Early-Life Well Underperformance: Decision Sequencing Under Uncertainty

Description

A representative well scenario: drilled to roughly 9,000 feet, with reservoir pressure around 3,500 psi and an expected rate near 400 STB per day. Gas lift readiness installed. Design followed standard best practice in every respect. After completion, it produced at 250 STB per day, declined rapidly, and stopped flowing within two months, with no mechanical failure and reservoir pressure still intact. In this Expert Spotlight Series session, ThinkOnward Community Member, Samuel Ogbole walks through exactly this case and the decision sequencing framework his team built in response. He frames underperformance as a system behavior problem rather than a single point of failure, using nodal analysis to show how reservoir inflow, wellbore hydraulics, artificial lift, and surface constraints interact to define the real operating point. The session covers a five-step framework for situations like this: validating data, comparing modeled versus observed performance, identifying the controlling node, optimizing operations, and knowing exactly when intervention is justified. A grounded, practical session for anyone who has watched a well underperform and needed a structured approach for why. The Expert Spotlight Series is ThinkOnward's recurring webinar program built around the expertise inside our community. Each session features a ThinkOnward Community Member presenting original work and hard-won knowledge across subsurface science, engineering, and AI. August 19, 2026 | 11:00 AM CT | 16:00 UTC

Wednesday, August 19 at 11:00 AM CDT