Technology is constantly evolving, leaving many oil and gas producers wondering when the right time is to replace the old with the new. When producers invest in new technologies for their business, they can expect more profits, more production, and more sustainability.

Deciding how to upgrade, or when you're ready to upgrade isn't always easy, but we're here to help you with the change that's involved.

The daunting task of keeping track of your expenses can be time-consuming and overwhelming if not managed correctly and efficiently. With the increase of mobile apps and other productivity tools, managing expenses has gotten easier.

For oil and gas, managing lease operating expenses (LOE) has gotten easier with automation and software solutions. Now, there are fewer reasons not to have the costs eat away at your companies’ ability to operate wells and keep costs within budget without having to shut-in operations.

Figuring out how to get the best performance out of small devices called Field Gateways may not sound like the stuff of adventure—and I admit, Daniel Craig will probably not be playing me in a movie anytime soon.

Getting the best performance and information storage out of battery-powered Field Gateways means you can monitor and control even the most remote installations—those for whom the nearest telephone pole on the power grid is a couple of counties over.

Have you read about the advance of self-driving cars? With an array of sensors “seeing” obstacles, speed limit signs and other vehicles, tracking the speed, noting highway conditions such as rain or sleet, and using maps and tracking to plan the route, self-driving vehicles are approaching us in their own fast lane.

You may not be surprised to find that we have the same dreams for a self-operating oil field.

Now there will still be the need for repairs of worn-out equipment, damaged well-bores, and to perform PMs such as oil changes. There’s the need to do that for vehicles as well. The autonomous oil change is not here yet, but even that might be in line for cars someday.

How often have you worked on a written assignment only to have an unexpected computer failure, and you lose all your information because it did not save? Once this happens, you either look for other ways to recover your work or get stuck starting from the beginning.  

When the unexpected happens, you want to pick up where you left off, especially when it comes to business operations. For this reason, it is essential to implement a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and have the appropriate technology to support services in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

How do you like working from home? Since our world turned upside down I think it's been easier for some of us to adjust than others to remain, or even become more productive. Most of which completely depends on how you access your files and data to continue to WOW the boss, even in the strangest of times when people are told we have to stay home.

You need your files and data to all be easily visible from top to bottom without relying on thumb drives, portable hard drives, old drives, or clunky undependable drives that should have been replaced years ago or, worst of all—boxes of paper files (I'm cringing at the thought of that one)!

“Zedi is light years ahead of the competition at automation implementation!”

This statement has become a common theme at our client meetings. Producers urgently require the deployment of an automation strategy in their fields; however, implementation has historically lagged for weeks, months or even years when working with other vendors. These producers typically receive conflicting information on exactly what is involved in the deployment, what is needed from them, and what their automation partner is truly capable of bringing to the table.

We set out to change that.

The basic formula for increasing oil well production is pretty clear to me: the more the pump runs, the more oil it pumps. The real issue is how to reduce downtime, so that it runs more, and pumps more.

What wasn't clear to me is why on earth about 100,000 pumpjacks in the US alone are not monitored—other than by someone driving all the way out to the well site every couple of days. With that method, a pump may have been down, or even worse leaking for a day or so before it’s noticed by anyone. That’s several hours of production time that can never be recovered.

Here in the Eagle Ford plays of deep south Texas, we have plenty to worry about: heat, dust, the occasional rattlesnake, and H2S for starters. Life certainly keeps us on our toes!

What our customers like about having their remote monitoring data readily available through Zedi Access is that it shortens their list of things to worry about. Considerably.