Maximising Production of Lowest-Cost Oil and Gas from Existing Integrated Production Systems Using the Sweating the Asset Change Management Process
Authors: Awan Kamran , Al Aufi Mohammed , Al Salti Hilal , Al Noumani Hussain , Nabavi Bijan , Al Ghaithy Ali , Al Busaidi Khamis , Al Harrasi Ali , Al Lamki Ali , Al Mujaini Rahima , Al Salhi Mohammed , Al Nadabi Seif , Al Abri Abdulla , Al Zaabi Yousef , Al Busaidi Salim 
Published: November 2018

'Sweating the Asset’ is an integrated change management approach for maximizing cheap oil production from existing fields and facilities, without capital expenditure. ‘Sweating the Asset’ utilizes a Theory of Constraints approach to identify and focus on a production system's limiting factor on a daily, mid-term and long term basis.

The ‘Sweating the Asset’ goal was introduced as an organisational initiative in Q1 2017 with the aim of helping producing assets close their ‘gap to potential’ and operate as closely as possible to technical limit. The approach enables team leaders managing different components of the integrated production system to focus on a common goal and make aligned decisions.

The structured ‘Sweat the Asset’ process integrates components of the company's Lean Management System (LMS), including:Goal deployment: a process used to identify a SMART top-level goal, establish ‘line of sight’ to & from front-line teams within an asset, and align all involved to close their specific performance gaps via improvement metrics, visual management, Leader Standard Work (ensuring continuous engagement and support), and the use of Continuous Improvement tools (Lean projects, Kaizen events etc as appropriate).Horizon 1: the ‘Daily Production Huddle’ is an efficient process which brings together key stakeholders in the integrated production system, identifies the daily production constraint using relevant tools (incl. live limit diagrams & creaming curves) and helps them make decisions which optimise daily production and minimise deferment.Production System Optimisation (Horizon 2): is a process used to identify mid-term improvement opportunities via an integrated team approach using Lean, allowing it to be led by asset teams on a monthly and quarterly basis.

'Sweating the Asset’ has been deployed in 13 production systems within the organisation and currently at different levels of maturity. As an example of goal deployment, an EOR polymer injection facility with suboptimal performance, poor compliance with injection and viscosity requirements had resulted in a severe decline in oil production. In order to safeguard production and close an estimated production gap of 4000 barrels/day, a goal was set to improve polymer flood compliance from 40 % to 95 %. The goal was deployed via a ‘catch-ball’ exercise with field (operations) and office-based (subsurface) teams to agree gaps, metrics and commitment at the front line. The goal is owned jointly by the subsurface and operations asset leaders, who provide focused support for gap closure via regular, dedicated engagements built into their Leader Standard Work routines.

The plan for 2018 is to ensure that ‘Sweating the Asset’ is fully embedded and sustainable in all assets across the organisation. This may be seen as step change in, and the next level of Wells, Reservoir and Facilities Management (WRFM) maturity. This paper will primarily focus on the Goal Deployment process and strategy.