REDUCING UNPLANNED DOWNTIME

Optimal well production should be the goal for all E&P companies.  To achieve this companies need to engineer a strategy for reducing downtime. This strategy needs to define which downtime events to target. There are 2 types of downtime categories: controllable and non-controllable. Controllable can be further categorized as planned and unplanned. Planned downtime are things like scheduled maintenance whereas unplanned may be downhole problems or sub-surface production equipment problems.  As for uncontrollable many of these reasons are considered force majeure which is a French term meaning greater force or unforeseeable circumstances.  A good example of force majeure is a downtime event caused by severe storms.  Force majeure downtime is beyond our control therefore when trying to reduce downtime controllable unplanned causes need to be the focus.

There are multiple steps to start the process of reducing downtime. First is to establish a corporate strategy for reducing downtime. Begin tracking downtime and set reduction goals. To improve the tracking of downtime a preliminary step is to organize the data collection process. Data needs to be collected on the reason and sub-reason for each downtime event. For example under the reason of subsurface equipment failure that are multiple sub reasons: pump problems, gas lift problems, equip/repair maintenance etc. Data must be collected by a field data gathering application, to ensure accurate and timely reporting. This enables pumpers to upload data directly from the field including downtime event data. The industry average for the duration of downtime events is seven days.  Reducing this number should be one of the primary goals.  With faster and more detailed reporting this downtime duration can be significantly reduced.

After your data has become organized and reporting has improved analysis can follow.  Proper analysis can help management decide which reasons and sub-reasons they should target when determining how to allocate capital. The key data needed to support these decisions are:

1. The Causes for the downtime events and their frequency
2. Estimated production loss due to average production of the well and the duration of the downtime
3. Areas or business units that are suffering the most from downtime

Producing reports on these metrics can be a timely process that can be difficult for management to digest to make the most efficient decisions.

All departments must be able to view the number of downtime events, top downtime causes, estimated production loss and downtime trends  in an all in one view making this information easily accessible, understandable, and actionable.  This information is scalable and can be used for entire divisions or drilled down to individual pads and wells.

The well watch list feature can show users which wells are losing the most production volume over a given period.  These are the wells that should receive immediate attention.

Based on your company’s current data structure we can utilize what you already have in place or provide the backbone necessary for Downtime Dashboard.  Average implementation times is as short as 8-10 weeks.

A data specialist at a large independent O&G producer had this to say about our product “Using Seven Lakes’ Downtime Dashboard we were able to meet our corporate goal of reducing downtime by 50% in less than 6 months.”

For more information on the solutions mentioned by the oil and gas professionals, please contact lucy@jointhefeed.com.