Deepwater field developments represent the most complex and capital-intensive projects undertaken by the industry, with a unique set of challenges linked to drilling operations. Costs of drilling deepwater wells can be more than triple those of shallow-water wells. More advanced and sophisticated measurement and drilling tools and technologies are needed to reduce risk in all aspects of operations, from drilling to production.

Traditional methods—often applied in siloed workflows—are increasingly failing to deliver the necessary constraint in the earth models to improve safety while successfully and efficiently positioning wells in the right place for the entire life of the reservoir. An integrated approach—bringing together the multidisciplinary services, measurements, and expertise required for successful deepwater operations—is shown to be crucial to overcoming these limitations.

In this issue of Insights, we have selected some recently published papers that address the challenge of managing geological risk in deepwater drilling.