Drilling cost against plan, every day.Not at the end of the well.
Plan a well phase by phase, record what actually happened on the rig, and see where cost is heading while you can still change it.
Casing
- 13⅜″
- 450 m
- 9⅝″
- 1,850 m
- 7″
- TD
- Cost to date
- $5,184,300
- Plan for work done
- $4,846,100
- Against plan
- +$338,200+7.0%
- Forecast final
- $9.74Mplan $9.12M
- Actual
- Approved plan
- Forecast
Forecast TD
Day 26.1 / 24.0
3,450 m · 11,319 ft
The problem
Excel plans, emailed reports, ERP cost codes. And a surprise at the end.
Drilling cost lives in three places that never meet. By the time the numbers line up, the well is finished and the overrun is history.
- Found late
Overruns surface weeks after the money is spent
Costs reach the ERP when invoices land, long after the well moved on.
- No cause
Nobody can say which operations caused them
An over-budget total does not tell you if it was rig time, materials or price.
- No history
Approvals happen over email
Which version was approved, by whom and with what changes is anyone’s guess.
- Manual
Comparing wells and fields is a project
Every engineer’s sheet is laid out differently, so rollups are rebuilt by hand.
Features
One structure from the office to the rig
Five things drilling teams do every day, in one place, measured against the same approved plan.
Phase plans. Build each well from phases and operations with planned time, depth, cost and materials. Approval saves the baseline everything is measured against.
On the rig. Record time, depth and materials per operation, and unplanned work as hours off plan. No signal? Entries wait on the device and sync later.
Why it ran over. Every overrun is split into rig time, extra materials and prices paid, so the conversation starts from the cause, not the total.
Daily reports. A draft is created every night from the day’s entries. The wellsite writes it up and the engineer finalises it.
Rollups. Cost per metre or foot, days and variance by well, field and company, side by side, in each field’s own unit and currency.
Cost against work done
Follow the well down. Phase by phase.
Each phase is compared with its own plan as soon as the work is done, so you know where an overrun came from while the rest of the well is still ahead.
Surface, 17½″. Drilled to 450 m in 4.6 days against 4.0 planned. $1.23M spent against $1.18M.
Complete+4.2%
Intermediate, 12¼″. Drilled to 1,850 m in 10.2 days against 9.0 planned. $3.21M spent against $3.02M.
Complete+6.3%
Production, 8½″. 260 of 1,600 m drilled. $744,300 spent against $646,100 planned for the work done so far.
In progress+15.2% so far
Completion. Planned at 3.0 days and $1.06M. On the current forecast it starts on day 23.1, not day 21.
PlannedNot started
How it works
Plan. Record. Compare. On every well, every day.
The plan becomes the baseline, the rig fills in the actuals, and Drillcost does the arithmetic.
1 · Plan
Build the well phase by phase
Phases and operations with planned time, depth, cost and materials. Submit for review; approval saves a baseline that everything is measured against.
- Shared catalogue of operations and materials
- Submit → review → approve, with history
- AFE PDF from the approved plan
Approved · v3Well A-17 · Plan
Phases and operations
Phase To depth Days Cost Surface 450 m 4.0 $1.18M Intermediate 1,850 m 9.0 $3.02M Production 3,450 m 8.0 $3.86M Completion 3,450 m 3.0 $1.06M Total 3,450 m 24.0 $9.12M Approval history
- SubmittedSenior engineerMar 3 · 16:20
- ReviewedCoordinator · 2 commentsMar 4 · 09:05
- ApprovedBaseline v3 savedMar 4 · 11:42
2 · Record
Capture what actually happened
The wellsite records time, depth and materials per operation, plus unplanned work as hours off plan. No signal needed; entries sync when the connection returns.
- Actuals per operation, not per spreadsheet
- Unplanned work tracked separately
- A draft daily report every night
05:48No signalDay 15 · Production 8½″
Drill 8½″ section
From1,850 mTo2,110 mHours14.0 hMaterials
PDC bit 8½″1 eaBarite12 tUnplanned3.5 hWait on weather, crane ops suspended
Saved on this device. Syncs when online.3 · Compare
See cost against plan, every day
Cost is compared with what the plan said the work done so far should cost, so an overrun shows up while the well is still drilling, with a forecast final cost beside it.
- Cost per depth, per day and ROP
- Forecast final cost
- Rollups by well, field and company
+7.0%Well A-17 · Day 15.6
Cost against plan for work done
Phase Plan, work donePlan Actual Variance SurfaceComplete $1,180,000$1.18M $1,230,000$1.23M +4.2% IntermediateComplete $3,020,000$3.02M $3,210,000$3.21M +6.3% Production260 of 1,600 m $646,100$0.65M $744,300$0.74M +15.2% To date $4,846,100$4.85M $5,184,300$5.18M +7.0% Forecast final
$9.74M
Approved plan
$9.12M
In the box
The numbers drilling teams ask for, already worked out.
From a single operation to the whole company, recalculated with every entry from the rig.
$2,457/m
Cost per depth
$332k/day
Cost per day
18.4m/h
Drilling rate
31.5h
Hours off plan
Cost per depth, per day and ROP
By operation, by phase and for the well, alongside the hours spent off plan.
Night shift · A-17
Online- 19:12Trip in holeOnline
- 21:24Drill 8½″ · 1,850 → 2,110 mOn device
- 01:30Wait on weather · unplannedOn device
- 03:484 entries syncedSynced
Works offline on the rig
Installs from the browser on phones, tablets and laptops. Entries wait on the device and sync when the link returns.
- Northern BlockmUSD
- East BasinftUSD
- South RidgemEUR
Metres or feet, any currency
Each field sets its own depth unit and currency, and rollups compare wells side by side.
- Coordinator approved plan v3 and saved the baselineMar 4
- Field engineer logged 3.5 h unplanned: wait on weatherDay 15
- Senior engineer finalised the day 14 reportDay 15
Every change logged
Who changed what and when, on every well. Each company works in its own workspace; larger operators can have a dedicated database.
Exports
Out of Drillcost, into everything else.
- Export the approved plan as an AFE PDF for sign-off and the well file.
- Export plans and actuals as CSV for your ERP, accruals or your own models.
- Email notifications when a plan needs review or something needs your attention.
Built for every role
Everyone does their part. Drillcost handles the rest.
Engineers plan, coordinators approve, wellsite engineers record and finance watches. Cost, depth, forecasts, reports and history are worked out in the background.
- 01In app: Senior engineerDrilling engineerDrilling engineers, well plannersBuilds and owns the well plan, keeps the catalogue of operations and materials, and finalises daily reports.What they see
- 02CoordinatorDrilling coordinators, drilling managersReviews and approves plans, assigns wells to teams and moves wells through their stages.What they see
- 03In app: Field engineerWellsite engineerWellsite engineers, company menRecords actuals and unplanned work on the rig, offline if needed, and writes daily reports.What they see
- 04In app: ViewerFinance & managementCost controllers, asset managers, executivesRead-only access to wells and reports: cost against plan, forecast final cost and rollups.What they see
Plus an administrator role for users, roles and invitations. Companies can create their own roles too.
Compare
Drillcost vs spreadsheets and emailed reports.
Most drilling teams run on Excel, email and the ERP. Here is what changes.
Full comparisonAt a glance
- When overruns show up
- Drillcost: The same day
- Spreadsheets and emailed reports: Weeks later, when costs reach the ERP
- Compared against
- Drillcost: The plan for the work done so far
- Spreadsheets and emailed reports: The whole-well budget
- Why it ran over
- Drillcost: Split into rig time, extra materials and prices paid
- Spreadsheets and emailed reports: Worked out by hand, if at all
- No signal
- Drillcost: Works offline and syncs when the connection returns
- Spreadsheets and emailed reports: Report waits until someone can send it
- Approval
- Drillcost: Submit, review, approve, with comments and history
- Spreadsheets and emailed reports: Email threads and attachments
- Comparing wells and fields
- Drillcost: Rollups by well, field and company, side by side
- Spreadsheets and emailed reports: Manual consolidation across files
Does it work at the rig without a signal?
Yes. Drillcost installs on phones, tablets and laptops as an app from the browser. Entries made without a connection are saved on the device and sync on their own when the connection comes back.
Metres or feet? Which currencies?
Both. Each field sets its own depth unit and currency, so a company can run one field in metres and US dollars and another in feet and a local currency. USD is the default.
What does “cost against plan on the work done” mean?
Drillcost compares what you have spent with what the plan said the completed operations should cost, not with the whole-well budget. Halfway through a well you see a real overrun or saving, not just how much budget is left.
Do we get an AFE?
Yes. The approved plan exports as an AFE PDF. Approval itself happens on the plan in Drillcost (submit, review, approve), and approval saves a baseline that every later comparison uses.
Does it connect to our ERP?
Not directly today. Drillcost exports CSV and PDF and sends email notifications, so cost data can go into your ERP or finance models through the files you already use.
Does it handle vendor invoices or field tickets?
Not yet. Costs, including rig day rates, are entered as cost lines against operations. Invoice matching is not part of the product today.
How is our data kept separate?
Every company gets its own isolated workspace. Larger operators can have a dedicated database. Every change is logged, and approvals keep their history.
Can we set up our own roles?
Yes. Drillcost ships with five roles (senior engineer, coordinator, field engineer, viewer and administrator), and companies can create their own.
How is it priced?
Pricing is scoped to your drilling programme. Book a demo and we will walk through your wells and quote from there.
Book a demo
See your next well against plan.
We’ll walk through a well from plan to daily cost, using your phases, units and currency.