Data Management: It’s a Benefit, Not a Burden
“Information is a source of learning, but unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.”
Custom Software: Your Business Logic, Codifed
When it comes to software, every company has to evaluate whether an off the shelf or custom software option makes the most sense. Off the shelf products are often cheaper, but they may not be able to provide the complete functionality that your team needs to get their job done. For one pipeline engineering services firm, a custom software application made the most sense for them because they needed a product that could specifically encode their business logic.
E&P Data Management: Data versus Information
The past few weeks, we’ve been blogging about some interesting topics related to data management from PNEC’s annual conference. This week, I’d like to share what we learned from a Petroleum Engineer at Saudi Aramco, Omar Akbar. His presentation was called, “Before We Begin to Discuss E&P Data Management: Do We Speak the Same Language?” It was of interest because here at Entrance we talk about data and information a lot, but there is always some confusion about what the difference is. Akbar did a great job laying out the differences, in addition to giving some great pointers on how to make data management work in the E&P space.
Data Management: Presentation Matters
At the PNEC conference two weeks ago, one of the sessions, “Information Management in Shale,” by Fred Kunzinger, senior principal, Noah Consulting, highlighted some interesting ideas about data management, and how presentation matters as much as the data itself.
Data Management and Growth for Oil and Gas
Last week, several of Entrance’s software consultants attended PNEC’s 17th Annual Conference, “Petroleum Data Driven Decisions for Higher Returns.” There were a number of interesting sessions covering how oil and gas companies can use data management to improve their bottom line. Entrance will cover a few of them over the next few weeks.
Master Data Management and Six Sigma Strategies
At the P2 conference last week, I had the opportunity to chat with a land administration systems controller from an upstream company here in Texas about data management. Her company is in the process of divesting a number of assets, and her job is to look at the data related to those assets and determine a value so they can be sold. As she shared with me, it took four weeks just to evaluate that data and conclude that none of it was consistent.
Energy Software Could Make a Difference for Chesapeake Suit
The Houston Business Journal posted an article yesterday about Barnett Shale owners suing Chesapeake Energy over mineral rights. The dispute involves 4000 acres of land, and “the complaint says Chesapeake allegedly violated lease agreements by underpaying on royalty payments from gas produced on the plaintiffs’ land in Tarrant and Johnson counties.”
Entrance Unveils “Frac Your Data™” Campaign at P2 Energy Solutions Conference
Houston Software Consulting Promotes Data Management and Integration for Texas Energy Companies
At this week’s P2 Energy Solutions conference, ASCEND 2013 in San Antonio, Entrance reveals its new “Frac Your Data” campaign to promote data management for energy companies. Nathaniel Richards, President and CEO of the Houston software consulting firm, will share insights and strategies with ASCEND 2013 attendees in the oil and gas industry.
With energy software development experience including data integration, process automation, and business intelligence analytics, Richards is experienced in connecting the industry and the field to the corner office. “By centralizing information from various departments, energy executives can gain valuable insights and efficiencies unseen before. Our clients see their own processes and tools made better through custom software applications,” says Richards.
For more on Entrance’s oil and gas software solutions, visit our knowledge base!
Oil and gas software & energy independence
We recently ran across a video from BP that shared a number of interesting facts about America’s energy future. Due to technology improvements like hydraulic fracturing and the addition of oil and gas software, the US has experienced huge booms in production, particularly when it comes to shale gas. As a result:
Lean Concepts in Oil and Gas: Using Data to Refine Processes
As we’ve discussed in a previous post, hydraulic fracturing has become a repeatable process that more and more resembles a factory assembly line. The challenge, however, is to find ways to use data or oil and gas software to optimize these plays and make them profitable. As I was preparing for a presentation on complex shale lease provisions, it occurred to me that shale operations, being more closely related to manufacturing than, say, offshore operations, might benefit from applying Lean concepts.
Oil Production in Eagle Ford Sets Records: Where does oil and gas software come in?
The San Antonio Business Journal released some interesting numbers today. “Oil production in the Eagle Ford Shale was up 74 percent in February compared to one year ago to set an all-time high.”
It’s time to re-evaluate oil and gas software to keep up with regulations
In the April Oil and Gas Journal, an interesting article entitled ‘Tempering the Revival with Regulation,’ discusses changes as a result of the surge of activity in West Texas. “With new levels of drilling…across the state, energy regulators want to ensure rules can keep up.”
Oil and Gas Software the Key to Optimizing Drilling
In an article from Oil and Gas Journal’s April edition entitled, ‘Permian production pushes U.S. crude output to 15-year high,’ the author discusses the huge increases in production from September 2011 to September 2012, ” Texas production increased by more than 500,000 b/d, largely due to the rise in drilling in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas and the Permian Basin in West Texas.”
Oil and Gas Software Isn’t Keeping Up with Industry Technology
In a recent feature in the Independent Petroleum Association of America’s (IPAA) Winter 2013 magazine covering oil technology, one of the key points highlighted is that although oil and gas companies are successfully searching for and implementing technology that will make hydraulic fracturing profitable in the long run, there is a significant gap between that and the oil and gas software they have at their disposal.
Engineering Software Development Saves Time and Money
When it comes to complicated engineering problems, such as determining the ideal pressure for an oil well or analyzing structures, having the right tools can make all the difference. For one Entrance client, their business involves selling joints of pipe to other companies, in addition to services, to determine what product is the right fit for the environment. For this particular engineering problem, it is possible to manually take the conditions it will be placed in, regulations related to this use and the like for a prospective pipeline and analyze what is required without the use of any fancy engineering software.
SharePoint: The Tool Oil and Gas is Missing Out On
Everyone seems to agree that the talent or generation gap in oil and gas is one of the largest worries facing the industry today. The energy industry is booming and their biggest worry according to NPR among others is that “the oil industry can’t find enough new workers to replace an aging workforce.” In fact, Power and Energy interviewed Andy Inglis of BP Exploration & Production about the talent gap in Oil and Gas: “The really big strategic issue for all oil and gas companies is matching the earth’s resource endowment on the one hand, with the capability – technology, skills and know-how – required to bring those resources to market on the other.” Near the top of the list of strategic challenges in the industry today is capability.
Use Custom Software to Toss Those Time-Intensive Tasks Aside
You may not realize it, but employees at your company are probably wasting time on tasks a custom software solution could perform for them.
For one Entrance client in particular, winning a big contract with a large oil and gas company meant a new process for invoicing had to be developed. The customer required that invoices be submitted in a specific format, which was different than the way it was done in our client’s database. With current in-house capabilities, the only way to accomplish this was to have an employee log into the customer’s web portal and hand key invoice information. Because of the amount of work the client was performing for their customer, this process was so time consuming it would have required at least one dedicated employee to complete.
Oil and Gas Software the Key to Optimizing Industry Growth
I’ve discussed in a previous post the impact that the oil and gas industry has on jobs in the United States. I took note this past week of an article in the Oil and Gas Financial Journal regarding the testimony of Daniel Yergin (author of The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World) to the US House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power. His statements regarding the oil and gas industry’s contributions to the economy are worth highlighting:
- Oil and gas production currently supports 1.7 million jobs, with growth to 3 million by 2020.
- Even in areas where there is no activity, long supply chains mean jobs are created everywhere. For example, in New York, where shale gas development is banned, at least 44,000 jobs have been created by the industry.
Electronic Data Exchange System Saves Entrance Client Headcount
Data entry and client invoicing can be very time consuming and often takes up more bandwidth than a company would like for such a menial task. Entrance implemented an electronic data interchange system (EDI) for one client, who had a large customer with very specific invoice format requirement, in order simplify this process and enable time savings that have resulted in avoiding the need for at least one new headcount.
The EDI enables a smooth interface between our client’s internal system and their customer’s. The employee queues up the invoice in question, and instead of logging into the customer’s system to enter the information again, they click a button and it is converted to the right format and transmitted electronically without re-keying any data.
As a result of this custom software solution, no manual data entry is required, which helps prevent mistakes. In addition, since the system is so streamlined, the client does not need to hire a new employee just to complete this one task.
This project is a great example of leveraging technology to maximize employees’ time.
For more on how custom software worked to save time and improve accuracy, read our blog post!
Improved Timesheet Reporting with One Simple Fix
One of our most successful projects is for a client called TG Mercer. We created a pipeline logistics system for them that automates the tracking and management of their inventory for its entire lifecycle. Entrance recently released an update to TG Mercer to improve their reporting capabilities through improvements to their timesheet process.
TG Mercer has employees working across the globe, in a number of different time zones. As managers reviewed reports, employees clock-in and clock-out times were logged either as Central Standard Time, or the timezone the managers themselves were working in. Depending on the time zone, employees could look like they were clocking in a whole day later or earlier. In addition, it resulted in some rather bizarre clock-in times, for example 1:00 am instead of 8:00 am.