This web-page is intended only for general information: any questions should go to info@resnet.com
Clients (or others) will be directed to relevant sites, whether related to us or completely independent
We are not seeking attention, unless visitors want to participate in any of our activities (e.g., below).
We are not in the "entertainment business" (or in general education) & don't do "marketing & sales"
We are busy, but never so much that we will not help others (whether clients or not) if/when needed.
APOLOGY: SITE IS STILL "GENERAL" (EVEN BORING); CLIENTS E-MAIL, IF YOU NEED HELP
Our topics are general, but our software, consulting, training & support are very specific & valuable
WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ALL AT MEETINGS (THROUGHOUT 2008 & BEYOND)
"News Flash" (Oct. 2004): Majors spend $8B on Exploration (2003), add (only) $4B to reserves
UPDATE: NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED; RESERVES ARE STILL THE ACHILLES HEEL OF O&G
Latest flash: Anadarko bids to acquire Kerr-McGee for a 40% premium (up 250% in past 3 years).
KMG WAS ONE OF RES' 1ST CLIENTS (20+YRS AGO): WE DON'T TAKE THE CREDIT, BUT....
"Factoid": Costs in Drilling/Completing Wells Increase (Proportionately) with Production (xOil Price)
UPDATE: LIKE MANY PROPHECIES OF OURS, IT'S PROVING EVEN MORE TRUE FOR 05/06;
increasing unit prices usually means less units (opposite of RES push for lower costs, more units)
"Eccentricity": Technologies with lowest RoI find wide use; high-RoI methods not (or mis) used.
(Fracturing is ONE such method (done properly, read BELOW); too many others still lie fallow)
UPDATE: EVEN IN FRACTURING, "BACK TO THE FUTURE" DOMINATES (FEW EXCEPTIONS)
If production doesn't match higher cost, then activity will never grow to (orders-greater) full potential
RESULT?: INEFFICIENCY IS REWARDED SHORT-TERM, UNTIL MARKET-FORCES PREVAIL
QUESTION: WHY BE EFFICIENT? ANSWER: IF YOU DON'T (DO IT), YOU'LL BE DISPLACED
IF YOU'RE SEEKING TECHNOLOGY TO ADD VALUE IN O&G E&PRODUCTION, READ ON
(If you're another "lemming" (or web-cruiser), we suggest that you visit less practical web-sites)
(We like to make fun (also about US), BUT OUR MISSION IS "MAKING (CLIENTS) MONEY":
we do so cleanly, honestly & with a view to long-term progress (NOT "hype & salesmanship"))
(STUDENTS NOTE: RESnet IS NOT AFFILIATED WITH UNIVERSITY/RESIDENCY GROUPS)
(THE) Truth, Hype, Evaluation?
(NEW) Novel, Engineered, Worthwhile?
(ENE) Endeavor Navigate Endure?
(RGY) Reputation Greatness Youth?
FOLLOWING ARE MORE MIKE E-M ATTACHMENTS: MIKE IS BUSY; EXPECT HIS E-MAIL LATER
(MIKE DID PROVIDE MASTHEAD RECOGNITION & IDENTIFICATION W/POVERTY ERADICATION:
EMPHASISIZES THAT ALL SUCH GROUPS MAY SEEM NAIVE BUT MUST START SOMEWHERE)
(IND) Innovation, Nurture, Development
(UST) Undertaking, Survival, Trust
(RY) Responsibility & YOU
Topic of our latest campaign (available (e-m)): LIGHTINGUP (THE) (NEW) (ENE)(RGY) (IND)(UST)RY
Some samples of (older) "take-no-prisoners" summaries are posted here intermittently, as background
(Most of the (FULL) story will be available only to (select) clients: "you get what you pay for", as usual)
HOWEVER, EVERYBODY'S WELCOME TO GIVE US IDEAS ON THIS (POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE):
as Mike says often, "It's not our job to be popular, it's our job to be RIGHT" (& his record is very good).
On a time-scale of centuries, we're just beginning to implement processes that may "change the world"
RES STORMS INTO ITS 3rd decade IN BUSINESS, HAVING SAVED/MADE $BILLIONS FOR CLIENTS
(Recent evaluations (not ours) suggest: our work led to transfer of TRILLIONS in assets to our clients
With such numbers behind us, we don't need the advertising of "zero or negative value-added Cos.")
RESnet IS THE SOFTWARE "SPIN-OFF" FROM RES, WHICH IS NOW "STAKING ITS OWN CLAIMS"
(NOTE: RESnet IS LAUNCHING A NEW WEB-SITE (CLIENTS PLS REQUEST), TO REPRESENT PROGRESS IN THE PAST 5 YRS. CLIENTS CAN ALSO CONTINUE TO INTERACT DIRECTLY WITH ALL RELEVANT SERVER LOCATIONS (e.g., for downloads, support etc): PLEASE E-MAIL info@resnet.com, IF YOU (especially clients) HAVE ANY PROBLEMS OR REQUESTS, or need special assistance).
RESnet APOLOGISES FOR DELAY(S) WITH NEW SITE: CLIENTS KNOW THEY'LL "DO IT RIGHT"
Welcome to our (RES interim) web-site. Here you will be able to keep in touch with ongoing activities at our Petroleum Software, Training & Consulting Groups. RES develop(ed) & supply FRACPRO (NOT "PT", OLD versions of our software, with cosmetic variations & distortions that are driven by conflicting motivation to sell tools & products): we preserve our integrity & independence of all vendors & keep our capabilities FAR ahead of all others; especially, we PROVE our performance in the FIELD.
"INTEGRATION & OPTIMISATION": like the weather, everybody just talks about them, we DO THEM!
RESnet broadened the scope to TRULY REVOLUTIONARY capabilities in FIELDPRO (see "Solutions"), to optimize projects, FROM EXPLORATION (Geology, Geophysics) through critical DRILLING, COMPLETIONS & PRODUCTION, TRULY INTEGRATED IN FIELD-ORIENTED COST-EFFICIENT SOFTWARE THAT SETS NEW STANDARDS FOR FIELD OPERATIONS, NOT JUST "OFFICE DESIGN & REMOTE EVALUATION"
FIELDPRO is intended to be the front of a NEW WAVE, driving better Return on Investment (RoI), by PRACTICAL application of NEW AND ESTABLISHED techniques (often displaced by "latest fads")
With 100s of clients & 1000s of software users, RES(net) has been the vanguard of progress, helping clients USE BEST SCIENCE/ENGINEERING/TECHNOLOGY, REDUCE COSTS (e.g., AVOID WASTE of damaging & expensive materials (fluids, additives, solids etc), wrong equipment, misleading & irrelevant "tools") AND to IMPROVE PERFORMANCE (e.g., RoI) of personnel & projects, with USEFUL software & unique FIELD capabilities, leading to MUCH BETTER PRODUCTION
OUR MANDATE IS TO CONTINUE CREATING SUCCESS FOR CLIENTS WORLDWIDE, DRIVING INTELLIGENT USE OF EXISTING & NEW METHODS (wherever sourced). Our slogan is "We Do IT RIGHT: We Make YOU Money". To learn how YOU can "make (more) money", contact "info@resnet.com".
(An early optimisation paper is SPE 28918 (pdf below): see also "Home" Pages, available to "Gold" only -- likewise our "Forum"; exceptions will be announced (e.g. in "News" & among Forum topics below))
(Regular e-mails are sent to clients (sample in "News"); others may e-mail requests (info@resnet.com))
(If you do not find what you're looking for (e.g., locations/passwords for downloads of software), please e-mail info@resnet.com; you should get a response within (24) hours; if not, e-mail webmaster@resnet.com)
Our Web-Site preserves independence from ALL vendors & service companies & increases our International Orientation. If you've visited before, you'll notice changes in structure, content and accessibility. The first 2 of these will be decided by visitors (go to "Feedback"). The last (accessibility) will be decided as follows:
1. Bronze Site: Casual visitors may access basic info about RESnet, including old Web-Site material.
2. Silver Site: Qualified visitors will be requested to leave (e-mail) addresses to get more information.
3. Gold Site: Clients of RES will have access to information beyond others, using private passwords
(GOLD SITE STILL UNDER DEVELOPMENT: IT REQUIRES SOPHISTICATED SECURITY/ACCESS).
Content will be added steadily throughout the years, including especially items that our clients & users request (in each of their specialty areas & beyond). All visitors are welcome to register themselves, and request a service level (silver or gold). User names & passwords will be confirmed and activated by our personnel after the new site is launched (& after we have checked out identities, as in final paragraph)
(P.S. IF you do NOT get an expected response, please contact us, by e-mail to info@resnet.com: we have confusion with similarity to University Net Names & lots of wasted time on legions of "Web Crawlers", who register at every site they encounter, then forget (they did)! It's possible that we can't answer everybody)
EXAMPLE (OLD PROVEN) METHODOLOGY that few are capable of doing correctly is FRACTURING:
even with Real-Time Analysis capability, developed/proven (20+ yrs.) by RES, MOST AVOID EFFORT
Despite superficial simplicity ("any fool can pump a frac job & most do"), there are many complexities:
ONE RES' PROVEN ADVANCE IS "AGGRESSIVE FLOWBACK" (UP TO TWICE PUMPING RATE!)
but this requires extreme care in all other aspects of job, so we expect many (more) failures by others
"GETTING IT RIGHT" REQUIRES CAREFUL (ON-SITE) CO-ORDINATION WITH ALL PERSONNEL...
IF OTHERS FINALLY GET IT RIGHT, THERE ARE MANY APPLICATIONS (BESIDES STIMULATION):
unfortunately, excess marketing focuses on low/no RoI (high cost/margin) items, like "GucciCeramics"
& BAD (NON-DARCY) THEORY; whenever people CAN'T "Do IT Right", they revert to expensive ideas
SECRET OF SUCCESS? "SIMPLE" THINGS, LIKE PLACING (RIGHT) PROPPANT OPPOSITE PAY
has allowed RES to (cut costs &) increase PIs by order(s) of magnitude, in contrast to others failures.
WHY NOT PUBLISH MORE OF THESE? 1)WRITING'S NOT OUR BUSINESS NOW; 2)PLAGIARISM
We know IT's frustrating for plagiarists, but OUR clients would prefer more billions/trillions (in transfers)
FOLLOWING IS A SAMPLE OF ARTICLES MIKE (CLEARY) WROTE IN THE EARLY (19)90s...
HE CLAIMS HE'LL PUBLISH MANY MORE AFTER THESE ARE FULFILLED (OR OUTDATED)
MEANWHILE, HERE'S A PUBLIC (HOLIDAY, 12/05) E-MAIL: MORE AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
Friends (& others: feel free to copy to relevant folk),
Sorry it's been 1yr. since our last e-m: seems everybody's busy
but we had many good client interactions, with FIELDPRO proving
finally that it handles most client needs (enormous undertaking,
that places FIELDPRO far ahead of any/other capabilities in O&G)
I take little credit (& no reward) for meeting prior obligations
I undertook to drive FIELDPRO for critical practical field needs
including applications, not just FRACPRO, integrated in FIELDPRO
Sometimes I had to confront others & to represent field reality:
I did my job but FIELDPRO will survive independently of my work.
I hope only that FIELDPRO will facilitate my big O&G compendium,
driving long-term property transfers & changes in field practise
FIELDPRO helped my work: handled field data, saved my reputation
Older guys (like me) have to learn FIELDPRO: youth finds it easy
With youth in focus, consider many in greatest need in our world
Cynics (dogs in Greek) call it preaching: here's a reality check
Societies that help others gain most (& conversely) due to trust
Reason is a gift to all humans: to look beyond immediate "wants"
What's your reason? NOT what or how but WHY (fill in the blanks)
Science & logic CAN be useful: what if "God does not play dice"?
History is written by survivors (attachment): read it carefully
Regardless of credo, I wish you all the best in future efforts
Meanwhile, to all of you of good will, Happy Holidays!...Mike C
(P.S. No jokes this time: maybe swap some next year, over beer?)
"Tech & Money" Section
Each year, we're told some "new technology" will "take over"
--despite how fast software can change whole landscapes now
"Dominant force" (1yr ago) WAS EBAY; now they say it's GOOG:
"Big Brother" will know your quirks, put you "in Wi-Fi jail"
MANY BIG COMPANIES STILL ENDURE GOLIATH'S CRUSHING EMBRACE...
remember Cos. buying DEC/IBM 20yrs ago: RES built fastest PCs,
did 1st real-time analysis (in O&G) 20+yrs ago, dubbed "crazy".
STILL SOME (CORPORATE) WASTE EVEN MORE ON LATEST "BIG-IRON",
while most practical people migrate to standalone solutions,
flexible interaction with corporate & better decision-making
Will a new wave of "garbage-disposal" occur? Next downturn?
Managers survive at high price; reality can pay visits later
We've experienced enough such cycles: pattern's familiar now
(Tech. that services real company (field) operations endures)
As RES spins off new technology, we review what RES has done:
nurturing (mostly grateful former) employees w/unique benefits
allowing them to accumulate wealth, be free to "make or break"
w/investors & clients (RES provided, based on prior successes)
For 30yrs., we've confronted "PTs" (many Cos., not only O&G)
& driven some to justify activity; then we're 1st to applaud,
e.g., IF THEY COULD CORRELATE DATA WITH (BETTER) PRODUCTION.
(PT? (Barnum): his motto was "a sucker's born every minute")
Not all "PTs" should be labelled as "science abusers", writing
papers that distort reality to "prove the surreal" (sell stuff)
Some relatively better papers now try to start/correlate I/Os,
like limited-parameter studies of fractures (missing big issues)
They don't substantiate claims of vendor companies (citing them):
products wouldn't pass standard statistics (FDA) even as placebos
One goal of software (FIELDPRO?): make such evaluations "routine"
WHICH BRINGS US TO ONE MAIN THEME OF THIS "TECH & MONEY"...
We're submerged by publications about O&G (technical) activities
BUT FIND FEW REAL EXAMPLES OF "(NEW) TECHNOLOGY MAKING MONEY"
("Money isn't everything"? UNLESS you need some, like poor people
-among them, victims of garbage purveyors, exploiting technology)
Yes, we see occasional plots of NPV (rarely RoI) that few present
BUT IT'S AMAZING HOW UNCONVINCING ARE MOST ARGUMENTS WE'VE SEEN
-even average managers can't be convinced (see BP/Shell/CT below)
Recent study claimed (Shell) excessive dependency on "contractors"
We've argued this also, over decades (re 2 major SCos. especially)
& stock prices reflect reality (with P/Es comparable to bad banks)
We know how badly most banks manage, so why are we surprised that
major O&G companies have not reinvested (& in light of PTs above)?
Many of the "Majors" favor short-term (share buybacks "in vogue")
Some operators (BP, Shell, CT?) already "write off" O&G (futures)
Maybe waiting for prices to rise?...must replenish most reserves,
sold (to our clients) in past downturns: a "corporate strategy"?
Wells still cost too much to D&C. Upstream is "capacity-limited":
like countries with bad infrastructure, other participants suffer
Imagine 100-fold increase in Nos. (e.g. within "giant" reservoirs)
--that could increase most RoIs 10-fold (even at 1/10th cost/well)
& boost employment at all levels (yes, even up through management)
Mid-80s: argued for 16-fold more wells; dubbed crazy; now routine
(We also designed fewer wells (higher PI) in high-perm reservoirs)
We must simplify, since there are (scaleable) "mountains to cross"
--the biggest being 1 of (in)efficiency, rampant in Upstream O&G.
Inefficient activities temporarily result in high prices (in O&G)
Our previous e-mails had commented about prior low(er) O&G prices
--WE'RE HAPPY WE IGNORED "The Economist" ('99, predicted $5 oil):
we long regarded them as counter-indicators ("theory vs reality")
How many such industries are rewarded (today) with higher prices?
I taught ("Energy/Materials Technology & Policy" MIT course, 80s)
that "substitution is always possible", as economists should know
Even formerly "crazy" sources are becoming economical at $50+ O&G
& we know: politicians love to distort the marketplace (bio-mass?)
Even more, efficiency is commonplace in other sectors (not in O&G)
O&G structures must be (re)designed to make money at $10+ or bust?
(Why not? If prices stay at $50+, then O&G makes even more money,
THAT CAN BE RE-INVESTED TO MAKE "RESERVES" DELIVERABLE IN FUTURE)
EVERYBODY SHOULD WANT SUCH RATIONALITY, SO WHY DOESN'T IT HAPPEN?
Investment in R&D has been small (% of revenues); most was wasted.
Another reason (reality): many (O&G Upstream) are old & fatalistic
-they've seen cycles before, so they expect them to happen (again)
But what message is given to YOUNG people (being recruited now)?
"Keep one eye on the door"? "Obsessively guard your role in Co."?
Indeed, "cubicle-mentalities" increasingly dominate much activity:
despite claims of "integration" (bad joke), "Towers of Babel" grow
Gilbert & Sullivan fans remember a related refrain in "HMS Pinafore":
"stay close to your desk & never go to sea & you all may be rulers of
...the Queen's Navy" (it was written somewhere near peak of UK power)
As mechanical engineering professor (10-30 yrs ago), I knew students
who refused to go to work in Detroit after Summer intern experiences
Auto companies assumed customers wouldn't switch away from bad cars:
2 decades later, we see the consequences of (mostly) paper-shuffling
O&G industry folk should ask how wind-turbines became "competitive"?
(Some good alternative energy methods do exist, still not developed)
Are there solutions? Of course, as political/economic history shows:
"Creative Destruction" (see attachment) always takes its own course,
sometimes very slowly (as w/UK power, sorry UK friends), but surely.
Young people who cling to old ways also may "go down with the ship"
but those who welcome change have chances to be useful new leaders
Then motivated young personnel may stop "shuffling papers" (on PCs)
& start engaging in activity that helps their community (& company)
Imagine what benefits education & poverty eradication can provide:
the world's resources (not just O&G) can be used (& priced) better,
avoiding Malthusian predictions that manipulative policies nourish
Poverty is a great danger -& a cancer on our collective conscience,
especially if deception by our elected officials is mainly to blame
The road to enslavement is a "slippery slope": it can befall us all
or our descendants; most media mantras (left or right) mislead them
Technology should ENRICH, NOT enslave: IT depends on HOW IT's used.
10 More Reasons for HF
SPE 28918 p1
Better Future Energy Supply
NOW A FEW EXAMPLES TO FOCUS PEOPLE'S THINKING ON REAL SOLUTIONS TO POVERTY
(These have been chosen partly because they illustrate how basic pioneer spirits can solve problems)
For the more than two billion people who subsist on less than $2 a day, the inventions churned out from First World design labs - the iPod, the PalmPilot, even the personal computer - are, for all their genius, almost unimaginably irrelevant. "Ninety percent of the people who design things are addressing the problems of the richest 5 percent of people in the world," said Paul Polak. His International Development Enterprises - a nonprofit entity with U.S., Canadian and European funding - combines bootstrap technologies and the powers of markets to help the poorest, particularly subsistence farmers.
"You have to stand the Western design process on its ear," he said, to engage in "a ruthless pursuit of affordability." And so it is coming to pass.
From California college students to farsighted Indian farmers, innovators are working to provide clean and affordable water supplies and cheap irrigation pumps, to solve basic health problems, to ease transportation and improve power supplies and communications. More than simply inventing, they
help establish local manufactories and marketing networks. Often they collaborate with micro-credit providers, like the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, to help ensure the affordability of their inventions. Charity is not part of the formula. They labor tirelessly against what Bill Gates calls "stupid poverty," problems that can be solved cheaply with ordinary resources and a bit of creativity. "When you only have $1 a day," said Polak, "affordability becomes the most critical variable."
Consider: In 1965, an Israeli firm, looking for ways to irrigate arid lands with scant water, invented drip irrigation. Rather than the wasteful flooding of ditches or fields, water is pumped through tubes to drip out through holes only where needed. A brilliantly simple notion, it was unaffordable at first to the poorest - the three-quarters of the world's farmers who work less than two hectares, or five acres. But, in a pattern to be repeated, innovative minds found ways. Forget the pump; use gravity. Tubes could be hooked to a metal barrel of water placed atop a table. Even a plastic bag of water on a pole would
serve. Conventional pumps can be expensive. Enter the treadle pump, powered by a person stepping back and forth on two pedals. The pump is sold for $8; drilling, pipes and tubes add $16. The device can triple the income of a $300-a-year farmer. "It is huge," said Polak. "If you add $500 in net income
to somebody who makes $300, in Bangladesh or rural India, they've moved into the middle class."
Contaminated drinking water is a widespread source of disease. Meet the LifeStraw, a sort of uber-straw packed with seven filters to allow water to be safely sipped from ponds, wells or rivers. Good for perhaps a year, it costs $7. Time magazine rated it one of the year's best inventions.Polak's group helped fund development of a clay-and-sawdust water filter in Cambodia; for Nepal a smaller version was designed, for lugging to mountain villages.
Indian inventors have been prolific - people like Harish Hande, whose Selco produces a solar-powered home lighting system. These, the company says, benefit people like Kumarasiri, a skilled carpenter who can now keep his home workshop open after dark.
Phil Weilerstein, director of the National Collegiate Inventors & Innovators Alliance, said that a rising number of U.S. universities - some 200 - offer programs in developing affordable technologies. Students, whether from altruism or a desire to gain global experience and hone problem-solving
skills, have produced marketable inventions, as have some professors. Weilerstein points to the Xtracycle, a sort of bicycle-extender able to carry 100 kilograms, or 220 pounds, of cargo, designed and marketed by Stanford students. Four Stanford students who took a course called Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability started Ignite Innovations to market a solar-rechargeable LED lantern, in conjunction with an Indian firm, Cosmos. It aims to replace the ubiquitous kerosene lamps that produce noxious fumes. The LED lantern, said James Patell, who teaches the Stanford course, can
boost productivity by extending working hours, "by allowing children and adults to read and be educated in the evening, by reducing illness, and by replacing a more expensive fossil fuel, kerosene."
Another ultra-cheap Stanford product: a "water jogger" that permits a slender woman to transport 270 kilograms of water over rough terrain.
Amy Smith, an MIT professor and winner of a MacArthur "genius" grant, is working on a more efficient small-bore way to provide energy, by turning agricultural waste into charcoal. "You can't really imagine how important this is," she said, "till you carry a pile of wood on your head for three hours, or till you see the eroded hillsides of Haiti and realize how few trees are left." Her team has finally produced a charcoal that burns better than the commercially available wood charcoal in Haiti.
Researchers say familiarity with local Third World conditions is critical. Students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been traveling to Nepal for seven years while perfecting a cheap device to filter arsenic from drinking water. A possible breakthrough came when they enhanced their filter with locally purchased iron nails, which bind arsenic to them. And MIT's Media Lab, of course, is working on a $100 laptop (which Polak believes can be brought down further, to $50).
A considerable amount of the on-campus research in the United States, and some in India, is financed by the Lemelson Foundation, a philanthropy named for Jerome Lemelson, inventor of technologies used in bar-code readers, cordless phones and camcorders. It also offers cash prizes. for particularly
useful inventions. But few inventors see money as their sole motivator, said Arthur Molella, director of the Lemelson Center at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, which seeks to encourage innovative thinking. "I think there is a drive to do this that they can't shut off," Molella said
of inventors. "The ones I've known have all been just passionate about doing this. It's almost an artistic thing. "MBA students, who 10 years ago said they wanted wealth, now say, "Teach me to make a difference," professors like Patell say.
Polak is optimistic about this. "There are a lot of these very simple, down-to-earth technologies that can make a huge difference," he said. "We're just scratching the surface."
(Article courtesy of International Herald Tribune)
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