Dundas

Drilling Schedule Optimisation

Unlock Value by Optimising Your Drilling Schedule.

Our optimisation and analysis software uses a proprietary genetic algorithm to generate schedules maximising value, production or the addition of proved reserves. In addition, our tools enable operators to catalogue schedules and quantify the business impact of their decisions.

Background

Major EP companies need to create and maintain a drilling schedule for a large number of drill strings. The objective is to maximise value, production or reserves from limited resources of cash and rigs/crews. The task is complicated by the following factors:

• the data is highly dynamic
• the data is subject to uncertainty
• business priorities can change

For any significant activity levels, it is impossible to optimise this manually or by inspection. The Dundas tools contain a powerful proprietary optimisation algorithm developed to handle the complex scheduling problem faced in the operation of regional development programmes. The tool may be used to automatically optimise drilling schedules:

• Select best projects to be executed
• Determine best chronological order
• Comply with all business constraints

The optimiser objective function can be either:

• Value, or
• Production build-up, or
• Proved reserves additions (PRA)

Functionality

The Dundas schedule optimiser will complement existing schedule planning processes, and currently has the following functionality:

• automated schedule optimisation using a genetic algorithm;
• schedule evaluation in terms of NPV, cashflow, expenditure profiles, production build-up profiles and proved reserves addition profiles;
• cataloguing of manually entered and automatically generated schedules;
• parametric evaluations to quantify the business impact of key sensitivities – e.g. CAPEX availability, string time performance, rig availability;
• formatted business reports, showing a digest of schedule information and allowing quantitative comparison of alternative schedules.

Constraints

Our tools enable compliance with all of your business constraints, e.g.:

• Earliest possible spud date
• Latest acceptable end date
• Project precedence
• Capital availability per annum
• Number of rigs per rig category
• Rig availability windows