During recent discussions with operating company field and engineering personnel, it was discovered that some companies may not have a failure tracking process nor know the benefits of establishing one.
This paper will provide a summary of prior published industry efforts and include three (3) separate failure reduction studies showing the benefits of failure tracking ranging from over 17 years to a few months of operation. These studies from three (3) different operators in the Permian Basin showed the benefits of: determining what downhole equipment failed and the cause of the failure, tracking the failure location in the well, and calculating the final reduction in operating costs due to reduced failures and reduced workovers. This paper will also show the additional benefits from keeping good records and knowing the manufacturer of the downhole equipment and/or if the downhole equipment manufacturer was changed.