Collaborative Culture Produces Results

Q: How is Halliburton set up in Mexico and what is your outlook after the first results of the Energy Reform?
A: The Energy Reform in Mexico has been a great opportunity for the oil and gas industry and Halliburton is structured to systematically and actively collaborate with our customers in Mexico on their field acquisition plans, project definition and future execution. We have a deep understanding of the Mexican market, which allows for early engagement and collaboration with our stakeholders, encompassing a wide range of disciplines and job functions, from geology, geophysics and engineering to operations, supply chain, safety, regulatory compliance and management.
Our collaborative culture has enabled Halliburton to capture a significant share of the activity arising from the reform and already being executed, while also increasing our footprint in the existing market. The differentiator for Halliburton has been our unbeatable performance – we are the execution company – aligned with the proper deployment of resources. We have the best employees, proven application of technology and integrated service offerings.
In Mexico, we are undertaking high-value, high-performance integrated projects in deepwater, shallow waters, unconventional exploration resources and deep high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) land wells. The awarding of new blocks and the published results of exploration and appraisal activity are a substantial and positive sign for the Mexican energy sector as a whole and the diversity of players working on different types of prospects generates a new avenue of opportunities for the Mexican energy industry.
Q: How is Halliburton working to ensure the attractiveness of Mexican assets at this point in the oil-price cycle?
A: We are supporting our customers by ensuring they receive the maximum value across their investments and also that all elements of the value chain are handled correctly. We are working with our customers, analyzing every single aspect of their projects, seeking optimal re-engineering to lower upfront CAPEX and maintenance costs. We carry out an aggressive review of all supply-chain costs and latent operational risks, along with providing a detailed mitigation strategy. It has been an environment of open discussions and brainstorming, which demonstrates our commitment to collaboration as the key to reducing costs and generating value.
Another important set of discussions we are having with our customers is related to innovative commercial models for integrated projects. We are looking toward leveraging existing Halliburton infrastructure to decrease our customers’ footprints and operational costs. We have seen results and opportunities in a wide range of areas, which can be grouped in various categories. The first is the de-risk of subsurface targets, the second is the proper project engineering and maximization of well construction rates and the third is rigorous risk assessment processes and mitigation.
One of the most useful outcomes of the collaborative workshops has been the generation of a hierarchical and weighted analysis of risk, allowing the stakeholders to prioritize the overall impact of any variable on the project cost, schedule and quality. Once the optimum decision is defined, the project team works closely with every stakeholder to execute the plan and to implement contingencies as necessary.
Q: What has been the indication from customers on how they will procure their projects?
A: We have perceived a far more collaborative environment from all customers, regardless of their size or nature, or whether they are NOCs, Majors, integrated or independent companies. All customers are seeking some type of cost optimization to ensure the profitability of their projects. The discussions on costs have resulted in great opportunities to reduce our footprint onsite and apply established learnings on best practices to fast-track the learning curve and ensure higher performance improvements.