Additional layers of struggle occur in the effort to integrate business information that serves requirements of disciplines and functions from multiple data sources necessary to the business—costing time and dollars. A Well Life Cycle Framework for an Oil & Gas operation is fundamentally a combination of people, skills, and resources with applied technology engaging the activities needed to maximize the return on time and money with the correct information in the right context at the right time.

A framework is defined within this publication as the appropriate combination of source data applications working to conduct necessary function, with the most streamlined data path to translate that source data into meaningful reports and information to the right recipient at the right time (across departments and function). Every oil company, has a framework in place, whether formally documented or not. And at it’s very core of existence it either enhances efficiency or reduces effectiveness by the ease or difficulty it is to obtain the right information at the right time. The core of the problem is then defined by whether that framework is intentionally designed to be efficient and serve the greater good of the company, or only partly in place with inherent bottlenecks that increase costliness of time and resources, constantly patching information together to achieve business and functional success.

A first step in the right direction toward developing an efficient Well Life Cycle Framework is to look at the major departmental, functional, and discipline information requirements, define the gaps, and consider the solutions that fundamentally fill those gaps while keeping information easily integrated with a Well/Asset Master Strategy. A simple litmus test of a Well Life Cycle framework is to ask if information is entered or captured once, and easily translated and positioned to serve all departments and functions with the least amount of human intervention.

So where can a company begin to put together it’s best strategy? The first step is to create a realistic picture of where you are at at this point.

1. Is there a clear method for creating a new well in each application?
2. Is there a clear method for getting all the key data to a centrally located data warehouse for all recipients to see and utilize for business optimization?
3. Are there adequate applications and good processes to support all information requirements to optimize the asset through all phases of the Well Life Cycle?
4. Does the right information get to the right person in real time or near real time?
5. Is the information displayed in an actionable fashion?

Identifying these matters for each WLF section and each function will give a company a sense of what needs to be done and in what fashion to optimize assets.

Upon reviewing the multiple uses and requirements of daily production reports, information from the wells was humanly handled twenty-three times before it finally completed updating all the required useful places.

In today’s world (15 years later) that challenge has been reduced, but is still less than optimal in most oil & gas companies because of the lack of clarity in process, deficiencies and gaps in “field to office” data capture methods, or the lack of a strategic plan for tying “asset” and “well” information together between departments and functions.

Whether those gaps are realized at the Executive Level, Management Level, or the disciplined function level, they create both human resource loss and asset value loss.

The key elements of a Well Life Cycle Framework are clearly identified by the following points:

1. Entering valuable data once and use it every where it is needed for business impact.
2. Having a Well Master Strategy that ties all company asset entities in all applications information together for extraction to the right department at the right time.
3. Having clearly identified processes to sustain the data flow with properly trained resources to keep up with both the technology and process.
4. Identifying all aspects of detailed information that is useful for engineering, geological, geophysical, land, business, and executive functions with corresponding data flow technologies with the architecture to deliver to everyone in the mode needed to analyze.
5. Keeping in mind that the greatest ROI comes from a well / field / reservoir producing at it’s optimum rate against both science factors, and business and market factors, a Well Life Cycle Framework should be designed to achieve this in all aspects of the operational team.

The following list of functions / departments should be included for information requirements:

1. Land
2. Accounting
3. Capital Planning
4. Geologic and Geophysical
5. Partners
6. Reservoir
7. Purchasing
8. Pre-Drill Planning
9. Contract Management
10. Drilling
11. Completion
12. Facilities Management
13. Land
14. Production Engineering
15. Field Operations
16. Regulatory
17. Health , Safety and Environment (EPA, OSHA)
18. Acquisitions

The answer to this question is really based on how a company views land positions, PUDs, probable, and possible locations and also yet to be determined opportunities within the budget process and the reserve process.

The biggest key to identifying a well asset is to do it at the earliest point that a well or potential well enters an annual budget cycle. By identifying early, the entire process of a tracking concept to reality becomes possible. As an idea matures to the point of requiring AFE approval and accounting function, the information surrounding the well concept can evolve and serve a cumulative requirement to all functions. It will aslo give retrospective insight to the accuracy of planning forecasts to actual performance.

This identification process—combined with a data warehouse able to absorb key information elements from each functional application in the well life cycle framework—will give a company much greater insight concerning actual functional and physical performance.