Performance Culture Using Technical Limit Methodology: Learnings from Two Years of Deepwater Drilling

This paper describes a two-year journey drilling deepwater exploration wells across three different countries, in challenging market conditions. The journey began in 2013 when the Transocean Deepwater Millennium was contracted by Woodside, in a 100 USD/bbl oil price environment, to drill deepwater exploration wells in Western Australia. The drilling campaign commenced in April 2014 with difficulties experienced through the first two wells. A recovery plan was initiated in late November 2014 that saw continuous improvement and top quartile performance achieved by the end of the campaign. These results were achieved despite the oil price falling below 35 USD/bbl and an unplanned transition to international waters in South Korea and Myanmar. This paper focuses on the practical steps taken by the Woodside (Operator) and Transocean (Drilling Contractor) leadership team to influence workforce culture and recover from a slow start. The recovery plan began with the alignment of Transocean's Management, Woodside's Management and the offshore leadership teams' vision and objectives. Technical Limit (TL) methodology was used to develop a set of performance indicators to monitor rig efficiency, establish clear and achievable targets for the off-shore crew, and to address the top five priorities for improvement.