PDS Energy, an Austin-based data management firm, recently upgraded its reciprocal data sharing network, adding water disposal ticket tracking to its real-time field ticket data exchange.
With trucking activity at record levels across the Permian Basin and other US oil-and-gas producing regions, the PDS Energy field ticket data exchange is intended to address increasing demand by operating companies for a current and reliable view of operations, including crude oil sales, disposal of produced water, delivery of frac sand and other field transactions.
As much as four barrels of water are produced for every barrel of oil. Traditional methods of transporting produced water rely on trucking, which creates a logistical challenge for energy companies who collectively manage more than 1 million active wells in the United States. Oil and water haulers are contracted to visit wellsite locations where these fluids are pumped from storage tanks into the hauler. A field ticket documenting the process is opened at the wellsite and closed when the truck offloads the contents to a variety of facilities, such as a disposal well where water is injected into a subsurface reservoir.
Because the water disposal process remains largely paper-based, producers often wait days for field tickets to be processed and transmitted by logistic service providers. This delay all but prevents these parties from using field ticket data to gain a clear and current view of operations, creating barriers to higher levels of efficiency and accountability.
“PDS gives everyone involved in the field ticket process the real-time data needed to run their business more efficiently, but we are also creating new opportunities to dramatically improve information quality by enforcing field ticket master data standards, such as well names and tank numbers,” said Chuck Marvin, product manager for PDS Energy. “The latest evolution of our field ticket data sharing network introduces important capabilities that enable operators and logistics providers to seamlessly track produced water as it is removed from the wellsite by a hauler and trucked to the destination facility, even where third-party logistics and invoicing platforms are involved.
“PDS Exchanges have succeeded for years due largely to our integration technology, which allows every party to seamlessly integrate their digital field-ticketing systems and those of their various service providers directly with our data distribution network, rather than building costly data integrations for each of their clients.”