North American operators find value in Shale Performance Review
A group of North American shale well operators reached a one-year milestone earlier this year with the “Shale Performance Review,” which enables the exchange of drilling, completions and fracturing data among operators to aid with well planning, budgeting, performance management and benchmarking processes. Rushmore Reviews, which manages the Shale Performance Review on behalf of the operators, noted that new participants continue to be recruited. “It is the operators themselves who decide what data to share and the rules under which this is done, and the fact that every operator has committed to provide between three and five years worth of data shows how committed these companies are to achieve top-quartile performance,” Helen Rushmore, director of Rushmore Reviews, said.
Pioneer Natural Resources, for example, is using the review to measure comparative performance in drilling, completions and fracturing operations and to focus improvements to be best in class. “We used the Rushmore data to good effect in our international operations and are delighted that the Shale Performance Review has had such a good uptake from other operators since it was launched last year,” Steve Mamerow, VP of corporate drilling and completions for Pioneer, said.
Representatives from BHP Billiton Petroleum, Chevron, Hess Corp, Husky Energy, Hunt Oil Co, Marathon Oil, Murphy Oil, Newfield Exploration, Nexen, Pioneer, Shell, Statoil, Suncor and Talisman Energy provided input on changes to the data to be shared from 2013 onwards. The most significant change was to extend the scope of the review to cover all horizontal, development multistage fractured wells regardless of reservoir type, thereby including wells in tight sandstone, carbonate, siltstone and limestone reservoirs.
Chris Nelson, corporate drilling manager for Newfield, said, “Newfield strives to improve operational efficiencies in our drilling performance to reduce well costs on a continuous basis. We have internally benchmarked our wells for some years but, in order to anchor our performance against the industry, a collaborative effort is necessary. We encourage other operators to join us in participating in the Shale Performance Review as it increasingly becomes the ‘go to’ industry resource providing highly reliable offset well data for North American and international unconventional plays.”
Ms Rushmore added: “Performance excellence is vital to succeed in the North American shale plays … and the only way an operator can measure its comparative level of performance is through access to high-quality and reliable offset data.”
