Written by Kecia Bal
Link to article in Energy Executive Magazine
The strengths of Wireline Logging Solutions Wireline Services’ offerings – efficiency and safety – likely are more important today than at any other time in the past few decades.
As oil and gas operators search for ways to stretch their dollars and maintain quality operations, a service provider with a solid reputation and cost savings benefits is well positioned to stay strong in trying times.
Enter Wireline Logging Solutions Wireline Services.
One of the leading independent, full-service wireline providers in the U.S., Horizontal Wireline Services is the product of a February 2014 merger of two strong companies working in different regions: Allied Wireline Services and Horizontal Wireline.
By focusing on technology, value and expertly trained crews, the company has expanded into key oil and gas basins in the United States and is the leader among independents for openhole formation evaluation, casedhole logging, perforating and pipe recovery services.
Horizontal’s rigid focus on providing only the best people, process, equipment and technology is what sets it apart in the marketplace, Vice Chairman Larry Albert says.
With more than 300 employees and 40 units – fit-for-purpose and best-in-class wireline fleets – the company is poised to take on work in the Marcellus, Utica, Midcontinent, Eagle Ford and Permian Basin regions.
Moving Fast
The company’s FAST™ Perforating Systems – Fail-Safe Addressable Switch Technology – provide the ability to block all sources of inadvertent current from electrical detonators in the tool string. That includes all voltage sources, from stray to RF signal to human error. A wireline operator can now communicate with and control each of the sections of the downhole assembly, and the new switches can be checked before and during the wireline run. That means greater reliability. Plus, real-time shot detection gives the operator feedback on whether plugs have set or guns have fired, and with addressable switches, gun sections can be skipped in the event any section fails to detonate. Unlike the pressure switch technology replaced, with FAST™ there is no chance of firing multiple guns.
“We are a technology leader, especially among USA independents,” Albert says. “We offer perforating services exclusively with addressable switches, making our operations the safest and most reliable in the business.”
That technology helped the company recently deliver a record-setting performance for one of South Texas’ leading operators.
Working with two frack crews, Horizontal crews achieved a ratio of 308.3 runs per misrun and an operating efficiency of 99.5 percent during the third quarter of 2015. With that achievement, the operator was able to complete 47 wells – and a total of 916 stages.
Then Wireline Logging Solutions bested that record: The company completed 212 stages with a single crew in the month of October. FAST™ Perforating Systems played an important role in these accomplishments, as well as process-driven, experienced completion crews.
One of Horizontal’s newest cased-hole offerings, StageFinder™ Engineered Completions, is a formation evaluationproduct that helps improve the selection of frack stages and perforation clusters – leading to better frack jobs and higher production in vertical and horizontal completions. It can be deployed via wireline, tractors or pumpdown.
“We combine our open-hole formation evaluation expertise with a highly sophisticated suite of cased-hole logging services to help customers evaluate their horizontal laterals and do a better job with completion designs (StageFinder),” Albert says.
The company utilizes StageFinder™ to evaluate the reservoir and determine the best completion strategy for stage intervals and cluster (perforation) depths, but to insure the best perforation performance they have developed FocusShot™. This revolutionary perforating technology focuses the shaped charge energy to the center of perforating gun, thus reducing frack fluid tortuosity around the well casing. FocusShot™ was developed to insure the clusters (perforations) perform optimally and allow the fracturing process to do its job as efficiently as possible. FocusShot™was designed for horizontal well completions and to optimize fracturing operations.
“This new patented and proprietary perforating technology should improve fracturing performance, lowering well costs and improving production,” says Joe Sites, president, CEO and FocusShot™ inventor.
At the core of the company’s services is a commitment to providing the best safety, people, process, equipment and technology.
A low attrition rate attests to a culture where employees are valued and properly trained – equipped to provide the quality service the company demands.
The “Horizontal Process” is a set of procedures and best practices evolved through lessons learned across the country, starting with an approach developed for high-tiered Gulf of Mexico work, and now applied to each job – from first step to job well done. This helps to eliminate human error and provide consistent, reliable service, the company
says. The company also provides quarterly customer reviews of health, safety and environmental compliance as well as reviews of service quality. Those customer reviews cover key performance indicators and new technology and are an opportunity for feedback and evaluation for Wireline Logging Solutions and its clients.
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