Incomplete Work

I have not posted in a while, but not for lack of things going on.  Partially because of the lack of things being completed.  I like completed work.  How about you?  Is anything less satisfying than stopping work on a project that is not finished?  I had two such projects recently.

One was a PtL exercise on a rod-pumped field.  The field was ancient, had been the target of water flooding and nitrogen flooding over a life of 80 years.  Unfortunately the reservoir pressure was not a beneficiary of the floods and so was literally on its last breaths.  The main effort on our part was to try and optimize 90 rod pump designs over 3 days.  We manage to propose changes that would have gained 10-15% production.  However, at the close-out presentation, one of the older managers pointed out that there was not spare electrical capacity for any of the wells!  This statement coincided with an ill and absent Production Engineer whom I am sure could have refuted that statement, but alas we had to muddle through.  As the whole field only made 800 bopd, the gains were only worth about 80 bopd anyway.  That ended the PtL on a less than satisfactory note.

The last PtL was on a large gas field, actually a conglomeration of 10 or so fields with various characteristics and complicated histories.  Altogether there were 150 wells.  We just managed to finish the reviews but unfortunately did not get the economics finished during the event.  The benefits appeared to be 30+% gain in rate, spread over time perhaps 20%.  The preliminary economics looked promising.