Oil and Gas

Process Intelligence

Resource Scheduling

Template-based Process Execution

Data & Document Management

Reporting & Dashboards

E&P Process Challenges

When practical process improvements can produce valuable returns, it’s imperative to examine how these

improvements can be adopted to ensure substantial and long-lasting results to your bottom line.

Upstream E&P planning, permitting, drilling and completions processes are complicated to manage because

they involve multiple departments, with a changing array of people and data. Information is isolated in

spreadsheets and departmental point solutions, resulting in:

A process that is not clearly documented, accessible and known. This causes delays, rework, and

institutionalizes productivity inefficiencies, while limiting scalability.

Ineffective data management prevents collaboration, valuable business rules, and notifications.

No integration between macro-level planning, and actual work execution. This reduces accuracy in

production forecasts, while hindering the use of working capital, and limiting prioritization.

No collection of process metrics and ‘exceptions’ for continuous improvement.

Well Process Management (WPM) platform

Enriched by the use of several upstream E&P companies, the SigmaFlow Well Process Management platform

provides Rig Scheduling, Process Execution, Data Management, and Reporting, along with ‘jump-start’ services

methodology to incorporate your own process and data to validate the WPM system in less than a month.

WPM platform capabilities include:

Drilling Rig Schedule:

o ‘What-if’ drilling schedule comparison incorporates anticipated production and cost data

o Approved drilling schedule prioritizes work tasks, by reverse calculating task start dates

o Indicators leverage permitting data, to reduce scheduling conflicts by warning against

insufficient permit approval progress, no-drilling stipulations, and permit expiration

o Rig schedule and process dates engine provide an operational timeline for accurate analytical

reporting

Template-based Process Execution:

o Procedure Tasks enable consistent work execution with task-specific guidance, data

collection, documents, and self-audit checklists.

o Ad-hoc Tasks enable agile work assignments with tracking of responsibilities and due dates.

Data & Document Management:

o Business entities can be created for Well Pads, Wells, AFE’s, Leases; This data can be

related between the entities for efficient data integration and analysis

o Documents roll-up from Procedure Tasks to Wells

Custom & Pivot-Table Reporting:

o Business users can create Reports easily - with drag and drop grouping and sorting.

o Dashboard components can be created from custom reports

o Pivot-tables provide efficient data summarization

These capabilities enable a continuously improving, circular process:

1. Because it provides the most comprehensive and accurate source of valuable information on the

Wells, employees work “in-the-system” … any data needed is only one-click away.

2. Working “in-the-system” improves data accuracy, and enables accurate process transparency.

3. Accurate process transparency (Process Execution and Resource Schedules) provides time-based

context, that, when combined with Well attribute data (AFE & Production Estimates,) creates valuable

information.

A circular, closed-loop process is essential for capturing and creating knowledge that continuously improves

the process, and perpetuates employees’ preference to work in-the system.

These capabilities enable an integrated Work Planning, Execution, and Management solution. Planning work

automatically generates operationally-realistic production forecasts. As work is performed, the forecasts are

automatically updated to reflect real-time status. Management and analytical reports are an “output” of

executing work.

Optimizing your Well Data and Documents

Upstream E&P data and documents are typically stored in multiple systems, with the systems referencing the

same Well by different names and numbers. When data is not easily accessible, (due to licensing constraints,)

or easy to identify, (due to variations in the naming and numbering of the Wells,) employees can’t access

needed information.

The best way to reduce complexity for E&P employees, and to improve their productivity, is to provide a central

‘Well Master’ portal that displays key Well data, with name and number alias referencing the originating

systems.

Execution-focused ‘Well Master’ Portal

Because it provides a flexible ‘universal’ capability for non-technical users to manage the import and export of

data & documents, WPM enables easy emulation of data formats from the other systems and ‘alias

referencing’ when a Well has different names and numbers in different systems.

Well API number is normalized for SAP, Aries and ProCount solutions.

Traditionally, the Well delivery process (Idea Generation, Well Planning, and Well Permitting) is manually

managed in spreadsheets. With SigmaFlow WPM, the Well delivery process is actively managed, acting as the

system-of-origin for most planning and permitting Well data. Systems used later in the process can benefit by

integrating with SigmaFlow WPM. For example:

ERP system - manages AFE budget and actuals

Economic Evaluation Software - provides production decline curve estimates

Enterprise Project Management - for pipeline and facility construction schedules

Well Lifecycle Management - for visualization of down-hole data, Wellbore schematic, etc.

Land systems - for lease and land owner information

Geology systems - for well log analysis, cross-sections, production & reservoir analysis

Enterprise Document management systems

Data Integration is simplified by creating AFE and Lease entities.

An execution-focused ‘Well Master’ improves employee productivity by making data available as work is

performed, regardless of the data’s actual system of record. For example, when:

Viewing a Well, all data is readily available for the Well and its related entities (AFE, lease, pipeline,

facility, other)

Performing work in a process Task, all data is one-click accessible, with role-based data collection.

Reviewing a Resource Schedule, employees can click on the Well and view all available attribute data

(Well type, Total vertical depth, Target formation, APD status, AFE status, AFE number, Lease, Capital,

Rate of Return, Anticipated Production, Reserves, etc.)

Define Business Entities and Data Relationships

The Need for Productivity

Current systems often hinder process evolution and agility. For example:

A Coal Seam Gas (CSG) company planned to drill 8,000 Wells in five years. They retained an Oil & Gas process

consulting firm to reengineer their processes by grouping Wells into operational packages and having the

employees work the process at the group-level. This approach would minimize transactional effort in

proportion to the number of Wells included in the group.

Field group. Perform a single AFE transaction for 125 Wells.

Lease group. Manage surveys and approvals for 7 Wells.

Landholder group. Negotiate compensation agreements for 2 or more Leases (14 Wells).

Development group. Ensure program ROI, and contiguous land to tie-in Wells and pipelines, by

grouping 4 or more Leases (28 Wells).

Drilling & Completions at a single Well level.

Gathering group (same as Development group, 28 Wells).

After management and employees agreed on the new process approach, it was discovered that their existing

project management solution did not support either the grouping of Wells, or the complex data management

required to ‘inherit’ milestone dates and Well data from the group-level to the individual Well-level.

Consequentially, they were forced to hire 10+ contractors to keep the project management system updated.

This created a chasm between ‘informal process’ performed by employees, and the ‘formal system process’ of

their project management solution.

Realizing Productivity with SigmaFlow WPM

Recognizing the inherent chasm inefficiency of an ‘informal’ process performed by employees and the ‘formal’

process necessitated by the project management system, the CSG Company decided they needed a flexible

solution that could evolve with their process improvements. SigmaFlow WPM provided the following

capabilities:

Operational Group Entities (Field, Lease, Development, and Gathering) enable Wells, Infrastructure, and other

entities to be grouped for efficient ‘one-to-many’ productivity. Each procedure task provides forecasted

milestone dates and role-based data collection that can be “inherited” by the group members.

Business Entity hierarchy enables efficient data inheritance.

This approach minimizes transactional effort in proportion to the number of Wells included in the group, while

improving data accuracy and consistency.

Ramifications of Inefficient Data Management

Every E&P Company has experienced the inefficiency of:

1. Completing Wells prior to infrastructure, which holds valuable working capital hostage, or causes

additional transportation costs.

2. Well completions being placed on hold, (due to a sub-surface conflict from nearby drilling,) which

builds ‘Well work in progress’ inventories, and ties up working capital.

3. Loss of Lease, due to non-compliance of a continuous drilling obligation. (Many lease agreements

specify that Wells need to be continuously drilled every 120 days or the E&P company can lose the ‘yet

to be drilled’ portions of the lease.)

These inefficiencies occur because existing E&P systems don’t sufficiently manage vital Business Entity data

relationships.

Data Management Benefits

Recognizing the business need to optimize working capital, accelerate cash flow, and avoid losing valuable

leases, E&P companies are placing a higher value on business entity data relationships. For example:

1. Completing the Well prior to its infrastructure is a classic case of the asset manager not having a

report that links Wells with their Pipelines and Facilities, which would show when the assets will be

ready for production. If the Well is scheduled to be ready for production prior to the infrastructure,

then the manager may want to redirect capital with Wells that already have infrastructure in

production.

2. Avoiding sub-surface conflict necessitates a similar solution that links Wells with nearby Wells, and

forecasts the drilling and completion dates for each Well, to illuminate the potential conflicts.

3. Avoiding continuous drilling default can be accomplished by linking all of the Wells on a Lease and

providing an indicator if the span between spud dates exceeds a designated number of days.

Forecasted milestone dates are provided for Wells and linked Pipelines and Facilities

SigmaFlow WPM uniquely enables non-technical users to: create entities, add fields, and relate entities, (via

relationship options: one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many,) to ensure data accuracy, consistency and

reduce business risks.

Manage your Processes and Resource Schedules

A Manual Process is an Unmanaged Process

Well planning and approval processes typically take 20 times longer than when they are expedited. The

question is; why can’t the process normally run as efficiently as it does when it is expedited?

The answer is that the current process is probably undocumented and being held together by weekly meetings,

tracking spreadsheets, and a couple key resources performing process heroics. There is no substitute for a

systematic Process Execution solution that provides the needed structure and standardization to evolve from a

manual undocumented process, to a repeatable process with guidance and controls.

Process Execution: minimizes the time lost in hand-offs between people, enables more work to be performed

in parallel, and reduces rework by providing task-specific guidance (avoiding ‘after-the-fact’ data entry by those

unfamiliar to the process and data context.)

Process Execution

SigmaFlow WPM differentiates itself from other process execution alternatives by making it easier for

employees to work in-the-system. A Task Workspace, including all information needed to perform the task,

saves them from having to log into multiple systems.

Task Templates can be configured once, and are available for each process execution. Improvements only

need to be added to the Task Template. Once a change is added, all future procedure instances automatically

benefit from the change. Task Workspace includes:

The ability to manage task dates (baseline, planned, projected, actual)

Access to Well master data critical to the task

Task Guidance that integrates Knowledge Management with Process Execution and explains the work

to be performed. (This kind of practical guidance accelerates employee peak performance and

reduces re-work.)

Task-specific document management that provides references to help perform the task. Deliverable

documents are tagged to the procedure-level and to the business entity in which the procedure is

being performed.

To-Do’s and checklist questions to institute self-audit compliance that the task was thoroughly

performed.

Task Workspace consolidates dates management, Well Master data, task guidance, To-Do’s and document management.

Template-based Process Execution with Forecasted Milestone Dates

The best decisions are enabled when you have all the facts and understand the big picture. The problem with

top-down solutions is that they require constant updates, which, by definition, means they are often inaccurate.

A more robust approach is a bottom-up solution that ‘projects’ future milestone dates and schedules. The

projected dates automatically adjust with the cadence of the process, to “pull in” if work is being expedited, or

“push out” if work is delayed.

Asset Managers can configure reports that are scheduled for desired frequency

Integrated Drilling Rig Scheduling

The SigmaFlow WPM integrated drilling schedule provides rig scheduling performance management (Planned

vs. Actual, plus tracking of down-time reasons,) and one-click access to all Well data (via role-based data

collection and data integration.) To reduce the risk of scheduling conflicts, indicators are provided for Well

permitting and construction progress, no drilling stipulations, and permit expiration. (These indicators can be

provided automatically because SigmaFlow WPM is the source of record for permit approval workflow data,

permit expiration dates, lease terms, and ‘no drilling stipulation’ dates.)

Exception Management

It is common in the manufacturing world to track exceptions.

(For example, when a stamping machine is idle the plant

captures the downtime root cause: material, machine, and

operator.)

Process management enables this powerful management

concept to now be available in E&P processes. An exception

might be the reason provided by the Bureau of Land

Management (BLM) when they reject a Well permit, or a Land

Holder issue, or it could be a drilling rig maintenance issue.

The key is that by tracking these reasons, a team can run reports

to determine how to reduce reoccurrence.

Drilling Schedule with visual warning indicators.

Operational Reports and Dashboards

E&P Companies rely on weekly planning meetings to collect the ‘true’ status of Well progress and determine

who is working on what. The meetings have a large payroll cost and typically focus on obtaining the as-is

status, instead of resolving forward-looking issues and barriers.

Process execution enables the most constant view of accurate and up-to-date status, because task work is

performed in the system, instead of updating the system after the fact. By linking flexible operational reporting

with the system, the effort of collecting ‘true’ status is eliminated.

Operational Reports

The flexible custom reporting capability in SigmaFlow WPM enables non-technical users to create reports on

any information in the system. The process is as simple as selecting the desired fields, adding some filtering

rules, and designing the report layout. Each report supports drag-and-drop data grouping and column filtering.

Example reports include:

Open Work Report: Group work by: role, person, Well, lease, rig, AFE, other.

Exception Reports: Review patterns for APD deficiencies, rig downtime reasons, land owner issues,

other.

Resource schedule reports for Survey, Drilling, other

Process execution cycle-time reports

Warning Reports: Alerting a process owner of issues for a Continuous Drilling obligation, or if drilling

is occurring during a stipulation period.

Exception reports reduce the risk of problems slipping through the cracks and enables efficient look-back

analysis.

Users can double click on dashboard components to view detailed reports

Analytical Reports – Enabling Oil & Gas Process Intelligence

E&P Companies struggle with Business Intelligence because the data is compartmentalized in disparate

systems. Consolidating the data into a central warehouse is problematic because the same Well is referenced

by different names and numbers in the systems. Unless the E&P Company has a Process Execution solution

with Resource Scheduling, the data will not contain the time dimension and will be relegated to a large

repository of Well attribute fields.

Tremendous value can be derived by providing a highly focused Business Intelligence solution that leverages

Process Execution with Well attribute data imported from other solutions.

Oil & Gas Process Intelligence

SigmaFlow WPM provides integrated Work Planning, Execution and Management. Work planning automatically

generates operationally-realistic production forecasts. As work is performed, the projected dates for tasks are

automatically adjusted to accurately reflect the true project status, and to forecast when future milestone

tasks will be completed.

SigmaFlow WPM delivers Time-based Oil & Gas Process Intelligence

WPM data management capabilities provide:

‘What-if’ drilling schedules, with time-phased sequence for Wells to be drilled. Different Well drilling

scenarios can be developed and contrasted to optimize production and cost attributes.

The Forecasting of Well milestone dates for the approved schedule. Forecasting future dates enables

better long-term planning and reduces firefighting.

The forecasting of milestone dates for the infrastructure linked to the Well. Forecasting production-

ready milestone dates for Wells, Pipelines and Faculties as a group enables the optimal use of working

capital, and faster return on investment.

Anticipated Well production. SigmaFlow WPM can provide your economic evaluation software with a

production start date that is validated from process execution and schedules. The economic

evaluation software can reply with monthly Well decline curve estimates.

The import of AFE budgets and actual expenditure data from your ERP system.

Asset-level analysis is enabled by organizational filtering of Wells with grouping and sorting of key attribute

data for improved optimization of working capital and return on investment.

About SigmaFlow

As a leader in Business Process Excellence software, SigmaFlow delivers standards, consistency, and

productivity for Continuous Improvement Project Management, and deep solution expertise for both the

Upstream Oil & Gas pre-production processes, and the Electric Utility NERC Compliance Management

processes.

Thousands of professionals at hundreds of organizations such as Avaya, Babcock & Wilcox, Canadian Natural

Resources, Cenovus Energy, Central Garden and Pet, Consumers Energy, Encana Natural Gas, Gas Technology

Institute, Henkel, Invensys, Meijer, PNM Resources, Pratt & Whitney, Rockwood Lithium, Tamko Building

Products, Valspar Paint, Walgreens, and Xylem are deriving improved results from SigmaFlow software today.

For more information on the SigmaFlow Well Delivery solution please visit www.sigmaflow.com or

email us at moreinfo@sigmaflow.com.