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f Black Sea Ultra Deepwater Drilling Operations and TPAO
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, 18th International Petroleum and Natural Gas Congress and Exhibition of Turkey, May 2011, cp-377-00035
Abstract
In 2010, in the Turkish Black Sea Sector, 3 wells has been drilled with water depths more than 1800 m. Each can be classified as wildcat wells when their distances and uncertainties are considered.Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has at least 50% share on these wells. TPAO was the operator of the two wells, where in the last one, Sürmene-1, was the sole ownser. World’s leading petroleum companies ExxonMobil, Chevron, Petrobras also involved in this project as either the operator or the partner. There has been a considerable increase in exploration and production facilities in the industry with the increasing oil prices since 2004. The only sector that was not affected by the 2008 worldwide economical crisis was the ultra deep water drilling operations. Operations in the Black Sea were held during the most active period of the industry. Therefore, it embraces its own challenges in various manners. It has taken 4 years to bring in a competent drilling unit to Black Sea, which can be considered as a remote area. It is even harder to sign a short-term contract to drill a couple of wells. Even though the idea of sharing the materials and services with partners seems logical and practical, it has its own management challenges. It needs significant importance and management that the offshore industry applied its new methodologies first in Turkey and for TPAO. The most important aspect of a project of this scale, is to form a project team that is capable of reaching the objectives of the project and is to provide a working environment that makes it easier to work in synergy. The purpose of this study to define how an ultra deep water drilling project is managed beginning from the planning phase, which has taken place in Black Sea with an inadequate infrastructure, challenging and complicated logistics environment, limited experienced and qualified human resources and an area that has inadequate and complicated rules, and share it with the industry, universities and interested audience.