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PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: EPOCH Well Services: Comprehensive well site data anytime, anywhere Real time Internet access to your well site information from home, office or vacation spot Susan Braund Petroleum Directory Contributing Writer
Providing clear and reliable data to the customer as quickly and cleanly as possible is Epoch Well Services’ dedicated mission. For the last 17 years, the company has provided customer-focused mud logging services, drilling instrumentation and digital reporting systems for drilling operations in Alaska, continually evolving with cutting edge technology.
“We have a commitment to excellence based on offering value added products and services using the newest technologies in the safest manner possible,” says Epoch Alaska District Manager James Carson. “Our ultimate goal is to provide a host of varying and critical well site data in a consistent framework to assist our customers in making improved business decisions and to drive the operators’ overall costs down.”
For two big reasons, Epoch’s offices are busier than ever this spring: an increase in management staff and the upcoming rollout of real-time streaming live data to the company Web site, myWells.com. Mud logging manager Epoch logging geologist and well site geologist for five years, Andrew Buchanan now is based in Anchorage as overall manager of mud logging operations in Alaska. Buchanan earned a geology degree from the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He worked as a well site geologist in Canada, joining Epoch in 2000 as a logging geologist in the Cook Inlet basin and on the North Slope.
“This is the most challenging assignment of my career,” he says. “We’re seeing lots of changes, improvements in technology and the entrance of new customers. Our goal is to help develop relationships with new clients coming to Alaska while providing dedicated services to the operators who are well established here. Our intent is to make sure their needs are being met as we provide them with the current geologic and interpretive data they need. With improved communications technology, we are able to meet more regularly and communicate with the guys in the field more effectively,” says Buchanan. Rollout During the spring and summer of 2005, Epoch will roll out an improved version of drilling data acquisition software, RIGWATCH 8, on four different rigs. “It’s a step-change improvement in product functionality and reliability and it’s intrinsically safer and more stable than the classic version,” says Buchanan. “We’re pretty excited — this allows real-time streaming live data to our Web site and on to customers. They will have the ability to immediately see and extract data from the well site as it is happening!Data acquisition, transmission and analysis Epoch’s synergistic suite of products and services — drilling instrumentation systems (RIGWATCH™), well site reporting and graphical software packages (RIGWATCH Explorer™ and DML DIGITAL MUDLOGGING) and analysis Web site myWells.com — collect and distribute a consistent and complete set of well site data to the consumer 24 hours a day.
RIGWATCH is a portable real-time digital drilling instrumentation system that allows rig site personnel immediate access to critical drilling data in a workstation environment. Through electronic sensors, RIGWATCH collects a wide array of drill site data that promotes drilling economy. It samples up to 210 drilling and mud parameters eight times a second and transmits this data in real time to the end user. “Currently we are transmitting live data from several operations in Alaska and from over 220 rigs worldwide — the highest number of rigs being serviced by a single instrumentation vendor to our knowledge,” says Carson.
Windows-based software program RIGWATCH Explorer gives customers the ability to view real-time, depth-based data from the current well in a variety of pre-existing formats at the well site, print color well log data, correlate the current well with offset wells in real time and optimize drilling using historical drilling parameters from offset wells.
Epoch offers additional software applications PERC (Petroleum Engineering Resource Coordinator) a customizable morning reporting system and RIGREPORT™, a relational database designed to improve efficiency and economy for drilling contractors and operators, providing IADC-type morning reports complete with tour sheets. The software can also issue purchase orders, track purchasing decisions and generate invoices and track downtime cause and frequency.
Epoch’s digital mud logging software, DML, is reputed to be the best well site log-generating package available, creating clear and concise well logs, utilizing the best technology available. It provides real-time digital mud logging, E-series FID gas detection, a variety of log presentations and scales, customized formats, quantitative gas measurement and quantitative fluorescence. In addition it offers digital microphotography, high-resolution digital instantly viewable and transmittable photo files of cuttings samples from the well site. “DML is a giant step from the hand-drawn logs of 20 years ago,” says Buchanan. “At that time, computer generated logs were just a dream! In 1985 Epoch introduced DML which took us from analog to computerized data output.”
According to Carson, Epoch has the most mud logging experience of any vendor in Alaska, with more than 247 wells logged since 1989, setting the standard for mud logging in the industry. “We feel that DML outshines other well logs in both detail and clarity. Our mud logging services are widely respected for the quality of our proprietary technology and the experience of our people.”
Epoch’s secure Internet portal, myWells.com, allows customers to access all their well data, from daily reports to real-time drilling instrumentation logs, from any location at any time. The data is secure because it is customer-controlled, including logins, passwords and access levels.
“The Web site is our one-stop location for viewing all your well site information, from daily report information to real-time drilling instrumentation logs and daily mud logs.
“As we send raw drilling data, numbers, reports and mud logging data to our secure Web site in Houston, via satellite, people at the well site will be instantly aware of what’s occurring,” reports Carson. Satellite-based communications bridge the office/field gap During 2004, Epoch introduced satellite-based communications services in Alaska allowing real-time communication of daily reports and critical drilling data to myWells.com, as well as providing for improved well site communications tools such as e-mail and VOIP. “We see the ability to keep in touch with the rig via e-mail as a more efficient, cost effective communication with field based customers and our field employees,” says Carson. “Safety notifications, routine daily reports, billing information, and many other functions which beforehand required phone or fax time are now handled much more efficiently.”
Real-time streaming will create a solid bridge between well site and office, anywhere Epoch’s customers can access an Internet connection — at home, the office, vacationing or even on a PDA. “Client workflow is definitely improved, as there is now no need to hunt for reports from various sources.” explains Carson. “Our customers are able to make decisions based on facts, which is a win-win. At the end of the day our products and services improve operations, efficiency and safety.”
“Speaking of safety,” says Buchanan, “we have enjoyed over four years without a lost-time accident; it’s our number one priority. The reward for safety vigilance is healthy, happy employees and customers who know we are a continually safe company.” Here to stay Epoch’s successes are due to a combination of quality employees with sound geologic and technical backgrounds, the integration of new technology, a strong concern for the client’s best interest and a long-term commitment to Alaska as a world-class place to do business, according to Carson.
“We love Alaska and will be here a good long time to come. There are exciting things to come with the dawn of the 21st century, with gas exploration in Cook Inlet, ANWR, the rising star of the North Slope gas pipeline, Beaufort Sea leases and an influx of new customers in the market. We have helped welcome a host of new companies and look forward to providing for them in the future,” says Carson. “We see independents as a strong contributor to the economic health of the oil and gas industry in Alaska.”
Editor’s note: Susan Braund owns Firestar Media Services in Anchorage, Alaska.
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