New research by Deloitte, reported by Oil & Gas Journal, says shale operators in Permian Basin could generate capital efficiency gains of 23 percent if they fully optimized well designs. Combined with 19 percent gains possible in Eagle Ford in south Texas, Deloitte said that would represent a $24 billion capex savings opportunity for U.S. shale operators to strengthen balance sheets and boost returns. Deloitte did analysis of 80,000 wells in Permian and Eagle Ford for a report titled “Deciphering the Performance Puzzle in Shales.”
John England, partner at Deloitte & Touche, said the company’s analytics “revealed actionable insights which can help improve industry performance at a time when both investor sentiment and commodity prices are low.” He added, “The findings clearly show that a one-size-fits-all approach to well design and completion is wasteful.”
Deloitte said 67 percent of wells in Permian Basin have been under- or over-engineered. The report added, “E&Ps should consider investing in advanced technologies such as microseismic monitoring, fluid tracking and tracer analytics … to understand how and why the reservoir is behaving in a certain fashion and then augment the development approach.”
Other findings: “E&Ps should share the productivity benefits with oilfield service companies.” “E&Ps should also win back investors’ trust through more consistent transparency and reporting details of performance.” “Even though we’re over 10 years into the shale era, the industry is actually in the early stages of understanding.”