Field Data Gathering in the Wild

6 Real-World Use Cases from W Energy Customers

Recently, we published a deep dive into our W Energy Field Data Gathering (FDG) solution. It covered key capabilities, like offline data entry with auto-sync, real-time data delivery, simple configurations, built-in validation and exception rules, and the ability to run allocations or generate reports in seconds. We walked through a day in the life of a lease operator with the W Energy FDG, and broke down how saving just 60% of your lease operators’ time on data entry could translate to 15 full-time employee resources over the course of a year.

What didn’t our deep dive include? Real stories from our Field Data Gathering customers. So let’s take a closer look at how leading oil and gas organizations are using W Energy to transform data capture at their businesses.

Range Resources dramatically streamlines field safety compliance 

Range Resources collapsed four applications down to W Energy FDG to capture all data in the field, including production and compliance requirements.  

Prior to W Energy, they used manual documents and spreadsheets to capture Amplitude Variation with Offset (AVO) readings and other compliance data from the oilfield. Lease operators entered data into disparate forms using a combination of paper notebook entries, shared network folders, and emails. It was a slow, tedious process that also made compliance records difficult to access and share. The result was a daily drain on lease operators’ time, high risk of errors through manual entries, a lack of back-office visibility, and increased risk of missing compliance requirements – which in turn, raised the risk of potentially huge penalties.

Today, with W Energy, EH&S data is captured in the field and shared and incorporated into automated reports via an easy to use web interface. Field operators spend less time juggling documents and struggling with data entry, data quality improves with automated processes, and data gets into the right hands in the back office much more quickly.

Large supermajor transforms data capture with W Energy

The W Energy Field Data Gathering solution has benefitted one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies in a number of ways. 

Lease operators and production accounting teams gain clear visibility into chemical readings 

Tracking chemicals across multiple well sites, each with different injection rates, was a cumbersome, manual process. Lease operators had to collect and collate data from each site into legacy data capture applications. In addition, manual calculations were required for certain entries, raising the risk of entering incorrectly recorded data into systems. The time-consuming manual process, with its inherent data quality problems, substantially slowed the allocation of production data.

With W Energy, chemical readings were simplified and manual calculations were eliminated, providing access to accurate data much more rapidly and dramatically reducing the time spent manually capturing and tracking data. Now, lease operators access the FDG app on their mobile devices and quickly choose the type of chemical and the volume delivered. Inventory for the injection rates is then automatically calculated and made available through FDG’s seamless integration with other apps. Production accounting teams have easy access to chemical reports in near real time and lease operators spend less time performing low value tasks.

With clear and almost immediate visibility into chemical injections, field supervisors can do a better job of forecasting chemical costs and checking the amount of chemicals being used at each priority well location, so they can more readily optimize production performance. This helps them track the supply of chemicals by vendors, flagging any deviation from plan and improving the revenue and cost of the bottom-line equation.

Vendor-generated water tickets save 15,000 hours per year

Historically, water transporters collected water and used a legacy “point” software solution to generate a water ticket. Some transporters emailed their water tickets to lease operators; others relied on manual distribution. Either way, the information is manually entered by the lease operator into a production accounting application. 

Even though these standard processes leverage technology, the advantages of doing so were constrained by the inability to integrate or share data between applications, and by requiring manual data entry or uploading to get data into the systems. Manual data entry also increased the risk of data quality issues, creating the potential for exceptions that can disrupt the lease operator’s day.

Today, FDG uses its cloud-based API to tap directly into the water transporter’s system, extracting ticket data automatically as tickets are generated. By validating the data for accuracy in the cloud, FDG can alert the water transporter in near real time when data quality issues are detected. This enables the transporter to correct the data deficiency, often before leaving the site, reducing the rate of errors and delays in performing allocation calculations. 

With water ticket data integrated with FDG, lease operators can review ticket data on the FDG app and either approve or reject it. Approved tickets are pushed instantly to the production accounting system for use in allocation calculations. When tickets are rejected, the record is removed, and the transporter is notified so corrective actions can be taken to provide good quality data.

Integrated SCADA well tests improves data quality and saves 1000+ hours every month

Lease operators spend at least 10 to 15 minutes per day, every day, manually entering oil, gas, and water volumes, durations, and other attributes into spreadsheets. This is a cumbersome, low-value task that exposes oil field and back office operators to the data quality problems created by manual work. 

By integrating SCADA data directly into W Energy Field Data Gathering, the company is now automating well tests, reducing the risk of data entry errors, and saving 1,000+ hours per month that can now be spent on higher value tasks.

After executing simple mapping configurations on the FDG integration module, live well test data from SCADA flows directly into the FDG mobile app for lease operators to review. Lease operators can then either approve or reject the well test. If approved, the well test data is pushed directly into the production accounting system where it is available in near-real-time to production accounting managers. If the test is rejected, the data is available in FDG for further analysis.

Direct integration of SCADA-based well tests on FDG simplifies the process and reduces the risk of manual entry errors, unifying field and back office workers with a single set of data. Each lease operator now saves 15 minutes per day, in addition to reducing time spent chasing manual errors. Production accounting gets more reliable, trustworthy, and timely data for quicker action. Most importantly, oilfields run more smoothly with better data quality and less of workers’ time spent on trivial, low-value tasks.

Midland-Based Operator  transitions from legacy data gathering to W Energy FDG in just 30 days 

This operator had recently acquired a set of Permian-based assets, but the field struggled to adopt the legacy field data gathering software that came with it. The field teams were suddenly racking up overtime and stressing over the accuracy of data with little trust in the data capture system. 

The Foreman had reached out to W Energy for a demo of our Field Data Gathering software. He hoped to prove to his team and company leadership that a new solution could improve data accuracy and ease of use while cutting back hours spent re-entering data.

Working with their field team, the W Energy implementation team helped design allocation setup from scratch. The field was up and running in 30 days from signing their contract, armed with the ability to easily and efficiently capture data and process allocations.

Leading enterprise saves two hours per day for every lease operator

At another large organization, management knew that they needed a better field data gathering system, but didn’t believe that lease operators would give up their grease books. 

Laptops were inconvenient to carry around, so they captured data on a piece of paper. Because they didn’t have network connectivity to enter data during field visits, they had to drive around to find cell service, or enter the data after they reached their office or home. Additionally, manual processes meant that they couldn’t always see their daily production for well and assets and their key performance indicators. Getting information from the lease operator to the foreman to the superintendent took far too much time and risked data accuracy.

With W Energy FDG, the company achieved 100% adoption of the application and stopped using grease books altogether. The team enjoyed the ease of use of the mobile app and integration with their accounting system, as well as capabilities like reinforced data quality, sequencing, site mapping, and the ability to pull accurate reports. At the end of the day, W Energy restored the lease operators’ trust in the data and saved them two hours every day in data entry time.

Discover how W Energy Field Data Gathering can benefit your organization
From integration with SCADA to giving up grease books, the W Energy Field Data Gathering platform can benefit field operations at every oil and gas company. Get in touch to schedule a custom demo or watch our online tour to see FDG in action.