RIASSUNTO
Abstract
The introduction of a new downhole digital technology has the potential to revolutionize well intervention operations through performance management, faster decision cycles and organizational change. The new system has the ability to send real-time downhole data from well intervention operations to the surface, and from there to data centers anywhere in the world. The system facilitates collaborative work by engaging a broader spectrum of specialists than has been traditionally available at the wellsite.
A major benefit is the technology's capability as the catalyst for bringing about the significant organizational change required to replace currently aging offshore personnel with an adequate supply of competent employees within the context of the existing management and supply chain systems. Case studies are presented taken from over 20 field runs conducted during field integration testing.
Introduction
This discourse concerns the metamorphosis of traditional oilfield working methodologies into a new way of working enabled by the introduction of a new technology into a new market.
The discussion investigates:
what the technology does and how it works
the implications for collaborative work
one solution to the ""graying workforce?? issue
This example is set in the field of well intervention, a substantial sector of the industry. In this case it is specifically within the context of wellbore intervention; those operations concerned solely with downhole operations such as service tools, casing exits and fishing operations, services most of which are generally delivered by pipe-conveyed downhole tools, and in some instances, by coiled tubing. Wellbore intervention can be properly defined as ""the often unplanned act of intervening in an unacceptable downhole situation to modify it to a satisfactory condition.??
Enabling Change
Step changes in technology such as this are often accompanied in their introduction by requirements for new skills and for higher levels of education or training. Always, however, they are accompanied by changes in working practices and require adaptation by the people ""at the sharp end.?? In this instance, this process of change breaks entirely with traditional models of work and reconstructs an entirely new model of collaboration that has implications for all who work in the energy sector.