Is initiation engineering the new completions?

摘要

Taking a cohesive approach to early-stage well construction can dictate the economic success of the entire drilling campaign. But why, unlike completions, is this critical stage rarely acknowledged as a distinct specialty with a single-source solution? The initial stage of well construction focuses more on structural and handling issues than drilling engineering, but it is still traditionally managed by drilling engineers. There is currently a very fragmented market of companies offering narrow specialist services to assist, and they generally have limited experience of the broader picture. For example, there's little inter-connectivity between those that supply key components such as conductors and businesses that provide engineering such as riser analysis. This has created gaps in understanding of the full project requirements that the nonspecialist drilling engineer must try to manage, often leading to unnecessary and costly mistakes. There is little incentive for those individual companies to find broader solutions since these will tend to optimize the process and reduce costs to the customer. It's then very much up to the drilling engineer to try to put the pieces of a complex puzzle together.