Weatherford International has announced its ForeSite® Production-Optimisation Platform demonstrated US$18mn in annual savings for a Fortune 500 producer by delivering measurable improvements in efficiency, uptime and production
The compelling combined results persuaded the operator to order a global rollout of Weatherford’s field-wide intelligence platform to maximise production across their US and international operations.
Weatherford, in partnership with the West Texas operator, successfully implemented the ForeSite production-optimisation 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,” said Manoj Nimbalkar, global vice-president, production automation and software, Weatherford.
“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 optimisation 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-optimisation 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-optimisation 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 annualised savings of US$18mn per year. These projections include a savings of US$6mn in personnel efficiency, US$7mn in increased equipment run-life, and an additional US$5mn 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-optimisation platform. The resulting real-time efficiencies empowered the operator to manage all pilot wells, both productive and underperforming, by exception, leading to the multi-million dollar savings in both production and uptime.
“The ForeSite pilot exceeded all KPIs and as a real result, the programme was expanded to include nearly 1,000 wells in a Phase 1 rollout, which will be adopted enterprise-wide over the next two years,” said Nimbalkar.
