Word to the Wise: Most common drill problems in the most prominent drilling areas
April 30, 2019
Where are E&P companies drilling and what drill problems are they encountering?
Each week, XI Technologies scans its unique combination of enhanced industry data to provide trends and insights that have value for professionals doing business in the WCSB. If you’d like Wednesday Word to the Wise delivered directly to your inbox, subscribe here.
It’s no secret that drilling activity has slowed in the WCSB. But there is still activity, and much of it is centered on the sometimes higher-cost, higher-risk regions of Southeast BC, Grande Prairie, Peace River, and Central Alberta. While geology and well design in these regions can be more complex, liquids-rich production and the ability to leverage existing infrastructure can boost the potential for higher returns. To capitalize on those returns, relevant detailed drilling data becomes particularly vital. The right information at the right time can help to mitigate risk, making it easier to identify potential issues, reduce unproductive time, and leverage the best practices of others for optimum drill program results.
Of the 7,300 well licenses issued last year, nearly one-third of them are in the high-risk regions already mentioned. Using XI’s OffsetAnalyst software to query the TourXchange enhanced drilling database, it is easy to identify the most common drilling problems likely to be encountered in these regions. Looking back over the past ten years of drilling data and applying advanced data-mining techniques, we can see the most common drilling problems that have arisen in these four popular drilling regions. Using OffsetAnalyst, a drilling engineer or drill tech can dig deeper, seeking out specific offset wells or analyzing drill curves of any number of analogous wells within a designated radius of a proposed drill location. This kind of drill research and insight allows drilling program managers and drilling contractors alike to look for cause and effect on non-productive time, as well as to identify peak performers (both operators and drilling contractors) behind the most successful drills.
XI has produced a brief video to show how quickly and easily this type of information can be found and analyzed for any region of the WCSB. To learn more about the power of the TourXchange and OffsetAnalyst, download our paper on Drill Program Evaluation. Better yet, request a personalized demo and get a complimentary Drill Problem Analysis for your location.
