The Case For a Well Life Cycle Framework

The Case for a Well Life Cycle Framework

Oil and Gas Companies spend billions of dollars  each year to find / develop / and produce oil and gas. Investments are made along the way throughout both the life of the company and producing asset that are dependent on and improved by reliable information placed into the hands of competent decision makers in timely fashion. 

In many companies, there is a constant struggle to implement and maximize the use of the appropriate software that (correctly used) would enable the business to move forward more efficiently, while improving the confidence of analysts and decision makers to know they have the right information at the right time. 

Additional layers of struggle occur in both time and dollars to integrate the business information  needed to serve the requirements of disciplines and functions from multiple data sources needed to serve the business.     

A Well- Life Cycle Framework for an Oil & Gas operations is fundamentally a combination of people / Skills / resources with applied technology engaging the  activities needed to maximize the return on time and money with the correct information in the right context at the right time.

A framework is defined within this publication as the appropriate combination of source data applications working to conduct necessary function, with the most streamlined data path to translate that source data into meaningful reports and information to the right recipient at the right time. (Across departments and function) 

Every oil company, has a framework in place, whether formally documented or not. And at it's very core of existence it either enhances efficiency or reduces effectiveness by the ease or difficulty it is to obtain the right information at the right time. 

The core of the problem is then defined by whether that framework is intentionally designed to be efficient and serve the greater good of the company, or only partly in place with inherent bottlenecks that increase costliness of time and resources constantly patching information together to achieve business and functional success.       

A first step in the right direction toward developing an efficient Well - Life Cycle Framework is to look at the major departmental, functional, and discipline information requirements and define the gaps and consider the solutions that fundamentally fill those gaps while keeping information easily  integrated with an Well / Asset Master Strategy.  

As the chapters unfold, or additions are made, this book will examine the detailed multiple- departmental needs with a detailed review of engineering and operations to establish what should be included in a Well Life Cycle Framework.

Working through this book methodically and establishing components to fill the missing pieces of software / process / training paths / and  resource requirements will allow the organization to improve the ability to manage operations at a much higher level of efficiency.

A simple litmus test of a well-lifecycle framework is to ask if information is entered or captured once and easily translated and positioned to serve all departments and functions with that information with the least amount of human intervention.