How to Save $324,000 on Your Run-Ticket Program

The key for upstream oil and gas companies is to focus on streamlined processes and industry best practices

Mention the words “run tickets” to a production or revenue accountant and, well, I’d be willing to bet you won’t have him or her doing cartwheels. 

That’s because the oil and gas run-ticket process in its traditional form is far from perfect. It relies heavily on manual processes, redundant data entry, and tedious reconciliation work, all of which make it an error-prone and time-consuming endeavor. 

Let’s take a quick look at a real-world example.

A producer in the Bakken with 600 wells and five production accountants had been spending two weeks of every month on reconciling 5,000 run tickets with purchaser statements. This equated to a monthly expense of $30,000, or $360,000 over the course of the year.

Today, that company spends one day a month on the reconciliation process at a cost of $3,000. That’s $324,000 back in their pockets every year. 

So what changed?

The company didn’t attack the problem with more personnel and more resources; they attacked it with better processes.

Over the last 20 years, I’ve seen oil and gas teams use many different techniques in an effort to make their run-ticket programs more efficient. It’s clear that in today’s challenging climate, companies that combine the following best practices are leading the pack:

• Field Data Capture Tools: These tools’ validations and alerts help ensure that data is captured correctly or appropriately defaulted.
• Back-Office Integration: When the field data capture tools are integrated with the hydrocarbon accounting and revenue systems, tickets are validated much more quickly.
• Electronic Ticket-To-Statement Matching: Tickets are automatically matched within a certain tolerance, differences are highlighted, and there are holding spots for tickets under review. 

Of course, adopting these best practices doesn’t only result in saved time and money. These processes also reduce regulatory risk and improve revenue estimations. And, because of the huge time-savings, pumpers are able to focus on optimizing production instead of managing run tickets.

Unfortunately, a lot of E&P companies overlook the run-ticket process when searching for ways to do things better, faster, and at a reduced cost. But as we’ve seen, making small improvements in this area can give rise to big gains: reduced opex, more effective back-office processing, reduced risk, and increased production.

These are exactly the kinds of things that oil and gas companies are looking to achieve in today’s low-price environment.

About the Author Clara Fuge is a Vice President of Product Management at P2. With more than 20 years’ experience providing software solutions to the energy industry, her expertise lies in upstream hydrocarbon accounting and production operations. Clara graduated with a degree in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin and is a member of several industry groups, including the American Petroleum Institute’s Committee on Production Measurement & Allocation. A self-proclaimed “allocations geek,” she is passionate about giving oil and gas companies the tools needed to report accurate well production. When she’s not working, Clara enjoys spending time with her husband and their three dogs.

Want to Learn More?
Be sure to check out this webinar, “Say Goodbye To Runaway Run Tickets … And Mason Jars,” to learn more about run-ticket best practices.