Customer Story
Underground Injection Control
See how Maverick Natural Resources used WellAware to simplify regulatory compliance and reduce data gathering costs on a water flood field in the urban Los Angeles Basin.
About the Operator
Maverick Natural Resources focuses on the development and production of long-lived oil and gas reserves throughout the United States. Maverick’s California assets include several large, complex crude oil fields within the Los Angeles Basin located in Orange and Los Angeles Counties. These mature oil fields generate steady cash flow from stacked pay sands, water floods, and optimized well work.
The Challenge
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Stringent state regulatory requirements
The California Geologic Energy Management (CalGEM) division requires periodic high-pressure testing of Maverick’s injection wells to ensure mechanical integrity, requiring a considerable investment of manpower to complete within the regulatory mandate. The steep cost of non-compliance, however, necessitates the investment to avoid fines that can reach up to $25,000 per day per violation.
– Maverick Senior Engineering Technician
Urban environment presents unique issues
In their Santa Fe Springs Field, Maverick struggled to find a means to monitor injection wells to satisfy the rigorous CalGEM requirements and not risk well integrity, specifically due to the urban nature of the field. The injection wells were spread across an urban neighborhood with higher-than-average crime rates, which meant that Maverick often dealt with theft of equipment, especially solar panels. Additionally, wells were spaced between commercial and industrial buildings, created a challenging environment for wireless mesh networking.
Over-engineered proposals were too expensive
Maverick had requested a proposal from a local engineering firm, and their bid included a legacy operational technology (OT) solution using off-the-shelf sensors and wireless repeaters. The entire system – which included five network gateways, three backhaul points, 41 network repeaters, and hundreds of wireless transmitters – would have cost over $1.3M, five times Maverick’s annual data gathering budget for these wells. The solution simply was not economically feasible.
The Solution
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Low power remote injection well monitoring
Maverick chose the WellAware CONNECT hardware platform to monitor casing pressure, tubing pressure, and injection flow rates on over 100 injection wells in the Santa Fe Springs field, some with dual injection strings. With WellAware CONNECT, Maverick was able to collect data at the necessary resolution to satisfy regulatory requirements while managing power restrictions without deploying solar panels.
With WellAware installed, the efficiency and reliability of the system exceeded my expectations.
– Maverick Senior Engineering Technician
Simplicity for field teams
One of Maverick’s main concerns with introducing any new technology was field adoption. With WellAware, Maverick was pleasantly surprised how quickly their field operators adopted the mobile-first application and alarming features. Field operators were able to eliminate manual data gathering trips, find issues sooner, and reduce the volume of workovers required to maintain well integrity.
Expanding to other opportunities
Due to their satisfaction with both the reliability and low cost of the WellAware Underground Injection Control solution, Maverick expanded their monitoring and control infrastructure to several additional assets. Maverick added WellAware UIC to their East Coyote Field in the LA Basin, and also upgraded existing data gathering infrastructure on additional equipment, including high-pressure injection pump systems, vapor recovery units, and flare stacks. With WellAware, Maverick improved not only their operational efficiency, but also exceeded safety and sustainability expectations with these new additions.
The Result
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Improved operational efficiency, safety, and compliance
Maverick experienced an immediate impact in their ability to gather data required for compliance without overextending their workforce, resulting in a significant reduction in drive time and mileage, a reduction in safety risk, and a contraction of their associated fuel costs and carbon footprint. Their team estimated that the WellAware UIC solution with continuous monitoring and alarming improved workforce efficiency by 70% and decreased the costs of achieving regulatory compliance by 30%, resulting in massive operational savings and an ROI in less than 12 months.
The usability of the web portal and the mobile app are a great plus to the WellAware system.
– Maverick Senior Engineering Technician
$900K
IN FINES AVOIDED
70%
REDUCED MAN HOURS
30%
LOWER COMPLIANCE COSTS
Presently, we have reduced transportation costs and man-hours, improved security, and have instantaneous, accurate data at our fingertips. This mobile technology has changed how we do business since reporting is more reliable and quicker than before. When we factor the accuracy, speed, and reduced costs –
it’s the most valuable solution.
– Maverick Senior Engineering Technician
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