Weatherford production-optimization platform delivers multimillion-dollar savings

The compelling combined results persuaded the operator to order a global rollout of Weatherford’s field-wide intelligence platform to maximize production across their U.S. and international operations.

Weatherford, in tandem with the West Texas operator, successfully implemented the ForeSite production-optimization platform enterprise-wide, leveraging existing field-data streams as a path to improving efficiencies for multiple forms of artificial lift. Demonstrated improvements included savings in equipment life and personnel gain through management-by-exception techniques.

“The customer’s objectives were clear,” Manoj Nimbalkar, global VP, production automation & software, Weatherford, said. “One, the solution must accommodate multiple forms of production, including natural flow, rod lift, gas lift, and electrical-submersible pumps (ESPs). Two, Weatherford must create an enterprise-wide, data-agnostic optimization system to reach across multiple software systems and companies. Three, the solution must leverage historical data from the outgoing software and integrate real-time feeds from the existing Weatherford CygNet SCADA platform, as well as a competitor’s field-allocation and well configurator.”

The Weatherford production-optimization team collaborated with the operator to assess the production strategy and data needs across thousands of wells. Together, Weatherford and the operator agreed to a phased rollout of the ForeSite production-optimization platform, starting with an initial pilot that was governed by KPIs that would lead to further, enterprise-wide adoption.

Following the complete rollout, the operator expects an annualized savings of $18 million per year. These projections include a savings of $6 million in personnel efficiency, $7 million in increased equipment run-life, and an additional $5 million in revenue garnered from wells transitioned more quickly from natural-flow lift to artificial lift.

ForeSite was installed on a subset of wells - including natural flow, reciprocating rod lift, gas lift, and ESPs - and the platform seamlessly integrated all existing and historic data-management and planning systems into a single production-optimization platform. The resulting real-time efficiencies empowered the operator to manage all pilot wells, both productive and underperforming, by exception, leading to the multimillion-dollar savings in both production and uptime.

“The ForeSite pilot exceeded all KPIs and as a real result, the program was expanded to include nearly 1,000 wells in a Phase 1 rollout, which will be adopted enterprise-wide over the next two years,” Nimbalkar said.