Transocean provides well engineering services ranging from specific engineering studies to the design and management of major drilling projects. Our goal is to tailor our services to specific customer needs, whether it be the provision of a single engineer in Thailand; the design, supervision and drilling of a full-field development project in the Gulf of Mexico; or an integrated package of services and personnel on another contractor's rig. Our engineers have particular expertise in extended reach drilling, underbalanced drilling, high pressure-high temperature drilling, subsea engineering, and completion and testing.

Extended Reach Drilling
Transocean can assist clients at any level of an Extended Reach Drilling (ERD) project, from detailed front-end design studies through well planning, project execution and closeout. We have established a special technology team to ensure consistency in planning and execution of ERD wells, and have developed a detailed ERD well template, ERD specific drilling guidelines and drilling rig analysis tools.

Underbalanced Drilling
Underbalanced drilling is an advanced technique involving the deliberate reduction of the drilling mud weight. This allows the well to flow while drilling so that the formation is not invaded by the drilling fluid. Underbalanced drilling requires special equipment such as drill-through blowout preventers and special facilities for storing or burning of produced fluids. With live hydrocarbons at the surface, Transocean is particularly attentive to carefully plan and control this operation.

High Pressure-High Temperature Drilling
Transocean has had significant experience assisting operators in safely and efficiently drilling High Pressure-High Temperature (HPHT) wells. Our team has been responsible for improving industry knowledge of pore pressure and fracture pressure regimes in the Central North Sea. For example, we have assisted in the development of generic HPHT well control guidelines, which enabled safe methods of dealing with kick/loss scenarios, resulting in considerable customer savings.

Subsea Engineering
Transocean's team can provide a wide range of subsea engineering services, from wellhead design to supervision installation. We also can address subsea architecture design, well startup and operating procedures, and well workover planning. Our team’s subsea completion experience is extensive, having worked on the majority of large UK sector subsea fields, including Magnus, ETAP, Osprey, Brent South, Lyell, Toni and Gryphon. In addition to well construction, we also have experience in mature fields troubleshooting and the planning and implementation of well intervention workover programs.

Completion and Testing
Completion and testing services provided by Transocean include planning and design of both surface and subsea completions; specifying equipment and services; and managing and supervising operations. Key skills include planning and design of wellbore cleanout, coiled tubing operations, HPHT drill stem testing, acid stimulations, high rate well testing and simultaneous commissioning.

Additionally, Transocean well engineers also provide feasibility studies, design services, non-productive time analysis, well abandonment studies and rig/platform interface studies. Previous work has included field development studies for well design, drilling unit sizing and field architecture options. In 1999, we performed the world's first 15,000 psi "frac pack" and completion in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.