The effort by Oil & Gas operators and oilfield service (OFS) companies to improve operational efficiency and productivity by streamlining routine workflows is a constant endeavor.
Some of the low-hanging fruit ripe for picking includes water transport, frac sand logistics, crude oil hauling, chemicals delivery, roustabout services, and more. Although we focus on transporting produced water from well sites to Saltwater Disposal (SWD) facilities in this article, the Engage Mobilize platform and mobile app have wide applications to 250+ service types.
The economic life of an oil or gas well may be upwards of two decades, making water transport necessary over a long period of time, and field ticketing for water and crude hauling one of the routine tasks ideal for improvement via technology.
It’s 7:00 AM, and John hoists himself into an idling water transport cab. A trailer tank that holds up to 120 barrels of produced water is hooked up to the tractor. As the diesel engine clatters away, he pulls his cell phone from his pocket and touches the icon for the Engage Mobilize mobile app. He is familiar with the app from his last job hauling frac sand a few years ago.
The app quickly loads and displays a list of 4 jobs scheduled for today’s water hauling run. John runs this route twice a week, typically consisting of 3-5 locations. Early this morning, his dispatcher Brandon added a few more based on calls received from operators earlier this morning.
In the past, John would have written himself a note on a sheet of paper and hoped he remembered how to get to the locations added just this morning. Having them automatically load into the Mobile App makes it easier and helps him avoid forgetting and GPS directions makes sure he can get there without wasting time.
John secures his cell phone in a holder where he can see it safely while driving, then quickly checks the oil pressure and engine temperature. Everything looks good, so he steers the tractor out of the yard and heads to the first well site.
His first stop is one of the new loads added by the dispatcher. John has been to this location several times over the years but hasn’t committed the route to memory. Nothing is more frustrating than getting lost or wasting time taking an inefficient, time-consuming route, unnecessarily extending the workday. Especially when he promised his son, a junior at the local High School, that he would be at his basketball game tonight.
He presses the GPS/Directions button, and the Engage Mobilize Mobile App automatically provides accurate directions to the well site. No need to open a separate app and type in a location. Problem solved.
After a five-mile drive down a dirt road rutted by storm runoff, John arrives at the well site and checks the lease sign. If he had arrived at the wrong site by accident, the GPS tracking and geofencing technology would have given him a warning. Yep, it’s the right place.
He parks the transport next to the water tank and exits the cab. His boot kicks up a small puff of dust as it hits the ground, dried by weeks of hot weather. John looks up beyond the tree line to an expansive blue horizon dotted by white clouds resembling cotton balls suspended in the sky by invisible threads. There won’t be any rain and mud to deal with, at least not today, anyway.
John climbs the stairs to the top of the tank battery and gauges the water storage tank to check the level. After getting his measurement, he heads back down, pulls a long suction hose off the trailer, and attaches one end to the water storage tank, connecting the two. He pushes a button to start the pump, and it transfers produced water to the trailer tank.
While the load is drawing, John walks around the truck to check for any tire punctures or problems. He takes a position at the back of the trailer to make sure the transfer goes smoothly. After he’s convinced everything looks good, he returns to the cab to create an electronic field ticket.
John opens the Engage Mobilize Mobile App and confirms all the routine data was automatically filled in – lease name, location, job code, and other essential data. If it looks good, he can open the job details section and enter the volumes.
The Mobile App’s autofill of routine data saves John about 5-10 minutes per load, reducing the potential for error and giving him time to focus on other tasks, like making a quick inspection of the well site. Sometimes he finds a problem (like an unlit pilot light on a Vapor Recovery Unit) and includes a note in the electronic ticket to alert the operator. When he had to fill out paper tickets by hand, he didn’t always have the luxury of time.
After pulling the amount of water, he wanted to be based on his initial measurement, so he turned off the pump. After disconnecting the hose and stowing it back on the trailer, he gauges the water storage tank again.
He opens the Engage Mobilize Mobile App and enters the starting and ending tank gauge values into the electronic field ticket currently in progress. Then, he presses the enter button to complete the digital ticket, but the app gives him an error and won’t let him finish. Uh oh, something’s not right.
The Engage Mobilize Mobile App automatically compared the data John entered and compared it to the tank strapping table data already in the Engage Mobilize E-Ticketing platform. Based on the tank measurements he entered, he pulled 420 barrels of produced water, but the Engage Mobilize mobile app knows his trailer tank can’t hold more than 120 barrels. That’s not possible!
John looks at the data he entered and quickly realizes he fat-fingered the final measurement. Shaking his head humorously, realizing his mistake, he fixes the error and submits the ticket again. This time it is accepted by the Engage Mobilize platform. Better to catch it now than later; no worries.
Still in the Mobile App, John heads to the SWD facility to offload the water. The GPS gets him there safely, offloads the water and he’s ready for the next run. Back in the Mobile App, he presses on the next job in the list and GPS directions pop up on his cellphone. He puts the phone back into its holder on the dashboard and makes his way to the next well site.
During the day, John’s dispatcher sends him a text message directing him to a well site that is not on his list today. Apparently, a pumper with the operator called in the load but didn’t originate it in the E-Ticketing platform. Not a problem, thought John. When he arrives at a location, he easily opens the Mobile App and uses Engage Mobilize software to make a digital ticket, dispatching himself.
The sun hangs low in the sky as John finishes his last water load for the day and stows the suction hose. This well is in a remote location, off a dirt road that often gets swamped with water when a big thunderstorm hits. That scenario isn’t going to happen on this dry, sunny day, but more than one transport has gotten itself stuck out here in the past. Thanks to the Engage Mobilize Mobile App’s GPS functionality, John’s dispatcher knows where he is at any given time. If he sees that his transport hasn’t moved in a while, he can reach out directly to John or send someone to check on him if he fails to respond.
Because some well sites are in areas with little to poor connectivity, the Mobile App stores the digital tickets until it senses a good connection with the cloud and then uploads the tickets.
He used to make a call or send a text message to Accounting to confirm he had all the paper tickets but no need with the Engage Mobilize Mobile App. He can save some time and make it to the game. Good to go.
Once the digital field tickets are uploaded to the Engage Mobilize platform, Susan, the Accounting Analyst in the field office, will review and proof the ticket data electronically. Before Engage Mobilize, she had to manually sort the tickets, identify any missing ones, call John to resolve any errors, and then create an invoice. With Engage Mobilize, all of that can be done quickly and efficiently, and it is rare to have a lost ticket, if ever.
Susan has two options for submitting approved tickets to the operator. She can keep one for review or submit it electronically to the operator. Using direct submit, the Engage Mobilize platform saves the drivers and the back office time. Approved tickets are submitted to the operator electronically, improving productivity and speeding up payment. Thanks to QuickPay, approved invoices are paid almost immediately.
John drives the transport back to the yard and parks it. As he walks away from the vehicle, he looks at the time on his cell phone. Good, I can make it. He gets in his pickup, pulls out of the parking lot, and heads home. He has enough time to meet his wife at home, grab a quick dinner and get to the High School before the tipoff of his son’s big game.
The Engage Mobilize Mobile App is a critical element of the Engage Mobilize intelligent field operations software platform. Paired with the E-Ticketing solution, the Engage Mobilize Mobile App delivers significant benefits for transport drivers:
Contact us at (720) 575-6695 or Sales@engage-m.com to learn more about how the Engage Mobilize Mobile App and E-Ticketing solution can help you achieve new levels of operational efficiency and productivity.