The Under‑Managed Well Opportunity (Gulf Coast Edition)

There are fields that look tired on paper but are rich in potential. The gap isn’t geology; it’s management. Under‑measured wells hide avoidable loss in plain sight.

What under‑management looks like

• No recent fluid‑level work and guesswork on drawdown.
• Backpressure and line constraints that never got a second look.
• Controllers left on set‑and‑forget while behavior changed around them.
• Tickets with symptoms (“low rate”) instead of causes (“gas interference at X psig”).

The first 30 days

1. Measure, don’t guess. Fresh fluid levels, pressures, and line checks.
2. Fix the cheap friction. Debottleneck lines, re‑tune controllers, correct setpoints.
3. Walk the separators. Verify what each train is actually doing against the books.
4. Publish the quick wins. A rolling list builds momentum and earns budget.

Why it matters

• Fast payback. Small lifts in under‑managed wells compound across a field.
• Cleaner data. Better measurement upstream means fewer late‑month “surprises.”
• Morale boost. Crews see their work turn into visible gains.

Final Thought

Sometimes the best wells aren’t new—they’re the ones that finally got noticed. The difference between a tired field and a productive one often comes down to attention, not innovation. When you start measuring what’s really happening, the “boring” barrels stop being invisible—and start becoming your best performers.

Some lessons stick because they were learned the hard way.

Hear Robert Wichert share how operators are shortening the learning curve and rediscovering production that was there all along.