WHITE PAPER | 09.22.

2020

On Schedule to

MORE EFFICIENT
PRODUCTION

1
CONTENTS
01: Executive Summary 1

02: Scheduling in Complex Environments has Substantial Economic Impact on a Company 2

The challenges of drilling scheduling 2

03: A Single, Integrated Schedule Managed with a Single Software Tool 3

Integrated scheduling 3

Effective collaboration 4

The impact of changes on key metrics 4

04: Configuration is Critical 5

05: Architecture Matters 6

06: The Importance of “What-if?” 7

07: Conclusion 8

© 2020 Actenum Corporation. All rights reserved. 2

 01: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Today, operators are drilling more wells, faster than ever before. With high
operational costs and sometimes scarce resources, rigs and other important
equipment need to be properly allocated in the drilling program schedule to
maximize efficiency and equipment utilization and minimize downtime. But
while more and more operators are digitizing their operations and becoming
smarter about data analytics, they also need to consider the advantages of
selecting scheduling software that properly addresses the needs of a drilling
program: resource contracts and blackout periods, program milestones, cycle
time targets, lease obligations, accurate materials, cost, and production
forecasting, and effective collaboration among all team members all have a
major impact on business goals and overall program risk.

© 2020 Actenum Corporation. All rights reserved. 1

 02: SCHEDULING IN COMPLEX
ENVIRONMENTS HAS
SUBSTANTIAL ECONOMIC IMPACT
ON A COMPANY
The challenges of drilling scheduling

Creating and managing schedules for upstream assets is a complex and challenging
task that carries with it substantial economic impact on the company. After all, it
addresses the critical well delivery value chain that stretches from acquisition of land,
through all of the operations required to deliver wells, to production of hydrocarbons
from those wells. In the past, drilling scheduling was often done using spreadsheets or
other unsophisticated general-purpose project management software tools. But
drilling scheduling complexity has grown beyond what can be set up and maintained
this way. The challenges of getting equipment to the right place at the right time, with
the right people, across a number of pads spread over multiple geographic areas are of
paramount importance but are just the start. Efficient well delivery requires many
additional aspects of drilling operations to be effectively addressed.

© 2020 Actenum Corporation. All rights reserved. 2

 03: A SINGLE, INTEGRATED
SCHEDULE MANAGED WITH A
SINGLE SOFTWARE TOOL
Integrated scheduling

In a true factory drilling process, well delivery is done in an integrated manner.

Generally, for example, construction, drilling, frac, facility/pipeline and tie-in
activities are focused around each well according to a “just in time” approach, so that
they start and finish at the appropriate time, with the most appropriate resources. Pad
construction should complete shortly before spud date, and frac activities should start
as soon as is practical after a well has been drilled. Also, the right facilities and gathering
network components have to be in place before a well can be tied into production.

In order to run integrated operations, a single integrated schedule is required, managed

with a single software tool. All resources, activities, and constraints have to be available
and visible in the schedule for it to be truly effective and provide value. Using one
software tool to schedule drilling, and another to schedule frac jobs, for example, can
lead to poor coordination and costly operational problems.1

1 At least one Actenum customer using simplistic and different software tools to handle various operations had to rapidly reassign rigs multiple times each year to resolve
drill/frac coordination problems, while another customer found at least one well that was scheduled for fracking 3 months prior to drilling.

© 2020 Actenum Corporation. All rights reserved. 3

 Effective collaboration

With so many moving parts in a drilling program, lack of visibility into all operations
in an integrated manner can add to complexity. Take for example, an operator in a shale
play conducting hydraulic fracturing. The fracking must be scheduled with the right
crews, based on a number of constraints, including the equipment in place, lease
obligations, project timing, and other considerations. The operator would need to be
clear on the scheduled milestones and responsibilities and know important factors
such as when should the permit arrive and who is looking after the permit? They would
also have to be aware of known blackout dates for region-specific events, such as Sage
Grouse Nesting Season or Canadian Freeze Up periods, in which no drilling projects can
take place. Disruptions from unplanned events, such as equipment breakdowns,
weather compound the problem. Circumstances change because of planned and
unplanned events, and rescheduling must be done right in order to keep the operations
moving forward.

The impact of changes on key metrics

Furthermore, without clear visibility into key metrics as the schedule is changed, how
will the operator know the impact on goals such as costs and production when moving
A scheduling equipment, removing rigs, adding crews, and making other resource decisions? Or, if
software must have the schedule is still aligned with key business goals? The finite number of rigs available
“what-if” scenarios and differences in rigs, such as spudder vs. big rigs, also makes scheduling more
complex. Once a well is in production, scheduling remains key to efficiency. Managing
capabilities to
maintenance requirements such as emptying battery tanks or injecting water back into a
identify optimal well must be scheduled accurately and made available to all stakeholders. From
alternatives planning to production, scheduling is critical to efficiency.

Operators need a solution that enables them to balance multiple constraints or

establish highest priority, such as cost per period or DUCs as well as the ability to set
and track key drilling metrics such as “Resources Days Idle”. A robust scheduling tool will
provide visibility of the schedule by team or business area and enable what-if analysis to
generate scenarios and identify the optimal alternative. It will improve the governmental
permitting process by knowing exactly when and where paperwork must be submitted.
And it will have the ability to be optimized around financial and production constraints
while supporting forecasting.

With a robust scheduling tool, senior management, scheduling, drilling and completions
as well as procurement will benefit from a single source view of operations that
enables everyone to understand the allocation and use of major resources and as a
Single source view
result, improve cycle time. It will also help operators avoid well interference by making
of the schedule use of offset well data to show if there are offset well violations hidden in the schedule
which can cause significant operational disruptions and have a negative impact on the
drilling budget. By ensuring that schedules are aligned with business objectives, the tool
will improve profit and cost tracking.

© 2020 Actenum Corporation. All rights reserved. 4

 04: CONFIGURATION IS CRITICAL
Critical to scheduling success is a schedule tool that is completely configurable with
user-defined activities to meet organization-specific requirements and address all
operational and business constraints found in drilling programs. Amongst others, the
tool should be able to set contingent tasks, such as construction, drilling, fracing, and
POL and provide verification of what resources are compatible with an activity. For
example, what type of rig may be used on a particular well, or in a specific area. With
the well up and running, the tool should provide an effective means for scheduling
maintenance activities to avoid interruptions in operations and ensure equipment
continues to work reliably. By performing maintenance too early, operators are
burdened with high maintenance costs. When done too late, it can lead to equipment
failure and a stop in production.

To enhance operational scheduling, the ideal scheduling tool would provide

support regarding logistical challenges and region-specific constraints, including
A flexible
environmental stipulations and blackout periods on any resource, well, or area.
application with an Moreover, because every organization’s workflow and business process is different,
open architecture it will need to be a flexible application with an open architecture for ease of adaptation
and integration. One which allows for the ability to import data from multiple sources,
such as well production or ERP cost data and can export data to other software.

© 2020 Actenum Corporation. All rights reserved. 5

 05: ARCHITECTURE MATTERS
Better decision-making happens when teams have easy access to the metrics that
matter to them. With a tool that is designed to organize and isolate schedules around
business teams, everyone involved in the operations has visibility into the daily activities
that impact his or her particular role within the project.
Desktop, tablet
or smart phone A scheduling tool providing web-based visibility via a browser makes all critical
information accessible from a desktop, tablet, or smart phone. It significantly improves
accessibility
efficiency, collaboration and mobility while providing the latest schedule information
anywhere, any time. In turn, this shortens cycle times, reduces risk and helps achieve
predictable and reliable production. With configurable scheduling logic, ongoing
schedule management is also simplified.

For example, by allowing a user to define the activity types, link them in the correct
order and define the time constraints between them, it is easy for the user to insert
a new activity into the schedule in one easy step. Gaining timely insights into the
efficiency of well delivery operations that are very difficult to obtain by more
traditional methods. Using scheduling software ensures operators benefit from
flexible reporting via a wide variety of for-mats that can include Excel, PDF files,
Gantt, tabular and graphics.

© 2020 Actenum Corporation. All rights reserved. 6

 06: THE IMPORTANCE OF “WHAT-IF?”
Reducing risk by looking at “What-ifs” is a value-added element in the ideal scheduling
tool. By having a sandbox to run scenarios such as running production levels against
operating expenses before committing to a schedule, operators have the ability to ask
key questions and find answers that determine the best path forward such as, What
Ensuring maximum would the impact be if an extra rig were added? What will the impact be on productivity
use of resources if we decrease costs by 20%?

Gantt charts also assist in this area. Using Gantt charts, operators have clear visibility
into how long a project should take, the resources needed, and the order in which the
tasks should be completed. With at a glance visibility, operators can minimize any gaps
in the schedule, while also ensuring maximum utilization of resources. Conducting
What- if scenarios all provide better understanding of the flexibility or crash potential
of various points in the critical path of the rig or production schedule. And as a result,
provide the information needed to determine the right action to take.

© 2020 Actenum Corporation. All rights reserved. 7

 07: CONCLUSION
Today, oil and gas companies are doing the same amount of work they did a decade
ago, but with fewer people. The volumes of data available are greater than ever
before and tasks have become more complicated. As employees and managers adapt
to increasingly complex processes and business decisions, fit-for-purpose tools are
Request a demo at required to meet this new reality. In the growing digital oilfield, improved software
[email protected] integration translates into better communication with all areas within the business.
To be truly effective, any scheduling software solution must have the flexibility to
be deployed in a variety of IT environments. And, it must offer the What-if analysis
necessary for optimizing business practices and forecasting development cost
and production.

Actenum DSO/Upstream is a powerful, fit-for-purpose scheduling and optimization

software tool that incorporates these requirements to drive significant value for
operators. Running on either a localized server or in the cloud on a preferred provider
platform, DSO/Upstream allows for flexibility among both the underlying deployment
and overall configuration of the tool. The tool provides schedule scenarios to make
effective decisions that are key to the success of a drilling program. As a result, it
enables operators to improve well delivery efficiency, optimize resource use, and
meet cost and production goals.

© 2020 Actenum Corporation. All rights reserved. 8

ACTENUM
CORPORATION

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