Notes
Short notes on the mistakes that keep coming up in forecasts, commissioning plans, water balances and concept studies. Each one is a rule we apply.
Insights
I6 notes
Production systems·October 2026
Liquid is not oil
A transfer line rated at 50 thousand barrels a day of liquid does not add 50 thousand barrels of oil. On a field at 60 per cent water cut it may add 20, and only if the receiving facility can dispose of the other 30.
ReadCommissioning·October 2026A planned date is not a commissioning date
Forecasts, decks and handover notes keep promoting the date on a project plan into the date a line was available. The difference is a log, a line status and an operations signature.
ReadProduced water·October 2026Produced water sets the field limit
Water is treated as a downstream reporting item until the day it decides how much oil the field can produce. On a mature water-flooded field that day has already arrived.
ReadProduction systems·October 2026The bottleneck moves
An operating change removes one limit and exposes the next. A useful optimisation study names the next one before the first is removed.
ReadWells and execution·October 2026Prove the well before committing the tie-in
Restarting an idle well is a chain of technical and commercial decisions. In the right order it protects capital. In the wrong order it builds a flowline to a well that cannot flow.
ReadEngineering review·October 2026What makes a concept study fit to spend money on
Most concept studies are useful and not yet fit to spend money on. The difference is a list of named gaps. The review should produce the list, not a longer study.
ReadAssosTech · Energy · Engineering
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