Permian Basin Study

Identify production efficiency, cost reduction & well-work performance opportunities in your Permian Unconventional Midland & Delaware Basin production operations.

Identify production efficiency, cost reduction & well-work performance opportunities in your Permian Unconventional Midland & Delaware Basin production operations.

The Permian Basin Operational Performance Analysis (Permian Study) is a third-party Comparative Performance Analysis™ (CPA™) of detailed production operations data and operating expenses. Leveraging proprietary data, methodology, and peer comparisons, the Permian Study evaluates the performance of your Midland and Delaware sub-basin operations to help you stay ahead of the competition. The study is designed to identify specific areas with the greatest opportunities to improve production efficiency, enhance well performance, reduce operating costs, and enhance overall production.

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Companies that participate in the Permian Study typically realize an average return on investment (ROI) of 200 times the study cost. These savings are attained through ~15% closure of identified gaps.


Permian Basin performance is benchmarked through the lens of cost optimization and uptime/reliability improvements. The study focuses on critical key performance indicators (KPIs), including production efficiency and uptime reliability, operating cost and its subcategories such as well servicing & workover, surface maintenance, chemicals, energy, labor, and other miscellaneous expenses

This approach provides a strong analytical tool for targeting actionable improvement opportunities and identifying deficiencies.

Let us help you pinpoint your basin production operational strengths, weaknesses, challenges, and recommendations.

  • Identification and ranking of reliability issues that result in production losses compared to peers
  • Reliability KPIs
  • Analysis of both competitive (unit) and normalized costs across operating expense (OpEx) categories
  • Recommended maintenance expenditures to balance cost savings and reliability
  • Compression analysis including utilization, cost per horsepower, and rental versus ownership
  • Staffing level and cost analysis including cost per person, staff per supervisor, and staffing levels
  • Energy usage including costs, intensities, and normalized performance
  • Chemical expenditure comparison
  • Well servicing and workover cost analysis
  • Artificial lift failure rate comparison
  • Saltwater disposal cost per barrel, both company-operated and third party
  • Support and overhead (General and Administrative [G&A]) cost analysis
  • Health, safety, and environment (HSE) performance, including personal and process safety
  • Carbon emission calculations comparing intensities, normalized performance, and source compositions

Why Participate?

Compare performance with leading Permian Basin operators
Measure well delivery and production efficiency
Benchmark uptime reliability metrics against peers
Use data trends to identify potential cost optimization opportunities
Discover and prioritize improvement opportunities with the highest impact
Better understand operations performance and cost drivers

Performance is assessed across the following areas:

Production Efficiency
Reliability and Uptime
Total Field Operating Cost
Well Servicing & Workover
Field Labor and Staffing
Surface Repair & Maintenance
Energy
Chemicals
Water Handling
Gas Processing

Study Deliverables

Performance indicators and rankings for key areas of analysis: Field Operating Cost, Production Efficiency & Reliability, Carbon Emissions, and Safety
Economic gap analysis versus top-performing peers, and identification of key underperforming areas
On-site presentation and discussion of study results and recommendations

Gain Actionable Insight

Learn How You Can Participate

The objective of the Permian Study is to identify actionable opportunities to help you improve production efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance production. Each client receives customized focused performance feedback to provide the greatest impact for improved resource management, future financial improvement, and enhanced competitiveness. Join other operators that rely on our proprietary methodologies to improve performance and become a Permian Basin leader.

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A Foundation for Effective Comparative Performance Analysis and Decision Support

Data Quality, Benchmarking Methodology

We prioritize the integrity and confidentiality of participant-submitted data and rigorously review that data before benchmarking begins. Then, we employ our normalization process and benchmarking methodology to provide valuable and trusted peer group comparisons that deliver meaningful KPIs. Finally, our staff of senior consultants apply their deep industry experience to develop practical insight and recommendations to enable your success.

LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR METHODOLOGY

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)

A: The Permian Study is a third-party Comparative Performance Analysis that uses proprietary data, methodologies and KPIs to compare and assess the operational performance of Permian Basin and Midland and Delaware sub-basins’ operators production performance relative to peers to enhance operations performance in the medium- and long-term.

A: In addition to a detailed analysis of basin operations, participants receive: measures of average well productivity and employee productivity, identification and ranking of reliability issues that result in production losses, diagnostics for using cost performance signals by cost category, including water handling, compression, and artificial lift, an evaluation of the costs of compressor rentals and compressor fuel gas utilization in their shale operations, and an analysis of direct and indirect support costs.

A: • Standardize well pad, wellbore, completion, and well site facility design • Re-use water for completion operations • Manage off-pad and off-lease completion activities to minimize well frac hit problems • Effectively deliver new pads and facilities to maximize uptime on the most prolific wells • Install the most efficient and effective artificial lift method(s) in a timely and cost-efficient manner • Access cost-effective solutions for produced water disposal • Incorporate SCADA systems, Integrated Operations Surveillance Centers, production, and loss reporting • Maintain a clear strategy on company-provided integrated services and contracting of services • Use of value-adding technology in the complete well delivery process

A: The study scope includes the operations of wells from subsurface to wellhead equipment, surface gathering and processing facilities/equipment, in-field flowlines/pipelines, and the field general administration that directly supports the above operations.

A: The Permian Study reviews are an “asset-to-asset” comparison considering the complexity associated to each asset using normalization factors.

A: As the cost accounting systems for E&P companies differ significantly, Solomon has developed a standardized set of cost categories that are used in every benchmarking study. This important step levels the comparison of operating expenses for each asset.

A: Solomon’s key approach for cost normalization is to define relations between cost drivers related to each cost category. Solomon normalization models are developed for each cost category and each peer group. The normalized assessment works to pinpoint performance gaps between the asset and peer group leaders and discovers potential cost optimization opportunities in every major category.

A: The study includes assets from Integrated Oil Companies and Independents.

A: The typical study takes about 6 months to complete.

A: The success factors that the Permian Study uses to maximize benchmarking value are as follows: Stakeholders Commitment, Data Quality, Findings Relevance, and Opportunities Prioritization.

A: Field Engineering, Finance, Human Resources, and Asset Management.

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