We are a co-operative group of experts in various Drilling related disciplines who can work individually or together as required to deliver a variety of services. These can be grouped under Consultancy, Dispute Resolution and Investigation. Our areas of expertise include:
- Drilling - Completion -Workover - Plug and Abandonment - oil, gas, geothermal, land - offshore - ultra deepwater - remote location wells engineering, planning and execution, contingency planning.
- Cost reduction; training and coaching (online, classroom, rig), cost reduction audit, optimising procedures and programmes.
- Marine Engineering, Shipyard Operations, Rig Startup, Rig Design.
- All aspects of Drilling - Completion - Cementing fluids design, operations, procedures, solids control, waste management.
- Project management, regulatory compliance, ESG performance management.
- Coiled Tubing.
- Independent incident investigation, troubleshooting problems.
- Ad hoc support by email, phone - done on call on an hourly rate.
- Dispute avoidance and resolution: expert witness, expert determination, arbitrator, mediator, dispute avoidance board.
Consultancy
Our Drilling Consultants have managed big projects and handled large, multi-national teams of Drilling and associated professionals. We've also worked on small projects with limited budgets where every Drilling dollar has to count.
Check out the eLearning tab to see how focused we are on Drilling Cost Reduction. This is the only course of its kind available. Take some or all of the 12 free modules but start with the Introduction.
Use our skills when you need them. Usually contracted on an hourly or daily rate but other arrangements are possible. Whether your need is big, long term or an hour of advice on a problem, we will do our best to assist.
Dispute Avoidance or Resolution
Get us involved early, we may help to avoid a problem turning into an expensive dispute. We can provide an accredited mediator with over 40 years of industry experience to assist.
If you need to initiate a legal dispute, we can ensure that your Statement of Claim is technically correct and has a sound basis. If you are responding to a notice, your Statement of Defence must also be sound and technically correct.
Your expert witness reports will result from forensic analysis, will be well drafted and understandable to non-technical readers.
Any Drilling dispute will benefit from a qualified Arbitrator with an oil industry background. We have one of those.
Check out the short video about arbitration agreements (Mittal v Westbridge case).
Investigation
When you suffer a problem which upset managers due to safety, environmental or costs, arrange an independent investigation. Having those involved in an incident run an investigation almost never results in a report which allows future improved performance. It's not part of their day job so time is limited. Few are trained in incident investigation. We can use techniques such as Taproot to find what really happened.
Incident investigation uses a similar process to writing an Expert Witness report for an arbitration or litigation but with different outputs. Check out the short video which explains the process.
Insurance matters
Insuring drilling operations requires an assessment of the client, their policies, procedures and key personnel to ensure that the risk of an incident leading to a claim is minimised. If there is a claim, the insurer needs an expert assessment of all the circumstances. We can help with both sides of this, pre-insurance and post-claim.
Steve Devereux CEng FCIArb MIMMM
Qualified as an Aeronautical Engineer. Joined Shell in 1979 as a Trainee Driller. Consulted since 1989 in positions up to Operations Manager. Extensive experience as an Expert Witness and Incident Investigator. Created and delivered online and classroom training. Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
- Drilling, completion, workover, well abandonment
- Over 40 years drilling oil, gas and geothermal wells
- Well design, drilling operations (ex Drilling Manager)
- Drilling Cost Reduction (created online DCR course)
- Mechanical Engineering (qualified as Aeronautical Engineer)
- Taproot trained to lead a major incident investigation team.
- Training – classroom and online
- Writing – published author of 2 Drilling books published by Pennwell
- Drilling Expert Witness, technical and IP disputes
- Completed over 100 appointments as Expert Witness and Arbitrator
- Accredited Mediator
Eric Villepreux BSc Chemistry-Physics, MSc Environmental Management
- Drilling, completion, workover, well abandonment, base and department management, operations ESG performance management
- Over 35 years in the drilling industry, O&G, geothermal and storage wells
- Fluids and related operations design and standard operation procedures writing
- Contract holder for drilling and completion fluids, cementing, solids control and waste management companies (as operator’s Fluids Superintendent/Advisor)
- Training: Masterclasses
- Operation and Systemic investigation
- Specializations in Project Management, Regulatory Compliance and ESG factors materiality.
- Systems thinking practitioner
Dr Clayton Thomas PhD, MMet, BSc(Eng) ARSM MICorr, Metallurgist
I joined Cameron, are a major supplier of oil and gas completion equipment as a corrosion engineer in 1990. I eventually became senior metallurgist and worked on major topside and subsea projects. I had responsibility for the material selection, manufacturing support, welding and corrosion prevention for all topside and subsea projects for all equipment manufactured by Cameron. This included the provision of metallurgy support for all the European plants based in Ireland, France, Germany and Norway.
I Currently consult, teach and act as expert witness in the subjects of metallurgy, corrosion, fracture and failure analysis.
I gained a degree in metallurgy at Imperial College, London. I then went to the University of Sheffield and attained a Masters degree in Metallurgy. (subject of my thesis was the environmentally assisted fracture in a martensitic stainless steel) and a PhD, investigating offshore corrosion fatigue. I have also published several technical papers on environmentally assisted cracking and offshore fatigue. I also gained extensive experience in the effect of hydrogen sulphide and sour service on materials, and this included health and safety training in the safe use of the gas.
Professional attributes
- Corrosion Laboratory Manager (British Steel)
- Senior Metallurgist (Cameron (UK) Ltd)
- Managing Director (Lloyd-Thomas Consultancy Ltd)
- Written several papers on hydrogen embrittlement and stress corrosion cracking
- Member of the Institute of Corrosion since 1990
- Presented training courses for the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and on behalf of the University of Sheffield (AMRC)
- Have acted as project metallurgist and corrosion engineer on numerous subsea oil and gas projects including:
- Texaco Strathspey
- Conoco Lyell
- Shell ETAPS
- Shell Shearwater
- AGIP Toni
- BP Foinavon
- BP Scheihallion
- Total Akpo
- Total Usan
- Have acted as expert witness in metallurgical litigation cases
- Have carried out several failure investigations and have presented courses on failure analysis