Capturing Energy Production Data in the Field

In Australia, WestSide Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Landbridge Group Co. Ltd (a company incorporated in China), operates 200 km2 Meridian Gas Field. Only the more recent gas wells in this field are equipped with industry-standard data telemetry. The remaining 70%, some 55 wells in total, require daily site visits by operators in order to collect production data and check that pumps are operating properly.

Operators take about 30 different readings daily including: casing pressure, instantaneous gas flow rate, pump speed, water flow rate, downhole pressure, leaks at surface, volume drained from separators, and more. Prior to adopting Magpi as part of this daily data collection routine, the hand-written data records were keyed centrally at the head office in Brisbane.

“Previously the data went through a three stage input process, often with a significant lag time of a week or two, before the data ended up in the production database. The process was labour intensive and prone to keying errors. Now, with our operators using the Magpi app at the wellsite, the data is visible as soon as has been collected. We then automatically batch-load to our database from the Magpi system overnight, at the same time as we load the telemetry data. The overall saving in staff time has been significant, and data accuracy and availability has improved at the same time.”

When WestSide first trialled the Magpi solution, some operator usability limitations stalled its roll out. The Magpi development team worked on a solution, releasing an upgraded app to Westside, with the new capability leading to a smooth operational roll-out.