How to choose a drilling and well engineering consultant

The rig slot is booked, the budget is on its way to the board, and you need a drilling consultant: your team has no drilling department, or one already stretched across other wells. The proposals on your desk look alike: similar CVs, the same software, the same list of well types. Here is what to put in the scope, how to compare bidders, what to ask and when to walk away.

The choice matters more than the fee suggests: everyone else at the rig site has their own contract to deliver. The consultant's only brief is your well: designed for the rock, drilled to that design, and left in a state you can live with for decades.

What are you actually buying?

"Drilling consultant" covers three different purchases. Decide which you need, and in what mix, before writing the RFP:

• Engineering in the office. Basis of design, drilling program, the plan for the steel pipe and cement that line the well, cost and time estimate. You can judge the documents before the rig moves.
• People at the rig. Supervisors who represent you day and night, check the contractor's work against the program and decide when the well misbehaves. You see their quality only when something goes wrong.
• An independent check. A second look at someone else's design, program or performance, for partners, lenders or regulators who want the well reviewed.

Timing changes the value. Brought in before rig and service contracts are signed, the consultant can shape those tenders and judge bids against the well design; brought in after, it can only supervise what was bought. If you are still choosing a rig or service companies, add tendering and contracting support to the scope, and see how to evaluate bids owner-side.

We offer drilling engineering consultancy services and onshore and offshore operation supervision as separate lines. The strongest arrangement is often both from one team, so the people who wrote the program check it at the rig.

How should you compare drilling consultant companies?

Five things separate one bidder from another.

Rig time, not only desk time. Design is learned in the office; judgement is learned on the rig floor at three in the morning, when drilling fluid vanishes into the rock or the pipe will not come free. Ask which named people have held the decision on a live rig, in what role, on what kind of well. "Involved in" is not an answer.

Independence from the people doing the work. The consultant checks the contractor and service companies, so it should not be paid by them on your job, supply them or earn commission on what they sell you. Watch for supervisors sourced through the contractor, or a design bundled into the drilling contract. Past work for contractors is normal; a stake in this job is not. Ask for a written declaration of ties. We have worked as owner's engineer since 2015, and we expect to be asked the same.

The whole life of the well. A well is designed, drilled, completed, operated for years and finally plugged and abandoned: sealed permanently so nothing can flow up it again. Early choices set the cost of that last step. Ask who on the team has worked each stage, and whether the design says how the well will be sealed. A consultant who treats abandonment as someone else's problem is handing it to you.

The standard they design to. Where you drill decides the rulebook: NORSOK in Norway, OGUK guidance in the UK, BSEE rules offshore in the United States, the SGIP well integrity regime in Brazil, and API and ISO elsewhere. A good bidder names yours unprompted and shows it at work in a program they wrote. Geothermal developers should push further, since most of these were written for oil and gas: settle what carries over to hot, corrosive wells before the design is frozen. Our case “Deep geothermal wells, delivered to standard” sits on this ground.

Attention to the crew, not only the steel. Wells are drilled by people on long shifts, following someone else's procedures. Ask how a bidder judges whether a crew and its procedures are fit for the well. Another case, “A drilling contractor's crews, performing by design”, is this side of the work, which is why human factors training for drilling crews belongs in the same conversation as well design.

What should the scope and RFP include?

Bidders price what you describe. A thin scope buys a cheap proposal and a long list of extras later. Put these in writing:

• The well. Location, target, expected depth and temperature, what nearby wells showed, the governing standard and the rig dates.
• The phases. Design, rig-site supervision, completion and testing, integrity reviews, end-of-life sealing. Mark each as firm or optional.
• Named deliverables. Basis of design, drilling program, a cost and time estimate with a stated allowance for trouble, daily reports, and an end-of-well report comparing plan with outcome.
• Authority and reporting. Who can stop the work, who approves changes to the program, and a reporting line to you, not to the contractor.
• People. Named individuals for every shift and rotation, their current well control and site safety certificates, and how replacements are approved.
• Liability and insurance. The consultant's insurance cover and how the contract caps its liability, so you know who pays if advice proves wrong.
• A declaration of ties. Commercial links to the contractors and suppliers on this job.

Ask every bidder to price engineering separately from rig-site time, so you compare like with like. The total moves with the number of wells, onshore or offshore, round-the-clock supervision or not, how demanding the well is in depth, pressure and heat, and how much engineering is new rather than reviewed. A proposal far below the rest has often left one of these out.

What should you ask a well engineering consultancy before signing?

Meet the people named in the proposal, not only the person selling it. At Quartic the senior partner who scopes a project stays on it; there is no bench of juniors behind the pitch. Whoever you hire, ask:

1. Tell us about a well where you changed the plan at the rig. What did you see, and who did you have to convince?
2. Who will be on site at night, and who covers the other half of the rotation?
3. Does anyone on this team have a commercial tie to the contractors or suppliers on this job?
4. Show us a drilling program you wrote and the end-of-well report that followed. Where did they differ, and why?
5. If the contractor falls behind or cuts a corner, how fast will we hear about it?

Good answers name the well, the role, what went wrong and what happened next. Vague ones usually mean the experience was someone else's.

Which red flags should end the conversation?

• The CVs show years of software and reviews, and few rotations on a rig.
• The people presenting the bid are not the people named to deliver it, or the bidder can swap them without your approval.
• The bidder offers to supply the rig, crews or tools as well as supervise them, or ties a discount to one contractor.
• End-of-life sealing is excluded without discussion.
• Nobody asks about nearby wells or the rock before pricing the job.
• The price is attractive and the deliverables are vague.

Ask a drilling consultant about a well that went wrong. If there is no story, there may be no rig time behind the CV.

Rig slots rarely wait for procurement, so we answer every enquiry within 24 hours. If you are writing the scope or weighing proposals now, tell us about the well and the rig date.