The DESC Engineer Redefines Work John Baltz Improved hydrocarbon recovery is the focus of the Production Steve Bumgardner Enhancement Group (PEG), which combines expertise from Schlumberger Jeff Hatlen Henry Swartzlander Wireline & Testing, Dowell and Anadrill to develop a coordinated field Texaco Exploration and Production Inc. Bakersfield, California, USA management plan. Their success depends on building new kinds of working relationships between oil and service companies. Here is a look Phil Basham Al Blessen at one of the most intimate of those relationships, the DESC Design and Fred Sarrafian Mark Schneider Evaluation Services for Clients program. In this service, a Dowell engineer Texaco Exploration and Production Inc. works in the client office and with oil company engineers to analyze wells Denver, Colorado, USA that are candidates for production improvement and to develop treatments Dennis Clayton Tim Frank to enhance well productivity. Doug Gordon Bill Taylor Mitch Kniffin arrives On a typical day like this, follow Mitch Shell Western E&P Inc. at the Texaco office Kniffin around and you might conclude he’s Houston, Texas, USA in Denver at 7:00 a hard-working Texaco engineer. There is lit- in the morning, tle obvious evidence that he’s a Dowell Mitch Kniffin wearing a Texaco engineer, one of 95 assigned to client offices Denver, Colorado windbreaker with in North America. By the end of 1995, an “Star-Quality estimated 175 engineers worldwide will be Fred Mueller Ambassador” assigned to customer offices in the DESC Bakersfield, California embossed on the program, short for Design and Evaluation front. The jacket is a point of pride: he’s part Services for Clients. Duncan Newlands of a team recognized for saving the company For both Dowell and operating companies D.J. White $38 million in drilling costs in the last two like Texaco, the DESC program provides sig- Houston, Texas years. nificant benefits. DESC engineers are dedi- Kniffin sheds the jacket, grabs a notepad cated to serving a single customer, cutting For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Larry and heads to the morning meeting. He joins cost, improving quality and raising produc- Behrmann, Schlumberger Wireline & Testing, Rosharon, a half-dozen drilling engineers seated tivity. They contribute years of experience in Texas, USA; Pierre Celle and Claude Vercaemer, Dowell, Montrouge, France; Curtis Boney, Larry Brumit, Doug around a teleconference phone discussing completion engineering, and when they Pferdehirt and Bobby Poe, Dowell, Sugar Land, Texas; the previous day’s well reports with Texaco’s move into an oil company office, they are Anil Mathur, Jerry Richards and Grafton Withers, Dowell, operations groups in Midland, Texas, USA practically self-sufficient, bringing their own Houston, Texas; Bobbie Joines, Dowell, Denver, Colorado; Jay Haskell, Wireline & Testing, Houston; Joe Mach, and other locations. The teams discuss good networked workstation, a bookshelf of Wireline & Testing, Sugar Land, Texas; Ken Nolte, Dowell, news and bad, and debate solutions. When Dowell software and a modem. The oil Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA; Maripat Sexton, Texaco, Houston. the agenda turns to hydraulic fracturing in company provides an office with a desk and In this article, DART, DESC (Design and Evaluation Services for Clients), FracIPR, NODAL and STIMPAC are marks of West Texas, all eyes land on Kniffin. chair, phone and electricity, and access to Schlumberger; Unigraf is a mark of Control Data Corpora- well files and company experts. tion; VAX and VMS are marks of Digital Equipment The oil company gets a seasoned engineer Corporation. with a fresh perspective. Dowell gets a 40 Oilfield Review Cementing Costs richer understanding of client needs and 60 ■Reduction in total process cost is cen- improved access to opportunities for well Benchmark costs 50 tral to the DESC pro- treatment services. Both parties benefit from Alliance costs gram. In east Texas, daily contact that builds trust, which stimu- DESC engineers lates the cross-pollination of ideas. This can- 40 working in an did exchange results in easier acceptance of alliance with the operating company new ideas and faster development of solu- 30 helped reduce the tions. As management consultants say, it’s a cost of cementing win-win scenario (right). 20 and fracturing. This Five years have passed since Bob Fagan Thousands of dollars was accomplished became the first Dowell engineer posted in mainly through use 10 Benchmark average – $28,580 of software tools for a client office, at Chevron in Bakersfield, Alliance average – $20,622 stimulation optimiza- California. In the short time since its incep- 0 tion, reduction in tion, the DESC program has grown quickly May July Sept Nov Jan Mar May July Sept Nov Jan standby equipment and evolved to meet changing market and optimization of demands (next page). Here is a look at how fluids engineering. Fracturing Costs the DESC program works, and a tour of case 500 studies—in Texaco and in Shell—to see how DESC engineers operate day to day. Benchmark costs 400 Alliance costs Breaking Workplace Barriers Given the sometimes adversarial relation- 300 ships that formerly existed between service and operating companies, placing a contrac- tor in an oil company office may seem like 200 an unusual move. Yet, the idea is not new. In Thousands of dollars Schlumberger, three notable incarnations of 100 this strategy foreshadowed the DESC pro- Benchmark average – $245,148 gram. In the 1960s, Schlumberger engineers Alliance average – $195,605 0 were placed in customer offices to operate May July Sept Nov Jan Mar May July Sept Nov Jan the complex DART radio log transmission network, which conveyed data to the main- land from rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.1 In the changed, but not usually how you worked. In the early 1990s, the DESC program early 1980s, log interpreters were installed in The contractor mainly operated a system for redrew the boundaries of that relationship. client offices, operating the VAX-based the client and fulfilled client requests on a Rather than work on a contractual basis, Client Log Interpretation Center (CLIC). This per-bid basis. Placement of the engineer the DESC engineer would look for wells evolved into the third incarnation, the PC- and equipment in the oil company office that could be more productive, and and workstation-based Dedicated Client was for expediency and took place within Center of today. the constraints of a conventional contrac- In the DART and CLIC programs, the rela- tual relationship. There were happy coinci- 1. Eaton FM and Decker GJ: “Digital Transmission of Well Logs by Radio and Telephone,” Journal of tionship between contractor and operator dences of the supplier consulting to the oil Petroleum Technology 18 (February 1966): 151-154. did not change. Where you worked company, but that was not part of the plan. The relationship between the two compa- nies was generally maintained at the tradi- tional arm’s length. Summer 1995 41 Clients start Rig count in North asking for DESC America reaches engineers. VMS PC lowest level in 40 years. DESC engineer candidates begin First Wireline Bob Fagan Formal training 3- to 6-month engineers co- Dowell begins shift becomes first begins for DESC training with the placed with DESC from VMS-based Dowell engineer engineers. Performance engineers for workstation to placed in an Enhancement enhanced service PC platform, with oil company Twenty DESC Group (PEG) in integration. transition of office–Chevron, placements. Houston. CADE programs. Bakersfield, Bernard Fraboulet DESC toolbox California, USA. The term becomes first Industry-wide expanded to include Engaged mostly in DESC Design DESC engineer interest increases program to calculate Expansion in DESC logistical planning and Evaluation outside North in total quality return on investment placements both to boost service Services for America, for Elf in management of remedial driving and driven by efficiency. Clients coined. Pau, France. strategies. treatments. growth in alliances. 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 Equipped with Qualifications DESC program Oil company- Strong growth of Introduction of four VMS-based defined for refocused on supplier alliances alliances: 16 of new programs to workstation, 2400- Dowell engineers identifying candidate start to become Dowell’s 20 largest accelerate candidate bit-per-second posted in client wells for remedial reality. clients engaged in recognition from ~2 (bps) modem, offices. treatment to increase some type of days per well to 1/2 Schlumberger CADE programs, productivity, alliance. day. gains full control of spreadsheet, word Ten engineers called candidate Dowell, acquiring Dowell PhDs at DESC engineers editor, Unigraf placed in client recognition. the remaining 50% area level provide connect to graphics package. offices, all at Dowell initiative. Systems Analysis of Dowell- high-level technical Schlumberger Module (SAM) Schlumberger, support. network using introduced, ending a 14,400+ bps modem computerized successful 33-year and Internet prediction of well joint venture with protocol. performance. Dow Chemical. 200 2100 150 Worldwide rig count 1900 100 1700 50 DESC engineers orldwide rig count W # of DESC engineers 0 1500 ■Time line of DESC program evolution. develop strategies to bring them up to full tional engineer to focus on finding low-cost advantage of a crew that is 20 miles [32 km] potential. This approach, called candidate means of enhancing productivity. Many oil from the well instead of 200 miles [322 recognition, would increase opportunities companies were ready to consider this new km]. Early in the DESC program, it became for Dowell that were independent of the way to do business. clear that simply having a DESC engineer in shrinking rig count, and would enhance For the early DESC engineers, candidate house significantly improved logistics to the productivity for the oil company. recognition was not the sole activity. The benefit of both Dowell and its clients. At this time, the idea of a service com- first opportunities were improving the logis- Until about 1992, logistics remained a pany representative posted in the office was tics of well treatment.