Companies’ Group Drilling Operations Centralized Lessons Learned Process and Platform
Authors: Iabbassen Nabila , Al Shekaili Osama , Al Marzouqi Muna Salman 
Published: October 2022

In the year 2030, global energy demand will be almost 35% higher than it was in 2010, led by a power-hungry world population of almost 8 billion. This looming energy crisis must be tackled by forming stronger inter- and intra-company collaborations, to maximize their exploration and production. Knowledge sharing is essential in every sector of all societies; employed as the primary tool for achieving progress. It is the necessary key to making these stronger partnerships, providing networking communities in which to share information for the good of the organization.

There are many ways in which an organization can use knowledge sharing as an effective tool for gaining success, such as: websites and forums; peer-reviewed journals; conferences; and educational programs. Benefits of knowledge sharing include but not limited to: enhanced learning opportunities and intellectual stimulation for employees; increased company efficiency; advances in R&D and in particular with forums, the creation of a searchable archive of previously answered questions for future use.

Should all organizations decide to adopt these cost-effective techniques, they would not only increase their capital but also help to solve the global energy crisis with more effective R&D in exploration and production. Organizations that enable their employees to access and interact with their company's knowledge base are more likely to succeed than those whose individuals have limited sharing opportunities.

Knowledge can be shared on three different levels: Intra-organizational: This refers to small-scale inside a company. Large organizations operating worldwide require an internal communication and flow of information among the different departments. There is no doubt that those organizations that are closer to enabling their staff to work on the basis of what the organization knows instead of one of the basis of what the individual knows have considerably higher earning power.Inter-organizational: This applies to joint ventures and partnerships between different private companies, or together with government agencies or national companies. This category further includes industry-university partnerships for specific projects. Due to competitiveness the companies involved do not like to be fully open with their ideas, so we rarely see a win-win situation.Global: Knowledge is shared on a global scale, using methods such as publications, forums, conferences, recent webinars and also distance learning. It is the basis of scientific diffusion of knowledge. All educational programs of petroleum engineering related societies that we know should be mentioned as an example for global knowledge sharing.

The centralized lessons learned platform in this paper falls under the Intra-organizational category as it represents a tool to collect all group companies’ lessons learned and share the governance documents among them. The knowledge sharing platform allows knowledge seekers to easily find and re-use information rather than recreate it.

Before this platform has been introduced, each product line or functional group in the operating company organizes its information from its internal viewpoint rather than from a broader viewpoint. And only selected few topics are shared among the group in a bi-annual knowledge sharing forum. The use of a broader viewpoint would, however, encourage content sharing beyond the product line or group. To be successful the digital world must eventually merge these independent hierarchies toward a common centralized platform among the group companies.

This paper details the development of a group company-wide Knowledge management tool: the lessons learned platform.