In 2017 Maersk Oil’s Danish Business Unit (DBU) invited us to continue to develop our ideas about well risk modelling started with Maersk Oil Qatar. We built a far more sophisticated model with DBU. This was a fully functioning, albeit static, well risk model.

In 2020, as Total E&P Denmark (TEPDK), the results of this work were published in SPE paper SPE-200744 co-authored by TEPDK engineers Peter Lumbye, Hans-Henrik Nielsen, Stephen Patterson and Peter Lutzen, stating impressive results and benefits:

Engineers now spend 85% less time in well integrity risk assessments and failure management when anomalies arise because this work has been done in advance. This means engineers’ time is freed for other valuable tasks. The company also saves management time, onshore and offshore, cutting down the need for management challenge and action justification. All personnel involved have a more consistent understanding of well issues, with routine anomalies dealt with much more efficiently. This means decisions are made at a lower level, including whether to continue to operate a well or shut it in.

TEPDK has reduced the probability of process safety incidents from wells. This is because it has a far more sophisticated, clearer understanding of well risks and actions and timeframes for anomaly response. It has also improved production efficiency, safeguarding on average 2,700 boepd, through a reduction in well shut-in time. This has an equivalent value of approximately $50 million / year.