Advanced Well Engineering

Q: What is H&P’s Advanced Well Engineering (AWE) service and who is it for?

H&P’s Advanced Well Engineering team is a group of 40+ premium engineers and support staff that combines over 100 years of operator and service provider experience with advanced physics-based modeling software. The AWE team is available to support operators and service providers drilling complex wells onshore or offshore, on any rig type, and in any global location. It is not limited to H&P rig customers — AWE functions as a universal engineering service accessible across the industry. The team’s mission is to maximize the efficiency of well delivery processes, enhance drilling engineer performance, and continually improve the models that underpin their advisory and analytical services.

Q: What are the three pillars of Advanced Well Engineering service delivery?

AWE’s services are organized around three pillars. The first is Real-Time Advisory — H&P’s Remote Operations Center monitors live drilling operations and provides alerting for directional behaviors, hole condition, hydraulics and ECD, and surge and swab, enabling faster decision cycles and reducing unplanned trips. The second is Well Delivery — end-to-end lifecycle engineering support from well planning through landing casing, including safety and regulatory alignment and cross-discipline coordination. The third is Tailored Analysis — custom studies including vibration modal analysis, directional and drilling performance studies, casing design and well integrity analysis, and complex wellpath engineering. These pillars can be used independently or combined, and they integrate with other H&P technologies such as the Bit Guidance System and AutoSlide® technology.

Q: What software powers the AWE service and what does it do?

The AWE team is powered by DrillScan® Digital Solutions, an advanced physics-based modeling, real-time visualization, predictive analytics, and machine learning platform. DrillScan encompasses three specific tools. WellScan® is an advanced suite for quick and accurate well engineering, covering torque and drag, hydraulics, buckling, trajectory design, and BHA analysis. BitScan™ provides auto-processing, validation, and export of PDC drill bit models to ensure the bit design is accurately represented in mechanical simulations. LiveScan™ and REST APIs form an integrated real-time solution for drilling monitoring and optimization, connecting pre-well models to live rig data and enabling continuous performance feedback.  

Q: Can AWE work with non-H&P rigs and operators outside the US?

Yes. AWE’s compatibility is listed as Universal Rig Technology, meaning the service is not tied to the H&P rig fleet. The team supports operators drilling on any rig contractor’s equipment and in any geographic region. H&P’s AWE history includes international engagements in complex environments such as the North Sea, where the team supported offshore operators with liner deployment, casing wear simulation, and vibration mitigation. Continuous R&D also ensures that the DrillScan models are validated across the full range of geological and operational conditions encountered by the global client base.  

Q: What is Vibration Modal Analysis and how does Predictive Vibration Mapping work?  

Vibration Modal Analysis is an AWE analytical service that uses 4D dynamic modeling to identify the resonant frequencies of the drillstring and BHA in a specific wellbore geometry. By modeling how the drillstring responds to different combinations of surface RPM and weight on bit, the analysis identifies the RPM/WOB bands that drive resonance and should be avoided, as well as the stable operating windows that minimize vibration. Predictive Vibration Mapping takes this analysis and applies it ahead of each new lateral or well section — building a map of recommended operating parameters before the bit reaches bottom. Results from AWE modeling show up to a 50% reduction in downhole RPM fluctuations and up to a 40% reduction in lateral shock when drillers follow model recommendations. In a study of two operators dealing with vibrations in their laterals, approximately one run was saved every three wells — translating to roughly $2,000 per day in savings based on average trip NPT and spread rates. 

Q: What types of downhole dysfunction can Advanced Well Engineering diagnose and address?  

AWE’s Drilling Dysfunction Diagnosis service addresses the full spectrum of downhole instability conditions. The team rapidly identifies unstable and detrimental drilling conditions including axial vibration (bit bounce), torsional vibration (stick-slip), lateral vibration and bit whirl, and buckling-induced inefficiency. The diagnosis draws on real-time data from the Remote Operations Center, physics-based models from DrillScan, and H&P’s extensive operational dataset. Once a dysfunction is identified, AWE recommends specific corrective measures — such as adjustments to surface RPM, WOB, flow rate, or autodriller configuration — and can provide an optimum autodriller setup to stabilize the drilling process going forward.

Q: How does AWE’s real-time monitoring work and what does the Remote Operations Center do?  

The Remote Operations Center (ROC) is H&P’s 24/7 remote monitoring facility where AWE engineers observe live drilling operations across the rig fleet. The ROC consumes real-time data streams from the rig and runs continuous surveillance across a set of key performance indicators, hole condition indicators, (overpull, drag, pack-off risk), hydraulics and equivalent circulating density (ECD), and surge and swab during tripping operations. When monitored parameters exceed defined thresholds, the ROC automatically generates alerts for the rig team and the customer’s operations center. This early warning system enables faster decision cycles, reduces the window during which a detrimental condition can worsen undetected, and materially lowers the frequency of unplanned trips. 

Q: What does AWE’s Well Delivery service include across the well lifecycle?  

Well Delivery is AWE’s most comprehensive service offering, providing end-to-end engineering support across the full well lifecycle. Pre-well, the team supports well planning, trajectory design, BHA selection, casing design, and hydraulics optimization, as well as equipment and services selection (e.g., rig sizing, technology screening, and technical support for call-for-tender processes). During drilling, AWE provides real-time advisory and directional performance support. Post-well, the team participates in lessons-learned reviews and feeds operational data back into the DrillScan models for continuous improvement. Well Delivery also includes safety and regulatory compliance engineering, ensuring that well designs meet applicable standards for well integrity, casing pressure integrity testing, and environmental protection. The service is cross-disciplinary by design — AWE engineers work alongside the operator’s team rather than as a separate siloed function, which H&P believes produces better outcomes than advisory services delivered in isolation.

Q: What is the AWE casing wear simulation capability and why does it matter?

Casing wear occurs when the rotating drillstring contacts the casing wall during drilling, generating friction that can thin the casing over time. In wells with long, tortuous trajectories or high contact forces, casing wear can compromise well integrity, reduce pressure ratings, or require expensive remediation before completion. AWE’s casing wear simulation uses DrillScan software to model the contact forces and cumulative wear experienced by the casing during drilling, circulation, and tripping operations — covering the majority of field scenarios. The simulation output allows operators to select appropriate casing grades and wall thicknesses, design contact-force mitigation measures (such as casing centralizers and well trajectory smoothing), and predict the remaining structural integrity of the casing at any point in the well’s life.

Q: How does AWE support wells with complex wellpath geometries?

Complex wellpaths — extended-reach laterals, high build-rate curves, S-curves, and multi-target trajectories — introduce challenges that standard well planning tools struggle to address: high torque and drag loads, elevated buckling risk, tool face control difficulties in slide drilling, and casing deployment challenges. AWE’s Complex Wellpath service draws on DrillScan’s 3D trajectory visualization and physics-based torque-and-drag, hydraulics, and buckling models to quantify these risks ahead of drilling and identify design changes that reduce them. In one North Sea case, AWE’s liner deployment engineering ensured successful complex liner deployment over a complete field development campaign — a result that would have been difficult to achieve without pre-well mechanical simulation.

Q: Does Advanced Well Engineering have experience with geothermal wells, and how does it differ from oil and gas drilling engineering?

Yes. H&P has developed a geothermal practice within the AWE team that draws on the same physics-based modeling capabilities used for oil and gas wells, adapted for the specific characteristics of geothermal drilling. Geothermal wells involve distinctive challenges compared to oil and gas: extremely high temperatures that affect tool performance and mud chemistry, harder and more abrasive formations that increase vibration severity and bit wear, and different well geometries driven by reservoir access requirements rather than hydrocarbon trap structures. AWE’s approach to geothermal is consistent with its broader methodology — applying engineering rigor and DrillScan modeling to anticipate and mitigate the specific failure modes relevant to the application — while drawing on the team’s growing body of geothermal-specific operational experience. 

Q: What cost savings can operators realistically expect from AWE services?

AWE savings are demonstrated across several documented outcomes. In lateral drilling efficiency, AWE services reduced an average of 7 hours per lateral, generating approximately $25,000–$35,000 in savings per well based on a $80,000–$120,000 daily burn rate — contributing to total savings of roughly $35,000 per well across the program. In BHA protection, one operator working with H&P saved 1.75 days and one lateral BHA per well, equating to more than $150,000–$200,000+ per well. In North Sea NPT prevention, AWE engineering prevented the loss of expensive completion equipment, avoided the cost of a sidetrack, and reduced 25 days of NPT at a daily rate of approximately $500,000 USD — a single-event prevention value of $12.5 million. In vibration mitigation, Predictive Vibration Mapping saved approximately one run every three wells, worth around $2,000 per day in NPT savings. 

Q: How does AWE’s physics-based modeling differ from empirical or rule-of-thumb approaches?  

Physics-based modeling starts from first principles — the actual mechanical, hydraulic, and dynamic behavior of the drillstring, BHA, and wellbore — rather than from historical patterns alone. This matters most when operators are drilling in conditions that are outside their experience base: new formations, new well geometries, new BHA configurations, or depths and temperatures where historical analogs are sparse. A physics-based model will produce a quantified, geometry-specific prediction of torque, drag, vibration mode, and casing wear for the specific planned well, whereas a rule-of-thumb approach can only extrapolate from past experience. AWE’s continuous R&D program continuously refines these models against real operational data — meaning that each new well improves the model’s predictive accuracy for future wells.

How does AWE integrate with other H&P technologies to unlock additional value?

AWE is designed to function as a connective layer across H&P’s technology portfolio. The Real-Time Advisory pillar feeds directly into H&P’s Survey Management service through shared ROC infrastructure and the Bit Guidance System. AWE’s Predictive Vibration Mapping is also a named enhanced offering within the FlexFusion® technology package, where AWE-generated vibration maps are used to pre-load optimal drilling parameters and RPM guidance into FlexApp before spudding. AWE’s BHA analysis leverages DrillScan’s 3D BHA tendency modeling, which integrates with H&P’s directional drilling services to refine equipment selection and reduce failure risk. In each case, the combination of AWE engineering with rig-level automation produces better outcomes than either capability alone.