How Equinor Streamlined Multi-Rig Operations through Portfolio Planning

In the high-stakes world of offshore oil and gas, productivity, profitability and safety are a result of efficient planning. For Equinor, one of the world’s leading energy companies, orchestrating operations across its three Statfjord platforms on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) demanded more than traditional tools could offer. The company’s answer was a bespoke digital solution, Masterplan, developed by Keystone.
This strategic move towards integrated, real-time portfolio planning marks a critical shift in how complex offshore operations is managed and optimized.

The High Cost of Siloed Planning

Offshore operations, especially in mature fields like Statfjord – one of the oldest oil fields in the North Sea – face an intricate web of logistical, technical, and safety challenges. Day rates for high-spec rigs like Statfjord can often reach over $400,000¹. Against this backdrop, delays and inefficiencies in planning can translate into millions in lost production.

Equinor, like many operators, struggled with planning across disciplines due to disjointed tools such as Excel and Gantt charts. The lack of standardization led to duplicated efforts, data silos, and a troubling potential for human error. Activities like updating intervention schedules required manual coordination across teams, slowing down decision-making and leaving room for avoidable mistakes. This led to teams sometimes spending more time updating spreadsheets than optimizing operations.

A Platform for Alignment

Recognizing the need for a holistic solution, Equinor collaborated with Keystone to co-develop Masterplan, a central module of the Keystone OPEN suite. Masterplan provides a unified visualization of all planning activities across rigs, platforms, production schedules, and interventions – allowing for early conflict resolution and smarter decision-making.

This approach aligns with a growing trend in the industry on integrated operations (IO). According to a study by the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, IO can reduce offshore operational costs by 10–30% and increase production by 2–8% through better coordination and data use².

The Masterplan facilitates exactly this kind of value, allowing stakeholders to visualize dependencies, resolve scheduling conflicts before execution, and make informed decisions in real time. Notably, the inclusion of features like comment threading and list views turned static timelines into collaborative planning hubs.

From Rework to Real-Time Results

The implementation of Masterplan has transformed how Equinor manages its Statfjord portfolio. Teams now use the tool to:

• Generate and compare multiple schedule alternatives
• Integrate seamlessly with other planning tools for end-to-end visibility
• Reduce manual data entry, and allows for automatic flow of information across departments and tools
• Enable real-time decision-making across platforms

One particularly telling example involved a maintenance task on the north shaft of Statfjord. Historically, this would have required a full production halt. But by using Masterplan, Equinor was able to visualize activity sequencing in real time, relocate the north rig to the south shaft, and maintain production – saving what could have been a one-month downtime.

This outcome not only underscores the tool’s ROI but highlights a shift toward proactive operations. By centralizing planning, Equinor has enabled its teams to move from reactive firefighting to forward-looking strategy.

Toward AI-Driven Optimization

Equinor is now planning further integrations of Masterplan with their intervention collaboration platform, targeting full interoperability by the end of 2025. The vision is to have a system where the impact of every decision on production, cost, risk, and rig utilization is simulated in real-time.

In the longer term, Keystone and Equinor are developing AI-powered features that won’t just show where dependencies lie – but will suggest optimal resolutions based on historical data and predictive modelling. It’s a step towards the “autonomous field” concept that’s been a goalpost for digital oilfield transformation for over a decade³.

The ability to unify planning efforts across diverse teams and domains doesn’t just improve efficiency; it unlocks strategic agility at scale. As mature fields become more complex and operational costs rise, the companies that succeed will be those that can turn planning into a competitive advantage – just as Equinor has done.

1. Rystad Energy, “Offshore Drilling Outlook 2023,” RystadEnergy.com. 
2. International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP), “Integrated Operations in the Oil and Gas Industry,” Report 2019. 
3. McKinsey & Company, “The Digital Future of Oil and Gas,” 2022.