With the Current challenges in Crude oil prices, minimizing production deferment is a key enabler in maintaining the bottom line of upstream oil & gas companies. Exception based surveillance is cost effective approach to maximize the performance of the well with the decrease in unplanned production downtime and thus reducing the lease operating expense.
Exception Based Surveillance
The rapid decline in the production curve of an unconventional well has presented challenges to operators to effectively manage the production operations, sustain the production rate and optimize production costs with minimal disruptions. These challenges compounded with volatility in crude price necessitates an integrated approach to ensure reliable and safe operation across all production assets.
Exception based surveillance is an integrated approach which relies on real time/ near real time data captured through SCADA (Supervisory control and data acquisition) and other sources from the field and combines the field data with the data from enterprise information systems such as production accounting system or accounting data to effectively manage the downtime and monitor the performance of the well. By leveraging Exception based surveillance model, companies have been able to achieve higher production growth at a much lower lease operating expenses with a significant reduction in non-value added activities of lease operators and engineers.
Exception based surveillance employs a proactive approach in identifying opportunities and priorities by capturing exceptions in production operations. Exceptions are field events with variance in field attributes exceeding the defined threshold value. Exceptions are generated through a complex set up of pre-defined business rules integrated with statistical models. When an event occurs, the system performs a series of validations to identify unplanned disruptions leading to production time. The events are automatically notified to the operators.
Advantages of Exception Based Surveillance
- Reduced lifting cost leading to increased operational efficiency
- Reduced production deferment
- Increased safety of operations
- Proactive approach as opposed to reactive approach
- Leverage your SCADA Data