Production Data
Completion Data
An operator must report details of the amount of water and sand used in each well as well as the number of stages in the completion construction report. When these reports are examined in conjunction with production history, a better picture emerges of effective completion designs. In the past, this picture might take years to emerge. With public data, a wide array of completion designs can be examined with production history that goes back years.
Sand and proppants are expensive. That’s no secret, but if a completions engineer can put together an analytics engine that shows which completion designs work better than others, then overall well construction costs can be controlled better and often reduced. Obviously, completions companies do most of the work, but often the onsite completions engineer’s goal is to empty the water and sand trucks that are onsite. The completions company then charges the operator for all of the water and sand used regardless of whether it was necessary. Often, this practice can damage the formation resulting in lower production yields.
Wellbore Survey Data
Survey data can be used to determine wellbore geometry production issues. Tortuosity in wellbore geometry can cause a number of issues, but when time is money on a drilling project, the geometry can often be overlooked. Often the geometry is never considered in production issues, but it can be an important issue in well life cycle.
Toe Up and Toe Down? Which direction should wells be drilled in particular formations? Has over correction in drilling formed traps? Where should the completion stages be placed? These are all questions that every operator asks but often never answers. The data and the techniques to analyze that data are available now.
Conclusion
Learn from the data that is available and capitalize on the experience that has been acquired. In each shale play, there is enough history to increase margins and efficiency in wellbore design, construction and production. In many case, the operators already have the data, and when they don’t, the data can be acquired inexpensively.
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