Workshop 17

Evolving Geohazards Assessment for Modern Offshore Drilling Methods Friday, June 12th|

Convenors

  • Alistair Robertshaw (BP)
  • Eric Cauquil (Total Energies)
  • Oyvind Ruden (Shell)
  • Tommaso Ciccarone (ENI)

Description

The Geophysical Site Survey industry established itself as a critical safety component in planning offshore drilling operations as Oil and Gas exploration and development accelerated through the 1970s and 80s. As a consequence, the number of incidents saw a rapid decline. Today, drilling activity continues to move into new basins, geologies, and water depths, with changing risk profiles, pushing boundaries in drilling technology. Meanwhile, the Geohazards Assessment process has remained fundamentally the same. This workshop aims to explore how operators, survey companies and regulators are evolving their data, analysis, and assessment practices to meet today’s challenges and ensure appropriate, industry-wide risk management and the safety of top-hole drilling operations.

The workshop will ask important questions, such as:

  • How do industry guidelines and regulations align with top-hole drilling risk identification and management practices to deliver increasingly complex wells? 
  • What techniques could support a more predictive, quantitative, and integrated geohazards analysis to reduce the assessment uncertainty?
  • How can technical advancement in geophysical data be further leveraged to enable this?

 

Sub-Topics that will be covered in the workshop:

  • Industry guidelines and practices
  • Offshore drilling technical developments and challenges
  • Risks and Opportunities for Safe Well Delivery 
  • Top-hole / Shallow Hazards Assessment practices and requirements
  • Evolutions in Geophysical technology and hazard analysis
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Oil-rig

Participants Profile

Individuals involved in supporting the assessment of Site Survey/Geohazards/Overburden data for the safe drilling of offshore wells, or in the guidance, regulation, or assurance of required work standards. Cross-discipline awareness for Drilling Engineers, Pore Pressure, Geomechanics, Operations Geology, Geophysical Acquisition, and Seismic Processing practitioners.

Workshop Programme

TimeActivity
Morning Session
09:00Welcome and Workshop Objectives
09:10Key Note: Evolution, The History and Future of Geohazards Assessment, Andy Hill (bp)
Session 1: Geohazard Guidelines and Practical Experiences
09:30IOGP Guidelines for Offshore Drilling Hazards Surveys, Oyvind Ruden (Shell)
09:50Shallow Hazards Assessment: Experiences from a Geohazard Consultancy, Rob Sim (Vysus)
10:10New Challenges: What do Drilling Engineers Need from Geohazards, to deliver Complex Top-holes, TBC
10:30The Importance of Integration between Geohazard Assessment and Pore Pressure Prediction on Well Design, Juliette Buis-Wegerif (bp)
10:50Question Time
11:00 Coffee Break
Session 2: Improving Geohazards Data and Assessments
11:30Development of Geophysical Acquisition Systems from the Offshore Wind Industry, Simon Oakley (Fugro)
11:50Practical Pathways to Affordable, High Impact Geohazard Seismic Assessments, Nick Woodburn (Rockwave)
12:10100Hz FWI with regional towed streamer data, and its use for shallow-hazard mapping in the Norwegian North Sea, Ross Haacke (Viridien)
12:30From Weather Resilience to Data Excellence: The Case for Deep‑Towed Single‑Sensor Multi-Component Technology, Susanne Rentsch-Smith (Shearwater)
12:50 Question Time
13:00 Lunch
Session 3: Managing Top-hole Drilling Challenges Effectively
14:30Case Study: Data Driven Top-hole Optimisation in an Overpressure Environment, Farida Jahidzade (bp)
14:50Case Study: Geohazard Lessons Learned from Well Experiences, Natalie Taylor (Shell)
15:10Dynamic Geohazards: Mitigation and Management for late-life development drilling, Byron Murray (bp)
15:30Managing Aging Wells: Dual-Intervention Strategies for Barrier Integrity and Abandonment Planning, Mohamed Amer (Wild Well Control)
15:50 Question Time
16:00 Coffee Break
Session 4: Convenor and Audience Discussion
12:30Discussion on Continuous Improvements to Ensure Safe, Enduring, Well Delivery and Abandonment
12:30Workshop Wrap-up and Close