Information Strategy and Well Data Management in a

Small E&P Company

The Case:
The Laredo Energy Information Systems group has achieved a high
level of integration with its operational business users (i.e.
Geoscientists, Engineers, and Landmen), and in keeping with a
strategy of aligning itself with the business, well data
management has emerged as a top priority for investment. This
well data management system includes several databases,
including a well master based on a SQL Server instance of PPDM
3.8.
 About Laredo Energy - Operations

• Geographically focused South Texas nat. gas producer

• 4 geoscientists, 5 engineers, and 2 landmen, plus
techs, executives, and support staff
• 1 - 2 rig program (TVDs of 8,000 - 14,000 ft)
• 100+ horizontal “shale” wells drilled
• ~120 operated producing wells, ~300 non-op
• ~160,000 gross lease acres
About Laredo Energy – Core Operating Areas

Eaglebine

South Texas
Laredo Energy’s 3 Key Strategic Capabilities

Sell de-risked
assets for a
premium before
Strategically drill, full development
complete, and
produce wells on
leases with stacked
pay zones
Acquire and
quickly act on
good information
Laredo Energy Partnership History (Duration in Months)

LE IV 105+ Wells 77

LE III 31 Wells 19

LE II 35 Wells 22

LE I 15 Wells 14

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Months

Exploration/Exploitation Development Production

 Laredo Energy – Simplified Functional Org Chart

President &
CEO

Operations*

Res. Finance & Information

Geoscience Land Engineering Res. Modeling
Economics Acctg Systems

Data
Geology Drilling
Management

Geophysics Completions GIS

Software
Production
Development

IT
Infrastructure

*Functions outside Operations are Support functions. Other support functions include, Legal, A&D, Planning, HR, HSE, Marketing,
Midstream, etc.
Laredo Energy - Information Systems Function

Data Management
• Data Quality
• Interoperability

Software
GIS
• Map Making
Development
• Integration
• Train Self-Service
• User Interfaces
• Reports

IT Infrastructure
• Software Management
• Hardware
• Networks
 Sales Pitch to Business - BI as a Goal

Business intelligence1 (BI) is a set of theories, methodologies, processes, architectures, and

technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information for business
purposes. BI can handle large amounts of information to help identify and develop new
opportunities. Making use of new opportunities and implementing an effective strategy can
provide a competitive market advantage and long-term stability.

Business intelligence2 (BI) “concepts and methods to improve business decision making by using
fact-based support systems” (Howard Dresner 1989)

What is the goal of our business?: The goal of the business is to profit from the discovery,
development, and sale of reserves.

How can we achieve that goal?: By being an intelligent business.

Therefore, what is the goal of IS? : To enable business intelligence.

How can IS achieve that goal?: The Parthenon!

The Information Systems Parthenon
A Look at Data Priorities - Simplified Geoscience Prospecting
Workflow

3D Seismic

Leases Wellbores
- Owned - Headers
- Opportunities - Logs
- Competitors - Perfs

Production

The primary data objects that enable Competitive Intelligence

 Data Object Prioritization

Data Management Priorities (Top 7)

1. Location (i.e. Where is this well?) – Most E&P work starts with a map.
2. Identification (i.e. What well is this?) – UWI standard like whatisawell.org
The Well

3. Log (i.e. What does the rock look like?)

4. Production (i.e. Does the rock produce?)
5. Perfs (i.e. Where is the wellbore producing from?)
6. Completions (i.e. What technique & vintage?)
7. Lease (i.e. Is the land available?)

Note: 3D Seismic (not shown) is low on the priority list. Due to the nature and use of
the data, Information Systems is limited in it’s ability to add value or improve user
access to it.
 Data Capability - Maturity Score

Data Capability is a combination of data quality and data access.

The Problem - Well Data Management Prior to MDM
(from a G&G Perspective )
The Solution – Well Master Data Management (MDM)

Operations Portal Kingdom 3DPak

(Seismic Micro)

Future

Kingdom Adapter
Data Mart Geospatial (?)
(Proprietary) (ESRI SDE)

FME

PPDM Well
Master
(SQL Server) TDM
(EnergyIQ)
Legend
Compositor
(EnergyIQ)
End User Application

Database

Data Loader/Editor
Pirls Loader
(EnergyIQ)
Source Data

Well and Production

(I.H.S. Pirls)
 Well Master - Why PPDM?

• Comprehensive, reliable, and flexible data model

• Support for data management needs
o Auditing
o Data Quality
o Business Rules
o Versioning!!!

• Vendor neutral
• Supported by a large number of vendors
• Active community of experts
• “Free”
 Well Master - EIQ’s IHS Energy Data Loader

• Runs in MS Windows and loads to MS SQL Server instance of PPDM 3.8

• Automatically loads IHS well and production data
• Triggers synchronize multiple versions of well and well location data
• Works for manual input via Trusted Data Manager (TDM)
• Compositor aggregates API14 records (completions) into API12 (wellbores)
• Performant
• Managed remotely
Well Master – Well Versioning
Versions
 FME for ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load)
- how we move data around

Example GUI for PPDM well data export to ESRI SDE

 FME for Extract Transform and Load (ETL)
– Example Well Data Jobs

Database to Database Jobs Other Jobs

What is a Well @ Laredo Energy?

Go to PPDM’s www.whatisawell.org site for further info.

Well Data Stores and Automated Data Flows
(with a Focus on Identity and Location Data Objects)

Reporting Data

AssetBase Datamart GeoSpatial

Accounting Well Wellbore & Prod Sum Wellbore
(Proprietary) (Proprietary) (ESRI SDE)

Well Master
Wellbore & Completion
(PPDM 3.8)

Source Data

ProdBase Wellview Commercial Proprietary

Production Well Wellbore Data Files Data Files
(Proprietary) (Peloton)

Legend
Fully-Automated
Semi-Automated
 From Well MDM to BI - Questions that Need Answers

• What is a well (www.whatisawell.org)?

o UWI12
o Pilot Hole numbering
o Pre-API numbering
• Where are the wells?
o What coordinate systems are we dealing with?
o Who has the best source of coordinates?
• What is our well MDM/versioning strategy?
• How should we move data around (i.e. ETL Tools)?
• How can we deliver this quality data to end users?
o What are the best visualizers for combining wells and land?
o How many apps? How do we brand the apps?
Questions, Comments, Concerns?