Good Communications, A Tool for the Prevention of Formation Damage
Authors: Sands Edward E. 
Published: December 2007

This paper was prepared for the 48th Annual Fall Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in Las Vegas, Nev., Sept. 30-Oct. 3, 1973. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Experimental successes are often failures in actual field operations because of breakdowns in communications. Operational people have a tendency to resist changes, people have a tendency to resist changes, which is all too often a failure of the human race. Operational people are often afraid of trying something new for fear of increasing their expenses and also experiencing failures. Good communications from the Operations Manager doom can often dispel the foregoing anxieties.

A planned program to have meetings periodically with the field people to review periodically with the field people to review both drilling wells and major workovers is an excellent means of improving communications. Through the use of a planned format of presentations, the well experiences are presentations, the well experiences are presented at which time the mistakes as well presented at which time the mistakes as well as the successes are reviewed. A clear understanding must exist whereby the field personnel are encouraged to make a personnel are encouraged to make a complete presentation with no fear of being reprimanded. This creates an atmosphere of excellent communications resulting in an improvement in the operations. This type of meeting allows the Operational people to grow in experience on an accelerated rate over having to experience each failure or success individually. There are so many new operations required for the success of the programs to prevent formation damages that the only chance for success is through a concerted educational and communications effort.

Introduction

The U. S. oil and gas producing industry has experienced a dramatic change in its production picture. It has gone from a surplus to a deficiency in a few short years. It has been unable to replace produced reserves, for reasons all too familiar to most of us. The existing situation makes it mandatory that we in the oil and gas industry do everything possible to prevent formation damage—in new wells being completed and in old ones being recompleted. This is imperative if we are to realize maximum production from each well—and produce a production from each well—and produce a maximum amount of oil and gas from each reservoir.