of tools they are going to run, the optimal procedure, operational time-frame, to name a few.

This information and data can be stored in different places, in different sources and software.

Right now, it is hiding in isolated places that some have access to, some don’t, and sometimes it doesn’t exist in the place you think it should. When they finally find the data, they have to review it and make sure it’s correct and up to date.

This is how engineers are doing it today, and how they have been doing it for many years.

When automating processes, you remove all the manual tasks. By freeing up the time required to complete manual tasks, highly skilled engineers can instead focus on the tasks that truly generate value. They can now focus on addressing potential risks of the operation, and on looking at different technical alternatives to find the best solution, instead of trusting the one that is right in front of them due to lack of time.

Automating processes also makes planning more efficient and increases the amount of work that can be done in the same amount of time.

A software solution can automate manual tasks and present all the data to the people who previously spent hours looking for it.

2. The Power of Global Data

When gathering data, the information is constrained by the person who is planning the job, who he has connections to or what he and his connections remember. Most companies do not have a suitable global database which manages the planning, or data on a higher level which shares what was learned from all previous experiences.

This is currently limited to the people who are planning the job and the data they have access to.

In large, global organisations with high headcount and various teams, positioned at different locations, people don’t necessarily have a good way of capturing or communicating what they have been doing and what experiences they have collected.

A software solution can manage standard operating procedures and make sure that all relevant information is updated continuously and is accessible to everyone everywhere. This leads to higher success rates, lower operational times, and consequently, large cost savings.

Read more: Top Five Methods to Avoid Problems During Well Intervention

3. Collaboration

Having a software that enables good collaboration is crucial in circumstances where someone is absent, busy or in other ways not available. By having data available and easily accessible through such software, you can pick up straight where someone else left off at any time, instead of spending time waiting for a handover of information or getting up to speed.

From the start you know the progress of the project, outstanding actions and what exactly needs to be done, so you can jump straight in.

A significant amount of work in intervention planning is done remotely, in most cases planning is completed in an office whilst the plan is executed on site. Better collaboration and communication between people in the operation and people in the office, increases the chance of succeeding.

Planning requires input from many different business units and collaboration also helps to break down barriers between these different teams and stakeholders. Energy companies using a business model based on closer partnerships with their vendors, demand good and very well-established communication between the different parties, so that they can be more involved in planning and decision making.

The global pandemic has also made working remotely more common. Having a software that enables access to data that makes working from home easy, and for the work performed remotely to be available for everyone else immediately, is necessary to increase productivity.

Conclusion

In order for companies to survive in the ever-demanding energy industry, they need to evolve. As already mentioned, the workflows and processes involved in planning intervention operations have been largely unaltered in the past 20-30 years. The industry is rapidly changing, and you risk getting left behind if you don’t keep up with the pace.

By following the three methods discussed in this article, you ensure that planning for your intervention operation is comprehensive, safe and efficient.