Oil Field Tech Company Uses AWS Partner WellAware to Achieve a Net Return of $1.3 Million

An oil field technology company needed a better way to deliver its chemical solutions and services that prevent scale from clogging water pipelines used in oil and gas well drilling. To determine how much scale inhibitor to use, the company must monitor customers’ dynamic water flow rates, a process that used to incur high operational, labor, and mileage costs. In addition, supply chain processes, such as inventory management, were labor intensive in the remote regions that the company serves.

To operate more efficiently, the customer needed a way to automate chemical delivery and inventory management. This meant embarking on digital transformation, which offered opportunities for the company to improve its processes using insights from remote monitoring.

The company chose Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner WellAware, a technology company that offers remote monitoring solutions—including On Demand Chemical, an oil field chemical injection automation solution. Using On Demand Chemical, the customer can monitor chemical usage, automate injection, improve performance, and maintain low costs. Furthermore, using WellAware to automate inventory tracking makes it simpler to serve customers in remote geographies.

Bringing analytics and automation to oil fields

“At WellAware, we understand the challenges of working in remote locations with varying environmental conditions and unreliable power and communications,” says Matt Harrison, cofounder and CEO of WellAware.

Based in Texas, WellAware provides digital technology that connects operators in industries, such as oil and gas, to remote equipment that makes it simple to monitor their operations from anywhere. When they use WellAware, asset owners don’t need to build their own infrastructure to generate data and gain insights that can help them operate more profitably. Instead, they can convert the capital expense of infrastructure into a variable cost, as well as quickly build analytics, machine learning (ML), and automation that deliver immediate value.

WellAware utilizes intelligent controllers as well as on-site sensors to collect customers’ data. Then, it receives, stores, and processes the data within a secure cloud environment hosted by using various AWS services. By utilizing a mobile app, installers from WellAware can remotely provision compute resources for each edge device installed in the field.

To obtain and configure compute capacity for its workloads, WellAware utilizes Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), a web service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. The company also uses AWS IoT Core, which lets users connect billions of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and route trillions of messages to AWS services. Using AWS IoT Core, the company facilitates communication between its edge devices and its cloud data solution.

For data storage, WellAware utilizes Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), a service that makes it easy to setup, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. It uses Amazon RDS alongside Amazon Aurora, a MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database. Additionally, WellAware utilizes Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), a managed container service to run and scale Kubernetes applications, to run its essential applications.

“Using AWS to put reliable technology infrastructure in place empowers workers to trust the data coming from trucks, tanks, and sensors in the field,” says Harrison.

Improving profitability using remote monitoring solutions

The customer began using WellAware’s remote monitoring solutions in 2019. Following a pilot phase, the company saw a net return of $1.3 million after its investment in the technology. It expects to eventually achieve annual returns in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars as it expands remote monitoring and uses the solution to improve processes, such as chemical manufacturing and distribution. “Digital technology drives better financial outcomes for businesses that would otherwise have high infrastructure costs because they operate in the middle of nowhere,” says Harrison.

One major benefit born of the company’s digital transformation has been improved team working conditions. Having remote monitoring capabilities reduces the manual labor that workers must perform, which has resulted in increased organizational trust. Operators have been quick to adopt the solution due to its immediate success and the support that they have received from WellAware and AWS. “We use technology, including AWS services, to empower our workforce and our customers’ workforces,” says Harrison.

By improving its visibility and efficiency, the customer has achieved a 50% decrease in its empty tank rate, as well as treatment that measures five times better than the industry average.

Advancing automation and sustainability

After seeing positive results at an early stage, the customer plans to continue with its digital transformation over the coming years. Its goal is to further develop its automation and sustainability initiatives to meet environmental, social, and corporate governance standards.

WellAware shares this commitment and will continue to utilize AWS services to develop solutions that empower its customers to improve sustainability, efficiency, and employee satisfaction. “Technology is a social and governance opportunity for companies,” says Harrison.