Streamline Field Ops: Boost Efficiency with a Unified System

The Oil and Gas Industry's Digital Transformation

The oil and gas industry has entered the digital age, moving away from traditional pen-and-paper methods and Excel spreadsheets. This digital transformation promises significant business benefits, including greater efficiency, streamlined operations, cost savings, and improved safety. However, the proliferation of specialized digital tools has introduced new challenges. Upstream oil and gas teams now manage numerous disparate applications that often do not integrate well, leading to inefficient communication and increased administrative burdens. This lack of reliable, accurate, timely, and transparent data results in wasted time, money, and resources.

The Challenge: Disparate Field Applications

Upstream organizations often deploy use-case-specific applications to digitize and streamline field processes. Over time, this leads to a patchwork of systems that are difficult to use and poorly integrated. The result is poor adoption and low bottom-line value.

A Day in the Life of a Field Operator

A typical field operator's day involves:

• ​Visiting multiple wells and running audits through safety software
• ​Discovering issues (e.g., a full tank or underperforming well) and documenting them in various apps
• ​Entering data into field data capture systems
• ​Using GPS, dispatch software, and communication tools (texts, emails, MS Teams, GroupMe)
• ​Creating work orders in CMMS or EAM tools, often requiring additional form-filling software

Closing the loop on a single routine site can involve ten or more systems and at least half an hour, causing delays and inefficiencies.

Cognitive Burnout for Field Operators

Field workers may receive multiple requests from various people across several systems and interfaces (phone, laptop, notebook, sticky notes). This complexity can result in thousands of mental operations just to manage administrative tasks, before even starting fieldwork.

Challenges for Remote Operations Centers and IT

• ​Remote operations centers (ROC) must monitor work orders, track field operators, and communicate with vendors using different tools, often lacking real-time visibility.
• ​IT departments are responsible for managing, integrating, and maintaining these applications, which can be costly and time-consuming. They also handle user training for multiple interfaces, which is often unpopular.

Impact on Accounting

Volume accountants must reconcile field data with their systems to run allocations. Errors discovered late require field operators to revisit sites, causing further delays and preventing timely closing of books. Mistakes compound, leading to additional delays and incidents.

Financial Impact of Field Delays

For example, if a well operator's production target is 100,000 barrels per day but only 85,000 barrels are produced, and even a small percentage of the shortfall is due to administrative friction, the financial loss can be significant (e.g., $40,000 per day at $80/barrel for 750 barrels lost).

The Solution: A Unified, Field-First, Cloud-Based Production Operations System

While complexity is inherent in oil and gas field operations, navigating it does not have to be cumbersome or error-prone. The W Energy production offering is a unified software platform that combines field data capture, field services, field maintenance, and allocations into a single application. Designed as "field first," the platform is built around field operations and extends into the back office, replacing multiple one-off apps with a real-time interface.

Real-Time Operations

With W Energy, allocations occur immediately as data comes in from the field or SCADA, ensuring everyone—from foremen to accountants—is always on the same page. Issues are identified and addressed instantly, not discovered the next day.

Benefits of a Real-Time, Unified Field Operations Platform

1. 1.Increased Field Production Capacity / Less Downtime: Real-time alignment minimizes downtime and increases efficiency.
2. 2.15-20% More Employee Bandwidth: Field operators can save one to three hours daily, allowing more work to be completed with the same or fewer employees.
3. 3.400% Faster Allocations: Allocation time can be reduced from 10 days to two.
4. 4.Cross-Platform Compatibility: Works with both iOS and Android for a standard interface across the ecosystem.
5. 5.Lower Licensing Costs: Replaces multiple apps, reducing software licensing, maintenance, and procurement costs.
6. 6.Automatic Upgrades: As a SaaS platform, updates and new features are delivered automatically.
7. 7.Ongoing Innovation: Continuous collaboration with customers ensures valuable updates.
8. 8.Zero Off-Book Tasks: All work is tracked in one place, improving projections, cost understanding, ROI, and profit margins.
9. 9.300% Better Field Visibility: Unified system provides significantly improved visibility into field activities, leading to more accurate estimates and expenses.
10. 10.Dramatic Reduction in Cognitive Load: The unified system reduces the mental operations required by field operators by over 99%, from thousands to just a few dozen.

Conclusion

As the oil and gas industry becomes more complex and competitive, organizations must work smarter. A unified, user-friendly field operations application like W Energy's offering enables smarter, more efficient operations, improved visibility, and a stronger bottom line.