American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2018 - 25

Women In Industry
Key Players In Technology,
Knowledge Expansion
Last month, I wrote about an article published in the January
Hydraulic Fracturing Journal. January's issue showcased women
in hydraulic fracturing. Soon after, at the 2018 Hydraulic
Fracturing Technology Conference in the Woodlands, Tx., I
had the pleasure to attend a reception that celebrated and recognized each author. At the event, Journal editor and event emcee
Ali Daneshy highlighted the importance of showcasing women
in the oil and gas industry. He said his goal was to emphasize
how people in the industry already knew that women were
making significant technological contributions, and to demonstrate
the need to involve women more fully to allow the industry to
benefit from their creative technical ideas.
The keynote speaker was Janeen Judah, the 2017 president
of the Society of Petroleum Engineers International. "If you
had told me five years ago that we would have a technical
journal edition full of papers by women authors I would have
laughed," Judah said in her address, "but here it is."
She highlighted her experience as one representative in the
first wave of women in the oil and gas industry during a time in
which, she said, most women spent a majority of their time
jockeying for a seat at the table. Judah went on to say that,
although women's experience in the industry had not yet
changed as much as she had hoped, she looked forward to the
day when women would be recognized for major accolades
such as the Legends of Hydraulic Fracturing honor.
For my part, I was impressed by the great minds in the room
and honored to network with such an impressive group. Among
them was Karen Olson from Southwestern Energy. Olson's
paper, "Freshwater Neutral: Customized Strategies Based on
Local Community Requirements," addresses the issue of reducing
freshwater use during hydraulic fracturing. Through a series of
successful actions, Southwestern Energy has achieved the goal
of becoming "freshwater neutral."
Southwestern has achieved its goal with a creative approach
to each of the company's operational areas and by making the
adjustments necessary to achieve success. Key components of
that include:
* Getting a commitment from company leadership;
* Setting operational goals;
* Accounting for companywide water use;
* Modifying completion designs;
* Increasing use of alternative nonfresh water; and
* Supporting research in groundwater protection and water
treatment technologies.
While Southwestern has achieved success in this area, its
ongoing challenge is to remain freshwater neutral while dealing
with short-term changes associated with operational pace and
activity levels.
Another author, Christine Ehlig-Economides from the University
of Houston, co-wrote a paper titled, "State of the Art for Multiple
Transverse Fracture Horizontal Well Design." The paper considers
how much attention is placed on various completion strategies-
focusing on variables such as the amount of pumped proppant,

"In the last 30 years it has become apparent
that women represent many of the power players
in our field and the number of women in the
industry grows every day.

well spacing design, and other factors that impact production and
recovery-despite general uncertainty of why one well construction
design is more prolific than another.
The paper offers a comprehensive survey of discoveries
during the last few years. Ehlig-Economedies' team analyzed
different cases and managed to develop a better understanding
of different aspects of multiple transverse fracture horizontal
well designs and worked to provide a unique procedure on how
to maximize well performance.
In another paper, "Enhancing Stimulated Reservoir Volume
in Shale Reservoirs with Ultrafine Particles: A Laboratory
Study," Janette Cortez and her co-authors demonstrate how
ultrafine particles can help maintain conductivity in the extended
microfracture network adjacent to the primary fracture. In many
cases, these propped microfractures can improve recovery by
increasing stimulated reservoir volume.
Finally, Kelly Berard and Wendy Hubal from Baker Hughes,
a GE Company, published a paper titled, "Using Completion
Diagnostics to Increase Well Productivity and Reduce Completion
Costs in Prolific Plays." This paper showcases studies of how
the dry tree and wet tree applications in the deepwater Gulf of
Mexico demonstrate the effectiveness of the nonionic and zwitterionic visioelastic diverters in increasing production.
Overall, the evening was a great success and the individuals
in the room illustrated how our industry continues to evolve
and embrace technology at every level. In the last 30 years it
has become apparent that women represent many of the power
players in our field and the number of women in the industry
grows every day. This is a far cry from the days when drilling
rig superstition held that a woman on site was bad luck. In fact,
today, women play an integral part in onsite operations and,
from what I witnessed at this year's HFTC, they also are
technology development leaders.
r

JEREMY VISCOMI is vice pres-

ident of global marketing for
Premier Oilfield Group in Houston and Mid-Continent regional
lead for the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council. For
almost 20 years, he has played
an integral role in many oil
and gas industry technical conferences and special events.
MARCH 2018 25

American Oil and Gas Reporter - March 2018

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