Publications

Numerous challenges are encountered in deepwater drilling such as remoteness of location, weather conditions, geological uncertainty, downhole temperatures and subsurface pressures uncertainty, individuals and management, a requirement of high technological equipment, etc. These factors consequently influence the risk level associated with deepwater drilling. In addition, technical and operational aspects, economics, political situation, and environment also play a significant role in the risk analysis of deepwater drilling operation. However, due to advancement of current technology and methodology, ultra-deepwater exploration and development are feasible to be carried out, such as Stone development project at offshore GOM by Shell (2,900 m water depth and approximately 8,000 m reservoir depth below sea level) [1, 2, 3], ultra-deepwater drilling well Raya-1 at offshore Uruguay by Total (3,400 m water depth), ultra-deepwater drilling well 3-BRSA-1296-SES at offshore Brazil by Petrobras (nearly 3,000 m water depth) [4, 5], etc. Currently, more exploration activities and hydrocarbon reserves discoveries occurred in some area in the western and eastern part of Indonesia are associated mainly deepwater projects. Some of the deepwater projects in Indonesia are in the exploration phase and have been discovered but not yet developed: West Papua, Aru Field, Kofiau Field, Indonesian Deepwater Development Project (IDD), Abadi Field, East Natuna Field, etc., and some are in the phase of production: Jangkrik Field, West Seno, etc. This paper analyzes the risk analysis model of Indonesian deepwater drilling which has been conducted at the exploration and development phase. The evaluation was constructed into two parts: risk and potential hazards identification utilizing a hazard and operability study (HAZOP) method and risk evaluation using qualitative and quantitative methods. The result of this paper is a critical process as operating conditions for ever-changing where new information, knowledge, and/or experience are obtained, which can be feedback into qualifying and quantifying of the risks addressed, especially for Indonesian interest. The details of suggested corrective actions were provided to optimize the deepwater drilling operation in Indonesia.