RWE Dea AG's core business is the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. As a subsidiary of RWE AG, it owns production facilities in Germany, the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark and Egypt as well as assets in North Africa, Eastern Europe, South America and elsewhere. Throughout its operations, the company drives success with efficient processes and innovative technologies -- leveraging geo-scientific know-how, state-of-the-art drilling and production techniques, and experience gained during its 114-year history. As a result, when RWE Dea needed a better way to analyse oil and gas projects from exploration to concept selection and field plans, company managers implemented a leading-edge solution from S&P Global.
Driving Success with Innovation and Efficiency
"I started using QUE$TOR in 2004 as a senior project engineer for the New Venture Departments," reported Volker Hagmaier. "Since 2012, I have worked as a senior technical advisor and QUE$TOR is one of my main tools for my job. I consider it extremely useful for quick design of field development concepts 'from reservoir to grid or market,' including CAPEX and OPEX with a sufficient accuracy within a few days."
"It's also very helpful for comparing different development scenarios with respect to costs and creating a reasonable development schedule – in particular regarding drilling progress and production profile options," he continued.
Over the years, Hagmaier noted that QUE$TOR has been continuously improved by S&P Global. He believes that the system has become more user friendly – particularly in terms of the balance of flow streams and the different options for surface facilities, which have been optimized. Previously, input and output streams between the units had to be checked often but, today, the flow balance is "almost perfect" according to Hagmaier.
"A significant improvement was the switchover from Excel some years ago," reported Hagmaier. "Also the pipeline dimensions are very close to the design with other engineering tools. Highly appreciated is the permanent cost update and the increase of development options, e. g. 'number of concurrent drilling operations' provided in recent updates to the solution."
Leveraging and Gaining Expertise
For occasional tricky issues, Hagmaier turns to S&P Global customer service if he cannot find the answers in the QUE$TOR Help Topics. The customer support team provides excellent, quick and helpful advice. Furthermore, S&P Global tracks and incorporates user proposals for additional improvements to the system.
"RWE Dea regularly uses the solution to provide development costs for various onshore and offshore oil/gas prospects under evaluations," said Hagmaier. "Naturally, we overwrite default values when we have real costs from similar projects.
The S&P Global solution is very user friendly for 'non experts' and not too complicated when it is used by individual disciplines, Hagmaier concluded. Once a reasonable base case has been performed, other team members may vary and utilize this case quite easily.
Since 2012, I have worked as a senior technical advisor and QUE$TOR is one of my main tools for my job. I consider it extremely useful for quick design of field development concepts 'from reservoir to grid or market,' including CAPEX and OPEX with a sufficient accuracy within a few days.
Volker Hagmaier,
Senior Technical Advisor, RWE Dea AG
