American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2020 - 57

SpecialReport: Well Completion Technology

Strategy Maximizes Fleet Performance
By Mitch Winnick
and Caroline Linder
DENVER-As if the cyclical nature
of the oil and gas industry were not challenging enough, the COVID-19 pandemic
disruption added an extra layer of complexity to an extraordinarily tough environment in 2020. Yet, through it all, producers have continued to demonstrate
that they can efficiently deliver affordable
oil and natural gas supplies from onshore
horizontal resource plays.
In such unprecedented times, the importance of equipment reliability cannot
be stressed enough, especially in harsh
operating conditions. Reliability keeps
operations up and running, not only helping support a company's bottom line, but
also keeping well sites safer, which is always a priority. The drive to maximize
reliability and efficiency is universal in
hydraulic fracturing operations, where
an unscheduled maintenance event can
bring a 50,000-horsepower frac spread
to a screeching halt, and create all kinds
of headaches for the logistical network
supporting it with proppant, fluid and
other consumables.
Each basin offers its own distinct nuances and challenges that impact operators
as well as pressure pumping service companies, putting their equipment and workforces to the test. But whether pumping
high-proppant intensity treatments in Permian Basin tight oil plays, or completing
ultralong laterals in Appalachia's Marcellus/Utica gas plays, nonproductive
time has become a key metric for operators
in evaluating the overall performance of
frac spreads and crews.
In the Rocky Mountain region, where
operational challenges range from noise
reduction to severe winter weather conditions, equipment reliability is fundamental to getting wells completed on
schedule. REV Energy Services operates
a fleet of 3,000-horsepower frac pump
units in the Niobrara/Codell play in Colorado and Wyoming, and the
Bakken/Three Forks in North Dakota.
Its stated mission is to revolutionize the
hydraulic fracturing industry through a
great work culture, unwavering safety
practices, innovative technologies, operation efficiencies, and ultimately, creating the most value for customers with
the smallest footprint.

Strategic Decision
Simply put, REV strives to do more
with less equipment and fewer people.
The company's leadership has extensive
experience in the extreme Haynesville
Shale environment and intimately knows
the extensive wear and tear that highpressure environments place on equipment,
especially the frac pumps and other onsite
fleet equipment performing stimulation
treatments on wells with today's highintensity completion designs. When frac
equipment is pumping large volumes of
proppant and fluid at higher pressures,
consumables require more frequent replacement and nonproductive time is
often higher due to the need to perform
more robust maintenance.
With the REV team's experience in
some of the most demanding fracturing
conditions, coupled with a deep understanding of the varying conditions its
pressure pumping units could face, it
made a strategic decision to build a fleet
that could be placed anywhere-even the
harshest operating environments-and be
counted on to perform with minimal nonproductive time.
In order to keep pumps running under

any and all conditions, the company realized
the maintenance requirements crews need
to perform can cause inadvertent downtime
that negatively impacts the key metrics
that oil and gas companies use to evaluate
the performance of frac service providers.
Consequently, it specifically sought to
eliminate downtime as much as possible,
including maintenance-related NPT.
At the same time, the need for a
fleet with the reliability and durability
to withstand any environment was absolutely necessary to ensure REV could
be nimble and responsive to any opportunity in the field. On the surface, a
legacy 2,500-horsepower fleet could
have met REV Energy's pressure pumping needs. However, with reduced NPT
being a top priority in the current market
and the most important single metric in
order to keep revenues flowing, being
able to confidently pump without major
power end failures became the highest
priority. An extremely durable, higherhorsepower fleet would enable the company to operate with a smaller footprint,
reduce maintenance requirements, and
allow for the maximum pumping hours
while greatly minimizing NPT.

Seeking to minimize maintenance costs and nonproductive time in its pressure pumping
fleet, REV Energy Services is utilizing Weir SPM® QEM 3000 pumps in continuous-duty
operation. The high-horsepower pumps translate to less equipment on site, lower operating
costs and smaller footprints while allowing REV to achieve near-zero downtime and more
than 95% ready-to-pump time.

DECEMBER 2020 57
American Oil and Gas Reporter - December 2020

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