State-of-the-Art Summary

Field Data Gathering and Transmission Must Satisfy Many “Users”
When going digital, one must understand the role or perspective of the "users." Perspectives that must be considered include:

• The Pumper or Lease Operator
• The Production Supervisor (Foreman/Superintendent)
• The Production Accounting Administrator/Clerk
• The Financial Accounting Department

The Pumper/Lease Operator Perspective
The pumpers favor methods that offer simplicity and reduce their workload, whether it is digital or hand-prepared. For digital, some like hand-helds while others prefer laptops because either their fingers fit the keyboard better, or they like a larger screen display. Others like the old-fashioned hand-entered grease sheet or blanket sheet. Some are using the Field Direct or Merrick System, while others are using locally-developed software in their laptops. Almost all record their tank gages by hand and then transfer the data into the hand-held unit or the laptop. This is good from a safety issue, since it is not wise to carry anything unnecessary up the tank ladder when gauging the tank, especially in an H₂S environment.

Some pumpers fear losing their data with digital recording, so they would still enter their data into a paper document for backup. The new hand-held units provide for data backup, so pumpers are beginning to lose their fear over data loss. In a related vein, one contract pumper stated that the new hand-held unit he has been using is superior to the previous one. He claims he could "crash the old one" but he can't the new one.

Another contract pumper, who pumps for several operators, said that the hand-held unit he was using for one company on 15 wells reduced his work one hour per day on those 15 wells.

Five company pumpers who are using a sophisticated database on laptops complained about the maintenance of the database. When an update or change was needed, the laptops had to be physically retrieved and worked on, which meant a day or two of operating without the use of the laptop.

The Office "Production Accounting" Perspective
Production accounting here is defined as the software and procedures that are used to take

daily production (oil and gas) accounting, and could include water injection and disposal volumes, to properly allocate lease data. Engineers like information, such as well tests, injection pressures, and wellhead pressures, which can now be captured by digital means. Although data are used by engineers, the crux of data gathering techniques are more governed by production accounting, with input from financial accounting in many cases. During this survey, more time was spent with the office production accounting personnel than with engineering.

The survey discovered that previous hand-held computer and laptop programs for field data capture did not interface easily with production accounting software. Many times this dictated that data be transmitted to a database where the data were integrated into a format that would interface with the production accounting software before being forwarded. This inefficiency still occurs, but there have been major improvements and now hand-held and laptop software can interface with a lot of the production accounting systems.

Selected Comments From Companies Interviewed
The following excerpts from selected company interviews convey key insights gathered during the survey.

In some cases, I have added comments in "italics" addressing their comments. As you will note, the logic of capturing field data digitally to enable more accurate and timely data availability sometimes gets lost in the shuffle of the processes used.

Company 1 (Medium size, privately-owned independent)—Prefers hand-prepared reports.

• Better accuracy (Errors may be more likely the more times data are transferred.)
• More personal ownership with hand
  documentation
• Costs—do not like fixed costs (Need to look at cost of paper and time for paper trail)
• Doubt it would reduce the number of pumpers. (The primary reason is to give pumpers more profitable time)
• Would have to switch to a new accounting system. (Most new digital programs interface with accounting systems and, if not, the programming can be done)
• Concerned about implementation time and training costs associated with new system

Company 2 (Small-medium size, privately-owned independent, 700 wells in Permian Basin, 700 wells in Oklahoma)—Prefers hand-held computers.

• Using Field Direct (Considered user friendly), happy with 15 contract pumpers using.
• Piloted for 4 months; has been used Company-wide for over one year
• Only problem encountered is with a few unreliable phone lines in remote areas

Company 3 (Small-medium size, publically-owned independent operating in Mississippi)—Prefers hand-held computers.

• Using the Merrick system since Nov 2002
• Waiting on new pocket units that can expand to include environmental reporting and other functions