Why exploration and production companies fail
The inability of exploration and production companies to invest in Data and the right digital technologies has been responsible for the failure of many of them.
According to Thankgod Egbe, Technical Director of Cyphercrescent, he said, from years of research and consulting, it has been have discovered that these undesirable trends that has bedevilled the companies came about because the operators are contented with the way they are doing business without given it a thought that they should deplore some new innovations that could enhance their businesses.
He stated that energy demands have skyrocketed with oil and gas assets ageing further with unavoidable changes in structure and behaviour due to decades of production and intervention operations.
He explained that because of the failure of these companies to invest in new innovations, a lot of their assets are experiencing declined production and increased cost of production amidst declining oil price.
“Consequently, many E&P companies are facing the challenges of taking the hard punches of low profitability and reduced competitiveness.”
To mitigate this situation some companies have resulted to either drilling new wells in a bid to increasing production or carrying out expensive workovers and interventions with unreliable proposals/ programmes resulting to low success rates, he said.
At Cyphercrescent, he said, they are constantly researching and innovating to assist E&P companies leverage their data to optimise their asset value.
At a time in the industry evolution, he stated that it has become expedient that experienced entrepreneurs are required to properly harness other primary factors of production.
“We are now at the stage where entrepreneurs need to be appropriately equipped and informed to make the best decisions at every point in time. Efficient asset management now requires getting the right insight for the right foresight. These insights are derivable from unstructured well, reservoir and facility management (WRFM) big data, using the right technologies for the human brain to effectively process. This makes the ultimate difference between asset management efficiency and inefficiency.”
It is interesting to note that while many companies are still experimenting their way up to competitiveness, others who have identified the key have already recognised real value in their WRFM data using analytical technologies. Business models have evolved and asset managers have gone ahead to leverage contemporary data and digital technologies to reduce their cost of operations and enhance production from brown fields without over reliance on drilling of new wells and expensive workovers.
He said it is imperative to realise that factors of production are not static; they are dynamic and will continue to evolve with civilisation.