Faster Solutions for the Challenges of Operators & Engineers
We asked a Production Engineer what “a day in the life” is like, and what are common challenges that are faced as an operator or engineer. This P.E. was responsible for 300 to 400 wells, predominantly rod pumps at one producer and then ESP’s at another.
What were some of the daily routines you established? And what were some of the pain points you experienced?
Excel-based tracking, old-fashioned functions, and not much software. He pulled data manually, compiled it into a useful format, and generated his own graphs. He worked with some older wells – using Excel production, having tubing & casing pressure issues, and with allocated production based on well tests, all based on manual entry. There were no downhole sensors on ESPs, although the ESP company could pull data if needed. Most of the time, “rough guess” based on limited data were used, rather than knowing where the attention really needed to be. And there was absolutely no automation.
The Production Engineer has to check production daily. Is it up or down? If down, he would start to look for off-trend wells. This involved checking wells one-by-one, building lists from variance reports, and doing this multiple times each week for hundreds of wells. Some wells may be slowly declining, but not show up in your top 10%. From there, he had to start to drill down and make decisions on how to respond or resolve issues on location. A daily list was generated, indicating which specific wells the field operators would need to look into.
This information all had to be compiled into reports for operations, which explain changes or observations. SCADA didn’t have a good option for sending notes with this data, so he often would manually type up reports, as well as lists of wells for the workers going to look at the issue wells.
As you can imagine, communication becomes even more problematic as phone calls and emails start going back and forth, and the trail may get lost or confusing. Screenshots in an email can help, but the image may not always tell the whole story. A screenshot may not be able to grab the multiple screens in use, in order to tell the story! A few seconds here and there doesn’t sound like a whole lot but multiply that by 300 to 400 wells, and it certainly adds up. The challenges become obvious.
Enter Production Unified Monitoring! One view of all of the data, including communication and even graphical representation. Learn more about this by requesting to view our webcast featuring Eric Clour (Production Engineer) and Jon Snyder (Customer Engagement Manager, OspreyData). In this webcast, titled “How Operators and Production Engineers Solve Problems Faster In The Digital Oilfield”, they discuss Production Unified Monitoring and present demos for how Eric uses this platform to bring all of this information together in one Unified Monitoring Solution!
