Direct Cost Savings due to increased efficiency
To the drilling department this is probably the main benefit of our services, while G&G data users may value increased data quality more highly. Nevertheless if we can save more than our cost in directly measurable efficiency gains then all other benefits are a bonus.

At one current client, rig time is valued at a total cost of $7000/hour. This cost reflects not just rig day rate but total operational costs including logistics, shared central support costs etc. The total cost to the client of our consultant is $1200/day. Therefore his presence offshore is profitable if he can save approx 10 minutes operating time per day.

Our consultants can often save this much time an hour by streamlining existing operations. Just in terms of ensuring prompt and unambiguous instructions to the Wireline crew, eliminating confusion and doubt, they save this much. Every time they save a phone call to town asking for clarification or abort a tight pretest they probably save 10 minutes.

However the real savings start when we start re-evaluating the logging procedures from the point of view of efficiency - by implementing a succession of minor procedure changes we can steadily reduce operating times at no cost to safety or data quality. Examples include before survey calibrations on the catwalk during prejob checks (not rig time) and faster repositioning between seismic stations - typical savings are 4-6 hours per logging suite.

Finally there are equally large savings to be made by assisting in the logging program design. As an example for one major client we switched from using CSAT to ASI (5 shuttle array) for both VSP and checkshot surveys on efficiency grounds. After the first 6 jobs it was found that the ASI had saved a total of 14.5 hours (24%) over expected CSAT times or an average of 2.4 hours per job. The average figures are reduced by the wells where only checkshots were programmed, reducing the arrays efficiency advantage as only 2 shuttles out of 5 are used. On the deeper VSP programs savings were close to 50%. The data quality was equal or even superior in some cases, and as a significant bonus we were acquiring data at 50ft spacing even where 200 ft spaced checkshot data was requested. This gives the option later to switch to a VSP type processing, or use extra data for QC purposes etc.

Obviously the client could have made the decision to switch to ASI without the advice of a Wireline witness, but where our expertise came in was in evaluating which well depths and receiver spacings would benefit from the ASI given it's increased rig up time, and helping to design the seismic program to maximize the efficiency gains.

Typically we estimate that an experienced Wireline Witness could save as much as 25% operating time from the typical logging suite. At the rates mentioned above this is worth $42000/day to the client.

Reduced Lost Time
Many client personnel tend to focus heavily on lost time as a measure of efficiency (in the absence of anything else). Personally we feel it is overrated - reducing average lost time figures from 5% to 2.5% of operating time sounds great but is a small saving compared to the 25% of operating time suggested above. The most important thing is how much rig time is taken to acquire the quality data you need, rather than pointing fingers at particular failures. One point rarely appreciated is that if service quality is primarily measured by LT/OT - the ratio of lost time to operating time, then there is no incentive to reduce operating time as doing so increases the lost time percentage just as surely as more lost time.

Having made those points we freely admit that lost time is not desirable and in most cases can be avoided. As a Wireline Witness we can only indirectly affect the course of events yet experience has shown that we can have a disproportionate effect. By appointing somebody with an intimate knowledge of Wireline operations to oversea the Wireline contractor the operator announces that he is not going to be fooled by lame excuses and whitewashing of failures. Our Witness would know when the engineer is trying to spin him a yarn about the true reason for a failure but this is rarely a problem. Just because of his presence the contractor provides more experienced engineers, institutes the full preventative maintenance system and assigns a better set of equipment. Periodically he will visit the maintenance facility, review the service histories and check the master calibrations etc. In the rare event of a failure he will personally verify the failure cause, approve the corrective action plan and follow up to verify closure.

The end result of this focus and attention to detail is invariably an abrupt and dramatic reduction in lost time failures. For one recent client the lost time failure rate dropped from 7.9% of operating time in year 2000 to almost zero (only a single failure costing 30 minutes lost time in the first half of 2002).

The credit for this improvement largely belongs to the contractor, they just needed motivating to do the job right. However in one instance - a winch control failure, the Wireline crew were unable to fix it and the client was faced with an 8 hour delay bringing in a mechanic. In that instance our witness was able to come up with a temporary repair which enabled them to finish the entire program (MDT, Seismic, MSCT) in record time all before the mechanic arrived. We cannot promise to fix all wellsite problems (and it should not be our job) but there are occasions where our experience at the wellsite is an asset.

Better Data
This should probably be benefit number 1! It is much harder to quantify data quality than rig time savings. In some cases our goal of increasing efficiency may seem to conflict with the data quality objective, but in fact the two can coexist happily. The trick is understanding the clients requirements and interests and ensuring that the right data is acquired with maximum quality.

The primary way in which we can improve data quality is wellsite QC - catching a malfunctioning tool or a wrongly calibrated sensor during logging is 1000 times more useful than spotting it later in the office. This is a role traditionally performed by the wellsite geologist (and indeed we cannot match them for the ultimate test - using the data to do a valid interpretation). However tools are becoming steadily more complex and the data they produce steadily less intelligible (think FMI, DSI, UBI etc). In many cases the data must be processed in town before sense can be made of the log and the job of QC is better left to an engineer who understands the physics than a geologist who does not.

Beyond wellsite QC we help improve quality by checking calibrations (before the job!), double checking proposed tool configurations and logging speeds to ensure data quality will not be compromised and suggesting alternative tools or modes that may better achieve the clients objectives. When the Wireline contractor suggests the client run their latest technology tool, it is often assumed to be marketing talk and treated cynically. However if our witness suggests that a particular tool may do a better job that the one currently being used (and justifies the increased cost if any) he is normally listened to as he has proven himself to be the client's man rather than the contractor's.

More Confidence in the Data
Worse than bad data is good data that people do not trust. By being at the wellsite and then debriefing in the office we can provide a vital communication link that is often missing. There have been several minor incidents where the logging crew was not at fault but the exact sequence of events got misrepresented in town. The result is typically mistrust and confusion, and sometimes valid data is treated with suspicion or (worse) bad data is treated as valid. In situations of this sort the engineer may not be available for comment (or more likely is not even asked) and only because our Wireline Witness happens to be in the office doing their reporting does he realize that there is a problem. Because the data users trust him as their representative they accept his opinion on what actually happened and whether the data is correct or not.

Invoices, Pricelists and Contracts
After many years of writing Wireline service reports and interpreting pricelists our Wireline Witnesses are very well qualified to check that only the correct services are being invoiced and that the contract is being adhered to.

One of our witnesses was also recently used to assist with evaluating the Wireline bids for a 5 year contract during which process he highlighted 'hidden' costs in excess of $5million.