Senior Drilling Fluids Technical Assurance Lead

Elsa Talent; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 300,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

Elsa Talent seeks a Senior Drilling Fluids Technical Assurance leader to drive independent assurance of drilling-fluid quality, performance, and cost across well-construction activities. You will oversee contractor proposals, monitor mud trends, and ensure systems remain fit-for-purpose with emphasis on HSE and reliability.

The role demands 15–20 years in oil and gas, including 10–15 years in drilling-fluid engineering, with offshore experience and strong QA/QC background.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Petroleum Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistry / Applied Chemistry, or a relevant technical discipline.
• Typically 15 - 20 years of oil and gas experience, including 10 - 15 years of direct drilling-fluid engineering experience.
• Significant offshore or field drilling experience and experience at Senior Engineer, Specialist, or Technical Advisor level.
• Experience with drilling-fluid QA/QC, operational troubleshooting, contractor/supplier performance, and cost optimization.
• Experience as Contract Holder, in technical bid evaluation, or in operator-side technical assurance is beneficial.
• Gulf of Thailand experience with slimhole, monobore, and/or tubingless development wells is highly beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Review and technically assure drilling-fluid programs, operating envelopes, contractor proposals, and significant treatment changes.
• Monitor mud performance and trends, including mud weight, rheology, fluid loss, inhibition, solids, lubricity, sag, contamination, and other system-specific properties.
• Ensure fluid systems remain suitable for formation conditions, hole cleaning, ECD, wellbore stability, losses, torque and drag, and completion/cementing interfaces.
• Identify deteriorating trends early, recommend corrective actions, and escalate material technical risks.
• Independently challenge contractor recommendations when technical justification is insufficient or product use appears excessive.
• Provide specialist support during fluid-related operational issues, including losses, instability, tight hole, pack-off, stuck-pipe risk, high ECD, contamination, and solids-control problems.
• Define and review laboratory testing, qualification, and acceptance criteria for drilling-fluid systems, chemicals, and base fluids.
• Review Certificates of Analysis, batch consistency, and product substitutions; recommend rejection or quarantine of non-conforming materials.
• Coordinate independent testing or additional verification where required.
• Ensure compliance with the Scope of Work, technical requirements, personnel competency, product quality, laboratory support, equipment readiness, and service KPIs.
• Monitor contractor performance, document non-conformance, and require corrective actions.
• Review additional scope and technical justification, and support invoice verification from a technical/performance perspective.
• Support technical bid evaluation, tender clarification, contractor reviews, and contract renewal in coordination with Supply Chain.
• Define base-fluid specifications and QA/QC requirements and ensure supplied material meets approved standards.
• Monitor supplier quality, delivery performance, stock levels, demand forecasts, contingency stock, and supply risk. Coordinate with Operations, Logistics, and Supply Chain to minimize shortages, emergency freight, excess inventory, and obsolete stock.
• Review alternative or emergency suppliers and support supplier performance reviews and contract renewal.
• Work with Drilling Engineering and Operations to improve drilling-fluid-related well performance while maintaining required quality and reliability.
• Optimize hole cleaning, ECD, wellbore stability, lubricity, torque and drag, tripping performance, conditioning time, loss prevention, and casing-running conditions.
• Optimize chemical and base-fluid consumption, dilution, mud losses, fluid recovery/reuse, solids-control efficiency, waste, inventory, product standardization, and logistics.
• Challenge both unnecessary cost reduction that increases technical risk and unnecessary product consumption that adds cost without measurable benefit.
• Use planned-versus-actual consumption, offset performance, NPT, and total well impact to guide optimization.
• Establish and monitor appropriate performance indicators for drilling-fluid contractors and base-fluid suppliers, including mud quality and fluid-related NPT, product quality, technical response, personnel competency, laboratory support, chemical/base-fluid consumption, and supply reliability.

Skills

Drilling fluids

QA/QC

Cost optimization

Offshore drilling

Contract holder

Technical assurance

Education

Bachelor's degree in Petroleum/ Chemical/ Mechanical Eng

Job description

Elsa Talent seeks a Senior Drilling Fluids Technical Assurance leader to drive independent assurance of drilling-fluid quality, performance, and cost across well-construction activities. You will oversee contractor proposals, monitor mud trends, and ensure systems remain fit-for-purpose with emphasis on HSE and reliability.

The role demands 15–20 years in oil and gas, including 10–15 years in drilling-fluid engineering, with offshore experience and strong QA/QC background.