Field Optimization Reimagined: Data at the Core, Exceptions at the Center, People in Control

Production operations have traditionally relied on routine well checks and daily to weekly trips to verify well performance and status. While this ensures coverage, it consumes significant field time, fuel, and labor on wells that are already performing as expected.
With the vision to transition from a schedule-based to exception-based well management and with the goal to empower operators to focus their expertise on wells that truly needed attention, while letting data and AI-ML powered automation handle wells that are running smoothly, a small footprint digital ecosystem was deployed on a remote producing facility in West Texas. This facility consisted in six producing wells, one injection well and their respective surface facilities.
The digital ecosystem is designed to enable pump-by-exception operations, and it includes smart controllers and sensors on each well, providing real-time production and equipment data; a centralized analytics platform powered by AI/ML algorithms that identify anomalies, pump-off events, or mechanical issues automatically; automated alerts and dashboards that highlight wells needing attention and suppress noise from normal operations; and mobile tools that allowing field technicians to view pump cards, alarms, history and control wells from anywhere.
This enabled a shift from “checking every well every day” to “checking the wells that need it today.”
This paper shows how next generation technologies that use , small footprint and quick deployment micro controllers powered by AI and ML algorithms can boost operational efficiencies and maximize well’s profitability in all types of wells, including those wells with marginal economics.