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Oil
and Gas Historical Society Created
The American Oil and Gas Historical Society
(Society) has been established to preserve the heritage of the
U.S. exploration and production industry. Bruce Wells has been
named the Executive Director of the Society. According to
Wells, the Society seeks to provide a communications network
among the nation's 50 oil- and natural gas-related museums. He
indicated the Society would work with other oil and gas
groups, corporations, state and regional associations,
petroleum clubs, Desk and Derrick Clubs, the Smithsonian
Institution, universities and libraries to promote community
museum programs. The Society is based in Washington, DC. Give
them a call (202-857-4785) and visit their website (www.aoghs.org).
Identifying "Practices That Are Working"
Benchmarking, especially in the drilling and
completions arena with larger operators, is growing. The
concept behind benchmarking is simple—open sharing of data by
several organizations so that the individual organizations and
group as a whole can improve performance. At the smallest
scale, a company can do internal benchmarking, comparing
performance of different divisions or geographic regions.
Maximum value though comes from external benchmarking where
one has the opportunity to compare with and learn from others,
avoiding the not-invented-here syndrome. Corporate managers
see value in knowing how they stack up versus competition,
identifying weaknesses and providing direction to improvement
efforts. Companies entering new geographic areas can get an
idea what to expect by looking at other's performance there.
True benchmarking efforts typically involve
a third party group since the effort to assemble data from
several companies and analyze it in detail is significant.
Results of such efforts are kept confidential to participating
companies. Although not as comprehensive, there is a mechanism
that can work for the benefit of all if companies involved in
a given area will just share their "practices that are
working." This can be done without having to share often
sensitive detailed data or spend considerable time compiling
and analyzing data. This requires trust that the shared
"practices that are working" are true. That being the case,
groups |
such as PTTC can play an active
role in compiling and widely communicating these practices.
Trust your competitors to
honestly share? Are you willing to do the same? Know other
operators interested in the same problem or opportunity?
Contact PTTC's Regional Directors and explore how, through a
topical working group, PTTC might assist in compiling
"practices that are working."
Do You Really Want to
Improve Your Drilling Performance?
Other industries seem to continually improve
their productivity. Are independents, which drill most of the
wells in the U.S., seeing continually improving performance in
their drilling operations? An article titled "Seven Drilling
Myths—Managing Successful Drilling Operations" published in
Journal of Petroleum Technology provides a simple but
thought-provoking discussion of seven drilling myths, listed
below, and offers insights on improving performance.
The seven drilling myths:
- All wells are different.
- Drilling optimization is difficult to
achieve.
- Each new project represents a new
learning curve.
- Global, regional and area expertise is
not transferable, and new or different types of operations
require specific high levels of expertise.
- There is no common process for drilling.
- Drilling engineers are excited about
software or IT tools.
- Drilling engineers do not expect strong
leadership.
The authors note that the lower
organizations are on the drilling success curves, the more the
above myths permeate their culture. Two keys to turn things
around are proposed. First, jump-start the learning curve with
the triangle of success—start with expertise, apply sound
principles, apply best practices, and use IT tools that work.
Second, exercise strong, active leadership through disciplined
project management. Excerpted from
"Seven Drilling Myths—Managing Successful Drilling
Operations," Journal of Petroleum Technology, Sep 2003, p.
44-48.
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Spraberry Well Site of 1st Horizontal Gas Gun™ Stimulation
A 5,200-ft Spraberry well in Borden County,
Texas, was the site for J Integral Engineering's first GasGun™
solid propellant stimulation treatment in a horizontal well.
Originally drilled in 1987, the well had produced 90,000 bbl
before production fell to 10 bopd. The operator had drilled a
500-ft, 4 7/8-in horizontal open-hole lateral to increase
productivity, but the lateral never produced any significant
quantity of oil even after acidizing. Having used GasGun
treatments in several conventional vertical wells, the
operator wanted to try one in this horizontal lateral. With
concerns about hole stability plus a needed mechanism for
getting the GasGun in a horizontal section, a special
arrangement for placing the GasGun inside 3 ½-in perforated
Hydril pipe was developed. J Integral
Engineering assembled a 240-ft GasGun inside the Hydril
perforated pipe while suspended in the well at the surface.
The 500 ft of Hydril pipe was connected to 2 3/8-in tubing,
and then the entire package was tubing conveyed 5,200 ft
vertically with the Hydril pipe and GasGun going into the
lateral. The perforated Hydril pipe provided the means to push
the 240-ft rubber GasGun "snake" into the horizontal as well
as providing the desired hole stability. The tubing-conveyed
firing system required for this application consisted of a
downhole fireset with battery pack and pressure switch. The
fireset was sealed inside a pup joint placed at the bottom of
the tubing string at the crossover connection between the
Hydril pipe and the tubing. With this approach, filling the
tubing with water activates the pressure switch, which
detonates the GasGun. Once on the
well, it only took a few hours to position the 240-ft tool at
the end of the lateral. Loading the tubing with water
successfully detonated the tool. Following detonation, the
well began to gas hard at the surface, then died down before
the well was shut-in overnight. Since the Hydril pipe and
tubing could not be pulled, the tubing was perforated at the
bottom of the string. Tubing pressures were higher than ever
measured before, but flow was restricted due to suspected
bridges. Plans were in place to stimulate the well with acid
to clear obstructions. View the
full article online (www.
thegasgun.com/Update%
2010.PDF). |
Tech
Transfer Track