Digitalization in Collaborative Framework : Maintain High Quality Drilling Performance in Mahakam's Complex Well Preparation
Authors: Sari Karina , Priwanza Herfran Rhama , Kharisma Sandi Rizky , Saputra Rangga 
Published: October 2021

Mahakam is a mature gas and oil field that has been in operation since 1966, covering an area of approximately 1500 square kilometers. It is located in East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia and has 7 operating fields. Tunu, Tambora and Handil are fields within the swamp shallow water (Delta), whereas Bekapai, Peciko, Sisi Nubi and South Mahakam are offshore fields with water depths ranging from 45 to 80 meters. The diverse setting of environments requires different methods of site preparation, construction, drilling and logistic. The drilling industrialization necessitates agile and complex well preparation especially in the Deltaic environment, with around 70 wells drilled with three swamp barge rigs each year. In recent drilling development in both Tunu and Handil fields, more shallow wells were drilled. These wells were drilled in the swamp with heavy sedimentation and/or sand banks which necessitated a large amount of dredging and required months of preparation whereas the drilling operation took up to 3 days per wells.

The entire well preparation process requires planning, monitoring, and the participation of many team in different entities. Each entity has its own version of well planning database, resulting in data disagreement and lack of data integrity. Thousands of emails are being send and meetings are being organized to guarantee that operations runs well. Due to lack of trustworthy data, personnel movement or team reorganization, it has become serious issues. In 2016, company decided to start the digitalization efforts, by approaching various service company who provides the well planning software. It needed customization to match the corporate needs. However since the digitalization has not yet commonly used by most company, it was then not user friendly, thus several individuals were hesitant to utilize it.

An internal team created an application in early 2019. As the business requirement & working flowchart, the team decided to have a clean and mobile-ready yet less complicated form that also enables team collaboration during the design. This ensures that all users, employee from any generation (X, Y, and Z) able to use and enter valid information. Equipped with map visualization, the related entities will be able to have better quick analysis on the condition surrounding wellhead position. The application also implements an adjustable workflow system that able to follow the dynamic of organization structure, ensure each of well planning task is assigned to the correct team.

Push notifications are also an important element in this application for keeping the entire team up to date. The application also featured a discussion board and file sharing function, allowing each team to exchange information or files. The manual email exchange has been minimized, and the meeting hour has been reduced significantly. The errors are simply identified and fixed in a single integrated database. The application is continuously improved from well planning only in its early stages into well design to accommodate the whole drilling industrialization process.