IO, Coagency, Intractability, and Resilience

Technological developments continuously create opportunities that are eagerly adopted by industries with a seemingly insatiable need for innovation. This has established a forceful circulus vitiosus that has resulted in exceedingly complicated socio-technical systems. The introduction of Integrated Operations in drilling and off-shore operations is one, but not the only, example of that. This development poses a challenge for how to deal with risk and safety issues. Where existing safety assessment methods focus on descriptions of component capabilities, complicated socio-technical systems must be described in terms of relations or even functional couplings. In order to design, analyse, and manage such systems, it must be acknowledged that performance adjustments are a resource rather than a threat. Safety can no longer be achieved just by preventing that something goes wrong, but must instead try to ensure that everything goes right. Resilience engineering provides the conceptual and practical means to support and accomplish that change.

The Terms of Interaction and Concurrent Learning in the Definition of Integrated Operations

This chapter introduces a new definition of Integrated Operations (IO) adapted to the oil industry. This definition focuses on interaction. Such an approach is necessary to emphasize learning processes in the organization’s various echelons. It is an important assumption for the success of IO as a flexible and complex organization. The term “Interaction” is elaborated with special emphasis on “Concurrent Learning.” Such an approach ensure reflection during the process leading up - the way forward - to the target and the development of a more fundamental organizational philosophy rather than just focusing on the result. It will create a more robust “integration” between technology, people, and organizations so that a higher capability in integrated operations can be achieved.

Adaptive Advisory Systems for Oil and Gas Operations

This chapter describes a framework that captures knowledge in an organization and applies it in daily operations. Knowledge capturing is one of the biggest upcoming challenges to oil and gas organizations as operations become more remote, more challenging, and many experts are leaving the oil and gas industry. A methodology is described to capture the knowledge of experts centrally and apply it throughout all operations in the organization. Due to the fact that an asset team is facing different constraints and challenges throughout the lifetime of a field, the system needs to gather experience from decisions and learn together with the asset team. Technologies that are flexible enough to process uncertainties are discussed as well as the effect on people, processes, and organization.

Baker Hughes IO and BEACON with a Focus on Downsizing Personnel Requirements at Rig-Site

For more than a decade, Baker Hughes has developed a number of IO applications and WellLink technologies building its BEACON (Baker Expert Advisory Centre Operation Network) platform for the digital oilfield. The scope of BEACON is remote access of real-time rig data, drilling data and wireline data, production and pump monitoring, and static file management. These technologies have enabled the company’s collaboration centers around the world primarily to monitor, support, and optimize operations without having to be physically present at rig site. This development has been a foundation for a successful roll-out of remote collaboration and re-manning of operations, where Baker Hughes has reduced the number of personnel needed at rig site by 25-50%. Monitoring and remote supervision of real-time information 24/7 to optimize overall performance and paperwork (logging, petrophysical analyses) are now all done by people in the office using information communications technology to connect to the rig site. Larger-scale re-manning can also be done with services such as reservoir navigation, drilling optimization, pump management, liner hanger down hole technical support, et cetera. On the Norwegian shelf, where re-manning has been done at higher levels than in many other regions, nearly 50% of Baker Hughes’ staff who would traditionally have been offshore can be re-manned during operational peaks – this means they are either in an office onshore, or their responsibilities have been changed. Baker Hughes’ cross-training of personnel facilitates this flexibility, allowing for efficient and HSE-compliant re-manning.

What is a Capability Platform Approach to Integrated Operations?

The concept of a capability platform can be used to argue how firms engage networked relationships to embed learning/performance into distinctive practices rather than focusing only on technology. In fact the capability language allows us to unpack the role of technology by emphasizing its interaction with people, process, and governance issues. The authors address the importance of a capability approach for Integrated Operations and how it can improve understanding of how people, process, technology, and governance issues are connected and managed to create scalable and sustainable practices. The chapter describes the development of capabilities as something that is happening within an ecology. Using ecology as a metaphor acknowledges that there is a limit to how far it is possible to go to understand organizations and the development of capabilities in the oil and gas industry as traditional hierarchies and stable markets. The new challenge that has emerged with integrated operations is the need for virtual, increasingly global, and network based models of work. The authors couple the ecology approach with a capability platform approach.

Knowledge Markets and Collective Learning

In this chapter, the authors argue that “Knowledge Markets” might be used as a term to describe how individuals can be engaged in a democratic process where their competence, background, and personal information resources are mobilized in full in a broad and non-biased process. The contribution of each individual is aggregated and averaged in a way the authors believe will yield more accurate results, personal involvement, and learning than traditional approaches to group efforts. Recent work on crowdsourcing (Surowiecki, 2004) highlights the strength of a collection of individuals over traditional organizational entities. This contribution will extend these principles to fit into an organizational setting. The chapter discusses how knowledge markets can create an arena for change. Moreover, it shows that if certain principles are observed desired effects could be achieved for relatively limited groups. The authors extend this to propose theories about collective learning and performance improvement. They further describe how the principles defined can help to meet some fundamental challenges related to petroleum activities such as drilling. The authors think that the Knowledge Market approach can serve as a model for designing IO arenas to increase collaboration, to improve shared problem solving, and make collective learning more effective. In all kinds of operations performance improvement is strongly related to learning. It is a cognitive ability that must be exercised and maintained through motivation, discipline, and other stimuli. Collective learning applies to the effort whereby a group of people detect threats or opportunities and learns how to take early advantage of this in order to assure change.

Integrated Operations in Petrobras

Known as an integrated energy company that operates in all segments of the oil industry, Petrobras has a broad management experience and uses a multidisciplinary approach, which applies to different areas. Recently, the impressive discoveries of the Pre-Salt reserves have created an exciting scenario in multiple aspects. Petrobras expects to produce more than 5 million bpd of oil by 2020, out of which only 1 million will come from Pre-Salt. This leads to an approach that will require scalable and sustainable solutions that take into account the better understanding of how people, processes, technology, and governance issues are connected and managed (Hendserson, J. et al., in this book). Considering past experiences and the complexity of the new oil and gas production scenario, Petrobras is preparing an even greater leap in its upstream operation and maintenance management systems – a corporate initiative called GIOp (acronym for Integrated Operations Management, in Portuguese) is being implemented. This chapter describes the implementation of GIOp in all upstream operational units of Petrobras in Brazil, considering the main organizational aspects, the methodology to develop a portfolio of opportunities, the scalability of the solutions, and the initial experience in Pre-Salt production.

Implementing iE

On the Norwegian continental shelf, utilization of iE has been regarded as a vital measure for avoiding a rapid decline in production. Implementation has however proven to be challenging, and an unharvested potential still exist. Taking a capability approach to such implementation may help attain this remaining potential. Doing so requires a good understanding of what factors secure a successful and sustainable iE-implementation. Here, a case study of how a drilling contractor has adopted iE is used as basis for identifying such factors. An analytical framework rooted in the tradition of innovation theory is used for exploring the empirical material. The findings are further used as basis for presenting a set of recommendations that, if utilized, could help managers and change agents in their efforts of successfully implementing iE-capabilities within their organization.

Connecting Worlds through Self-Synchronization and Boundary Spanning

This chapter investigates knowledge sharing in collaborative work. Through two empirical studies of personnel working offshore and onshore in an oil company, the authors address the role of self-synchronization and boundary spanning as practices for improving collaboration in integrated operations. They focus on the following enabling capabilities for collaborative work: management, knowledge sharing, trust, shared situational awareness, transparency, and information and communication technology. This chapter is more concerned with the people, process, and governance aspects of a capability development process for integrated operations. The authors are especially interested in how self-synchronization and boundary-spanning practices emerge in a dynamic relationship with the identified enabling capabilities. Self-synchronization and boundary-spanning practices influence the enabling capabilities and vice versa. In the end the improved practices and the enabling capabilities are so intermingled that it becomes difficult to describe causal relations and effects.

How Integrated Operations has Influenced Offshore Leadership Practice

This chapter discusses how Integrated Operations (IO) has affected new ways of working and addresses leadership practice in particular. It investigates both the positive and negative effects of IO in terms of virtual leadership teams and local leadership offshore, and how this may affect safety on board. IO contributes to the onshore organization being more actively involved in problem-solving and decision-making in offshore operations compared to earlier. This way, it has become easier to reach a shared situational awareness concerning planning and prioritizing of operations on board. However, the authors find that the integration of sea and land has not been successful in achieving increased hands-on leadership offshore. To explore this issue, they discuss findings from different research projects studying IO and changes in work practices onshore and offshore at different installations/assets in a Norwegian oil and gas company.