Digital technologies are improving drilling efficiency, safety, and reservoir management in offshore operations in the Stabroek Block, according to Alistair Routledge, President of ExxonMobil Guyana.
Routledge addressed the role of digitization during a press conference on March 19 at the company’s Ogle operational centre. He was responding to a question about the industry’s first fully automated closed-loop well placement, completed in collaboration with technology partner Halliburton.
He said the broader goal of using technology across offshore operations is to improve performance while reducing risk. “What we’re trying to do with technology is improve efficiency, reduce costs, but also keep people out of harm’s way,” the official said.
Routledge noted that increased mechanization on offshore drillships is also helping improve safety, stating that “some of the digitization or mechanization that we’re seeing on offshore facilities like these drill ships is taking people away from the areas where we have a lot of moving equipment, to ensure that we keep people safe.”
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The well placement project’s automated workflow links geological data, well placement decisions, and rig control systems in real time, removing the traditional separation between subsurface interpretation and drilling execution.
The system placed roughly 470 meters of lateral well section within the reservoir, reduced tripping time by about 33%, and completed the reservoir section roughly 15% ahead of plan.
The technology is also linked to how offshore production facilities are monitored and controlled. Routledge explained that operations from floating production vessels can now be managed from onshore control rooms.
“We have the fiber optic cable that runs from the FPSOs to onshore. Here in the other building at our office, we have onshore control rooms. So, we are able to operate those facilities,” Routledge said.
Routledge said the setup reduces offshore staffing and improves response times. “That has the benefit of having fewer people offshore, and also enabling us to respond to issues in the systems faster and faster because we have additional technical support here, co-located with those control rooms.”
He also explained that the technology compares seismic data captured at different times. “We were able to go through some very clever algorithms that our scientists write to compare the images we grabbed a year or so previously with the ones that we grabbed last year and see fluid movements in the rocks.”
He said this allows engineers to track how oil, gas and water move within the reservoir. “We’re actually able to image the movement of gas, water, and oil.”
The data supports operational decisions on production and injection strategies. “What that enables us to do is then determine, ‘should we increase gas injection or water injection of a particular area?’”
Routledge said the approach provides insights that previously relied on well testing alone. “Now we can see them beforehand.”
