Managing the Operator/Supplier Relationship on the Mad Dog Project - The Supplier's Perspective
Robert Fulks, Allen Cook · 2002
Abstract In mid-2000 BP invited a group of suppliers and drilling contractors to become involved in a deepwater development project in the Gulf of Mexico named "Mad Dog". This project involved building and maintaining unique relationships among the drilling contractors/suppliers, BP and its partners on the Mad Dog field. BP employed a process not used before in the deepwater Gulf known as "Lean Drilling™"1 to foster these critical relationships necessary to the early success of the project. This paper will detail how BP selected the drilling and completion suppliers during the conceptual stage of the project and how these suppliers were organized and empowered for success. The paper will examine the Lean Drilling process from the supplier's vantage and comment on the effectiveness of this process in terms of technology transfer and other criteria.