CONTEXT – A MAJOR E&P SPEND Production of oil and gas relies on the constant and heavy use of chemicals for flow assurance or asset integrity purposes. According to IHS, production chemicals market reached $25 billion in 2014. With an expected growth rate of approximately 4%, this means the production chemicals market will be more than $30 [...]
This story was originally posted for subscribers of www.InfillThinking.com on January 12, 2017 In a related update published last week, we described how the brute force enterprise of nano-darcy E&P is becoming more elegant. Elegance is achieved as sub-surface understanding moves closer to a realistic picture of the reservoir. Enhancing sub-surface understanding is where leading innovators in shale are focused today. They [...]
We are interested to hear your thoughts on which innovative vendors would be more interesting for you to find? You can simply respond by 1, 2, or 3. In our research on innovations in artificial lift, the common comment we hear from E&P companies is, “These pumps fail frequently and are not optimized.” One’s first instinct [...]
This story was originally posted for subscribers of www.InfillThinking.com on January 6, 2017. On a conference call in 2011, the always eloquent Clay Williams of National Oilwell Varco (then CFO, now CEO) said: The unconventional shale model is utterly unlike drilling a generation ago, which saw fleeting glimpses of precious darcy reservoir rock here or there, elusive four-way closure, a rare [...]
CONTEXT: Unconventional reservoir production is characterized by initially high flow rates at high producing pressures from natural and induced fractures. However, production slows to about 70% of initial production within the first year and the sandface pressure decreases owing to a limited drainage radius. When this pressure becomes less than the saturation pressure, a multiphase fluid [...]
TLDR: The rapid advancement of drone—unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)—technology now connects several burgeoning disciplines such as remote sensing, mechatronics, and data science. The energy industry has embraced a handful of obvious uses such as inspecting flare stacks, offshore platforms and to some degree methane emission monitoring. There is a very basic level of comfort with robotic [...]
As indicated in our previous posts, oil and gas operators typically want answers to three primary questions as they complete their wells: 1. How do I increase production/EUR from each well (e.g. better drilling and completion design)? 2. How do I cut completion costs? (e.g. diminishing marginal returns from number of stages or volume of proppants)? 3. How do [...]
In our previous post, “Will Tools, Data, Science or Courage Boost Completions in Unconventionals”, Darcy Partners looked at contending methods for solving the completions efficiency dilemma. Here we will review the case of data and modeling. It is soundly understood that well performance is a function of both reservoir quality and completion performance. However, in the [...]
Completions are a significant cost for E&P operators, contributing to roughly 2/3 of the overall cost of an unconventional well. Meanwhile, we are challenged with with sub 10% recovery factors and various reports indicate that 30-50% of completion stages do not actually contribute to production. This has left a significant room for optimization. As we have begun [...]
In light of the current downturn in oil prices, the Oil & Gas industry is increasingly looking for innovation to enhance operational efficiency measures that have already been exhausted. One piece of the value chain of particular interest to many is Water Management. Water Management costs are up to 1/2 of well Operating Expenditures and 1/3 [...]
