Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Paralysis by Analysis

So I went to our bi-weekly meeting where the different discipline groups involved in this project get together to compare notes and swap information. In this one, our illustrious Reservoir Engineers broke the news that the temperature of the reservoir is thought to higher than anticipated. (They do this by "modelling" the thermal gradient as they have no direct temperature measurements) The problem is that if the temperature of the oil is higher than a certain maximum temperature, it could cause problems for the equipment used to produce the oil. After listening to a maddening description of his "study methodology", he informed us that his conclusion was: "We just don't know enough and need to do more modelling!"

Color me gobsmacked! All I need to know is that even if there is possibility that the temperature could be higher than planned, that we have a contingency plan to deal with it - even if it means cutting back on production rates for a few months. Then we can continue with the design with no schedule delay. But everyone else seems to want to do the studies so we came away with about 5 more "action items".

I marvel that gas prices ares as cheap as they are.

2 comments:

Old NFO said...

Sigh... "Love" the modelers... They are $&&^#@ idjits... The data doesn't match reality, so reality MUST be wrong!

Peripatetic Engineer said...

It's not the same oil field I knew when I started working those many years ago. I miss those days....