Abstract Brazil's Campos Basin, home of several fields in water depth ranging from 100 m to more than 2000 m, is one of the most important deepwater developments in the world. Campos Basin also accounts for nearly 80 percent of Brazil's overall crude output. Drilling in Campos Basin, however, has been quite challenging due to difficult pore pressure prediction and close margin between pore pressure and fracture gradient. In addition, poor hole cleaning and high drilling vibrations have also resulted in substantial non-productive time (NPT) and related costs. To improve drilling performance, Petrobras has employed a new drilling optimization operation focused on optimization specialists with state-of-the-art technologies such as real-time modeling and LWD/MWD tools. Over the past three years, over sixty drilling optimization operations were completed in the Campos Basin area. Those fit-for-purpose optimization operations have substantially reduced the drilling cost, reduced NPT, and increased drilling efficiency. This paper will discuss the drilling problems and the technologies used to solve these problems.