News
Featured in World Oil’s Special Focus: Digital Transformation
30 Mar 2021
Assessing production operations solves problems, increases well performance
A well optimization service delivers actionable insights through assessment of field practices to establish a baseline state of production operations. The intelligence enables analysis of compliance against best practices, workflow efficiency and technology utilization, to identify opportunities for increased margin.
Spencer Morrison, Solutions Engineer
Drilling is the revenue engine that drives upstream oil and gas growth. In this world, production operational priorities come second to drilling. At least, that was the case prior to the 2020 downturn. Now that drilling activity has subsided for a while–at least not to the levels seen in the past–the lifeblood of exploration and production (E&P) companies is producing wells. Consequently, E&P executives have shifted their attention more toward production operations, asking questions about well reliability, optimization, workflow efficiency and automation; but that shift has occurred only modestly.
The author will explain why E&P companies must move from a modest shift in operational focus to a much larger one, as well optimization and reliability have the biggest potential for improving margin performance over the coming years. Specifically, this article examines the state of production operations today; explores the role of advanced analytics in driving operational improvement; posits a well optimization framework and benchmark process that informs a digitalization roadmap; touches on how culture influences becoming a more data-driven organization; and outlines what E&P companies should do next.
