If you are a new oil & gas engineering hire or a 30 year engineering hand, holding onto hope in the sour market, both of you are in the same game.
Show management their investment and you can yield a great return. Return on investment is common to everything we do in our lives, invest in your health and get stronger, invest in your family and see them grow, invest in dog lessons and expect a response, and finally invest in your job and be rewarded for your efforts. Here a 5 ways to drive down drilling/cmp opex that have proven beneficial in the recent past and can yield growth for your operational efforts.
1. Keep Your Ears Open.
Leaning on your company men during tough times can pay off in more forms than one. Not only are they the closest to the action and sign the first invoice, but they are the ones who look into the eyes of the provider. The result is often lower operating costs for certain providers when pressed and ultimately your confidence in them will pay off great in the long term.
2. Call The Service Provider Back.
We all have busy schedules. As an oil & gas operator, you probably feel busier than ever when the market has turned and activity levels have dropped. Believe it or not this may be the time to allow service providers in, have them give you their quick pricing or pitch and at the least you know have is leverage for the guy you want to go with.
3. Re-Think Everything.
How necessary is that wiper trip, are your floats over-rated for your operation, do we need the extra frac tank, is there any surplus inventory you or the provider is sitting on that can be used at a discount? Continue to ask why are we doing this, how did this procedure come about, is it still the right application for today’s operation?
4. Challenge The Status Quo.
There may be nothing better then pumping that 1.25 ppa step between the 1.0 and 1.5 ppa step but why not meld the sand volume into the 1.5 if the formation is taking the sand and save on fluid volumes? Sometimes 10 deg/100’ sounds comfortable but what if you go to 12 deg/100’ based on the new technology and save yourself operating time and footage drilled that will add up over a years program. Of course, do your engineering on how these changes will affect the output of the life of the well and your counterparts.
5. Competition Is King.
Pin frac fleet against frac fleet, drilling rig against drilling rig. Self-competition is also nonetheless rewarding. Identify the leading indicators and use those metrics to ultimately influence your lag indicators such as cycle times, cost per foot, etc.
Times are absolutely tough and they are extremely challenging, to say the least they are sobering. We hope this advice can help you and your team get to your goals in the near future. Thank you for reading.
And there you have it. 5 ways to drive down drilling/CMP OPEX. For more information on managing your RFPs and bidding process click here:
or 
- Petrobids Management – The Oil & Gas BidExchange