Summer has finally arrived in Aberdeen and I'm happy to say that we have now arrived at our new larger offices in Albyn Terrace.

I'm also pleased to let you know that our website continues to be up-graded with a new dynamic online charting facility for performance metrics. The 2004 DPR comparative performance charts for most regions have now been published, and also Q1 2005 DPR well data.

The highlight of our year is always the participant meetings in November, especially the 'Benchmarking Best Practices' days where participants share the ways in which they use the data.

If you would like to do a presentation at the November meetings on how your company are using the data to bring about performance improvements please could you let me know so that I can add you on to the agenda?

Finally we are all delighted that Sales and Marketing Associate, Sarah Porter, was awarded an MSc. in Marketing based upon her thesis about Customer Relationship Management. Thank you once again to all of those participants who agreed to take part in Sarah's research.

If there is anything in particular you would like us to cover in our next newsletter, or you have any other comments, please do let me know by clicking here.

Helen and the Team.

We have for some time provided a performance metric tool on our website. This allows you to search for wells according to a set of criteria, and to view the associated quartile, P10 and P90 values of key performance metrics: metres per day; cost per metre; days per 10k feet; percentage IT and percentage WOW.

We are now providing this information in a chart format so that you can see exactly where each well sits in relation to the quartile values and to the other selected wells. Each bar on the chart represents a well, and selections of up to 500 wells can be charted in this way.

In the screenshot below the well names have been blurred for confidentiality reasons.

We have a long term plan to provide a dynamic online charting tool for all data and this is a first step. We hope you will try out this new feature for yourself and tell us what you think of it.

For more details on how to access and use these charts please click here.

Anadarko are participating in the DPR from 2005 to 2007 with data from their wells drilled outside the US.

Centrica and Caledonia are both first time UK participants in the DPR for 2005.

EOG Trinidad are participating in the DPR for the first time with their 2004 wells.

Wintershall have committed to provide data on their Netherlands wells to both the Drilling Performance Review and the Completions Performance Review from 2004 to 2006.

Chevron International have extended their participation in the DPR until 2007. This will provide data from wells drilled in Angola, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Thailand, Trinidad, UK and Venezuela.

Chevron UK and Britannia UK have extended their participation in the Completions Review to 2007.

Husky have extended their participation in both studies for offshore Canada to 2005.

Marathon have increased the scope of their DPR participation to global status and extended this to 2007. This will provide additional data from deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ireland, Norway, Russia and the UK.

Pioneer have also increased the scope of their DPR participation to global status and extended their participation to 2009. This will add well data from Argentina, Gabon, deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Tunisia and other countries.

Petronas Carigali have contracted for global participation in the DPR for 2004 and 2005. This will provide well data in Malaysia, Algeria, Bahrain, Indonesia, Niger, Sudan, Yemen, Morocco, Mozambique, Vietnam, Pakistan and Turkmenistan.

Shell Gabon have renewed their drilling participation to 2005.

Talisman Norway have renewed their participation in both studies to 2005.

Total UK have extended their participation in the Completions Review to 2007.

For a full list of participating operators please click here.

The recent interviews carried out with some of our participating companies have given us an insight into the needs of our participants, which we hope will allow us to continue to deliver an improved service to you.

A key finding was the need for a ‘multi-year’ website to allow access to data over multiple years in one single database. We plan to launch this within a month or two.

It was also interesting to find out our participants' key uses of the data, the top three being the analysis of industry drilling / completions performance against own company performance, assistance in planning and budgeting for wells, particularly in new areas, and the validation of AFE figures to management and partners.

The full summary of the results can be found here. Our thanks again to everyone who took part.

The fourth annual ‘Best Practices in Benchmarking Drilling and Completions’ meeting will be held in the Marcliffe at Pitfodels Hotel, Aberdeen on the 8th and 9th November.

The annual meeting of the participants of the Drilling Performance Review will then be held on the 10th and the annual meeting of the participants of the Completions Performance Review and Completions Efficiency Review on the 11th at the same venue.

There will be a dinner held at Drumtochty Castle on the evening of the 9th and a champagne reception at the new offices of Rushmore Reviews on the evening of Monday 7th November.