Well Optimization for Oil and Gas Production Operations
Approved for funding through ERA’s Partnership Intake Program in 2018, Ambyint set out to deploy autonomous oil and gas production operations at scale on wells utilizing rod lift and plunger lift. By project completion in 2020, Ambyint had a mature rod lift offering, fully commercialized plunger lift offering, and re-platformed software to work with multiple lift types.
Ambyint developed an oil and gas pump control technology called ‘Amplify Real-Time Controller’ – a high-resolution adaptive controller (HRAC) which enables autonomous control and optimization of oil and gas wells and fields when paired with Ambyint’s supporting cloud software. The purpose is to autonomously regulate over-pumping and under-pumping states thereby optimizing the pumping process. Optimizing the pumping process gains efficiencies and reduces the risk of exhausting methane and liquids exiting the wells. The project’s initial focus was to deploy edge/IIoT (industrial internet of things) technologies and data analytics to well optimization. If successful, these advancements can bring new capabilities and deliver a step-change in outcomes to over one million producing wells in North America.
Platform Investment and Feedback-Enabled Product Line Expansion
During the project, industry feedback allowed Ambyint to develop a wider platform that addresses various industry needs, resulting in a feature set that covers all aspects of production operations to the product capabilities. This enabled Ambyint to provide solutions across multiple lift types and multiple deployment models, delivering optimization at scale. Ambyint made advancements to the HRAC system and developed a software-only solution in addition to hardware-software integrated HRAC system. System capabilities developed during the course of the project led to less required workovers, resulting in revenue savings, increased oil production, and less power requirements. Ultimately leading to electricity cost savings for customers.
What’s next?
During the project, Ambyint increased their installed base of wells in North America and secured a flagship Canadian customer with assets in Alberta. Post project, Ambyint completed a Lifetime Customer Value exercise with a major customer with a 17-month run time and achieved significant benefits across their key metrics. Going forward, Ambyint plans to expand their addressable market with investments in other artificial lift types, lower commercial barriers to entry by making their platform more enterprise-ready, and utilizing partnerships and multi-cloud availability (AWS and Microsoft) to access new customers. Notably, Ambyint spawned the development of Qube Technologies, founded by a former Ambyint member. Qube developed an industrial device that collects large quantities of data and uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to better quantify, locate, and classify emissions in another ERA supported project. Qube has gone on to become a global leader in emissions monitoring with their continuous methane monitoring technology and service.