INPEX is a company on a mission to provide a secure long-term primary energy source from the deep waters of the Timor Sea, Australia.

Their Ichthys project is remarkable in size, scope and total value, it’s a key component of the mission. The engineering of the offshore floating facilities, the pipeline to Australia and the onshore LNG plant get a lot of attention. But it all starts with drilling, and the success of the project is predicated on delivering high quality wells on time and on budget.

Simon Zoller and Matt Jobe (General Manager Drilling and Well Engineering Manager) inherited a “a bunch of different excel books, discrete apps etc for planning, risk assessment, action tracking, MOC, lessons learned etc” and said they were “...keen to consolidate things.” We often hear this from drilling managers at operators. A key difference made by Simon and Matt is they committed to implement Eikos to manage their well delivery process.

Implementing a change is hard work, it carries risk and the reward may be uncertain. But Simon and Matt had a strategic advantage - a vision of a better way of working. They discovered that their vision could be implemented using Eikos as an enabling tool. They needed to be persuasive and persistent but their efforts are creating a better organisation now and a legacy that will support the mission in future.

The Ichthys project is enormous. Well construction is critical to success for INPEX. Making the move from a varied “bunch” of documents to a consolidated, digitalised project management system will benefit the entire organisation.