Driving drilling efficiency in Western Asia with DrillOps™ performance insights and technical limit tracking 

Due to increasing well complexity and associated costs, a leading operator in Western Asia experienced consistently stagnant drilling performance over an extended period.

By deploying DrillOps™ performance insights and a dedicated performance engineer, flat time hotspots were identified and addressed, leading to significant efficiency improvements. The first well drilled using this methodology became the first top-quartile well on the rig in over five years, reducing drilling time by 4.2 days. 

A major operator partnered with SLB to tackle drilling performance

For a major operator, offshore drilling operations faced difficulties in delivering consistent performance improvements year on year. Increasing well complexity and costs further compounded the challenge, making enhancing efficiency a critical priority across the drilling and production cycle.  

A key target area for improvement was the elimination of flat times during the drilling process—this required detailed monitoring and analysis of micro-key performance indicators (KPIs) such as rate of penetration (ROP) and connection times.   

However, the operator lacked the necessary data and tools to track these metrics effectively. Previous attempts to improve performance had not yielded the desired results, leading the customer to seek a more robust, data-driven solution. SLB was engaged to address these challenges by utilizing advanced analytics and technical expertise to unlock new levels of drilling efficiency.   

The operator achieved top-quartile drilling with targeted performance optimization

SLB deployed its DrillOps performance insights solution, leveraging its advanced data integration, processing, and visualization capabilities, to conduct a comprehensive field-wide study of drilling performance across multiple platforms in the region.

By integrating high-frequency sensor data, low-frequency daily drilling reports, and other operational data, the tool provided a holistic view of operations, enabling the performance engineer to identify flat time hotspots that were hindering efficiency.

With its offset well analysis workflows, the solution enabled the systematic benchmarking of platform performance, generating actionable performance indicators, and data-driven recommendations to optimize drilling operations and enhance efficiency across the field. 

The insights obtained enabled SLB to implement targeted strategies to address these inefficiencies. The results were transformative. The first well drilled under this new methodology achieved top-quartile performance for the first time in more than five years. The well was completed 4.2 days faster than the platform's PMean timings, demonstrating the effectiveness of technical limit tracking. 

Connection times across the field were improved by an average of 20%, saving more than 48 hours of operational time across platforms in 2025. Notably, one platform achieved a 28% improvement in connection times, becoming the first platform in the field to achieve a weight-to-weight time of less than 20 minutes. 

These results underscore the value of a data-driven approach to performance optimization, enabling the operator to work more efficiently and cost-effectively while setting new benchmarks for drilling performance in the region.