SPE EVENING PRESENTATION

The presentation will be tailored to onshore &/or offshore operations (dependent upon the nature of regional operations where the presentation is being made), and will highlight how benchmarking results have helped improve company’s field performance. The presentation will relate benchmarking experience working with over 100 E&P clients and will share operating cost results and specific ‘best operating’ practices.

The key to successful operations is a clear understanding of what is being achieved by others. How are our costs in comparison with others? How did they achieve leader status? Multi-client studies, where an independent group benchmarks data, can provide meaningful direction to operators as to where their efforts should focus. 

No company has all the right answers, and by sharing in benchmarking studies operators can develop an effective low cost operating strategy. Improved operations management requires capturing the knowledge of individuals in the organization and turning this into corporate wisdom.  Prevention of problems is critical to achieve high output and low cost operations. While ‘universal’ Best Practices are well known, ‘local’ Best Practices vary widely and are dependent upon the developer, the country, as well as local needs.  Local Best Practices are much more difficult to identify and implement. 

During the last 6 years, a study of the costs and methods of operations of nearly 2,500 fields, both onshore and offshore (representing about $6+ billion in operating costs). The presentation will share results from a variety of proprietary studies. Ziff Energy’s Reducing Field Operating Costs/Best Practices (RFOC) studies are the only large scale ‘field level’ benchmarking analysis of operating costs and best operating practices. These studies have been conducted for over 100 E&P companies covering North American Offshore and Onshore basins, as well as a variety of international regions including South America, Asia, Europe and the Caribbean.

Gordon Clarke, P.Eng, MBA - Senior Associate, developed Ziff Energy’s field level benchmarking approach, and brings over 30 years oil and gas industry experience in operations, design, marketing, and project development.

The start of his career included assignments in field operations with experience in a major complex gas plant (Manager of 350 MMcf/d, LPG recovery and fractionation, Sulphur recovery), refining (process superintendent of a 40,000Bbl/d refinery) and chemical plants (process superintendent of PE/FC units). Following study for an MBA, he joined Imperial Oil (subsidiary of Exxon in Canada), where he served in refinery group, and in the Natural Gas Marketing department on the small team which negotiated the Mackenzie Valley Gas sales contracts. Later he ran Imperials NGL marketing and distribution system for 2 years. He was Imperial’s representative to Syncrude (100,000+ Bbl/d bitumen mine and upgrader) during the critical start-up period (1978-1981). In the 1980’s he became a Project Development Manager working on several major projects (synthetic gas liquids, 3 Bitumen upgrader projects) including the Cold Lake Enhanced Oil Recovery Project. Internationally, Gordon was Gas Technical Manager on Esso Malaysia’s Phase II 750 MMcf/d offshore Phase II gas project for three years in the late 1980s.

Gordon has been part of essentially all Ziff Energy Group RFOC studies since 1994, either as Project Manager, or providing mentoring and support to other Project Managers. This includes both the statistical data preparation and analysis, as well as the collection, assessment, and reporting of ‘best operating practices’. He has led or participated in essentially all operating practices workshops across many oil and gas operating centers in the US.