Production optimization – a key element of E&P digital oilfield roadmaps – when done at scale has demonstrated it can significantly reduce emissions.
Take the example of optimizing rod lift well production. Across North America, 75% of rod lift wells overpump. This means operators expend more energy than necessary to attain peak production volumes, which consequently affects key operational metrics negatively, such as MTBF, deferred production, and LOE. Operators also overspend on electricity, which erodes margin on lower producing wells. The problem is that optimization efforts typically happen only periodically and on a subset of wells. There simply isn’t time enough in a day with today’s smaller operations teams.
Production optimization at scale requires a different approach – in particular, an artificial Intelligence one that utilizes advanced physics to classify wells every day determining their optimization state (i.e., underpumping, overpumping, dialed-in) and generating setpoint recommendations with the option of automatically updating controllers. When implemented across an entire asset, operators gain full-field optimization for longer run times than when they rely on legacy analytics tools.
An AI-optimized rod lift well means lower electricity costs, which means lower greenhouse gas emissions. One Ambyint customer, for instance, saw a 17% decline in rod lift strokes across their field after applying Ambyint technology. That translated into an 11% decline in electricity use and ultimately a 13% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. Depending on the number of wells, the savings can be quite significant. Ambyint production optimization solutions can effectively remove 100,000 cars from the road annually when it is used on 5,000 wells.
With the focus in the foreseeable future on getting the most out of producing wells for less, the opportunity to embrace digital oilfield technologies to accomplish this goal can yield additional benefits that have broader environmental and public relations benefits. Emissions reductions are one of these and should factor into the calculus of E&P technology adoption. Is emissions reduction part of your digital oilfield strategy? If so, let us know as we have a simple way to calculate our impact.