Wellsite Sipervisor/Petroleum Engineer
Resume:
John David La Rue
Conroe, Texas 77304
*******@*****.***
QUALIFICATIONS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
An engineering and operations leader with expertise in drilling, completion and workover and a history of innovative planning and cost control that has saved the operator money and gotten the job done ahead of schedule. My recent accomplishments include:
Managed a team of Drilling and Workover engineers along with 4 jackup rigs that successfully sidetracked non-producing wells to create horizontal producers in fields where there were no available platform slots. This saved the cost of and wait associated with setting new platforms.
Supervised a one year Coiled Tubing campaign to clean out sand fill in producing oil wells in the Hawtah field, central Saudi Arabia.
Project operations manager on a southern Permian Basin shale play from initial vertical core tests through AFE and planning of first horizontal.
Drilling Superintendent on a five well directional program in SW China where terrain was so rugged that locations often had to be 1 km or more from the desired bottom hole location. Reduced rig move time from 3 weeks to under 10 days and drilling time from 25 days to 15 days.
Supervised the drilling of the first offshore horizontal in Saudi Arabia and a key member of the team who developed completions for these wells. Early completions were with 4-1/2” Equalizer (ICD) screens and MPAS packers to divide the lateral into compartments.
Advised KOC (Kuwait Oil Co.) on a horizontal drilling project in two northern area fields. Drilled laterals up to 5000’ in length and completed with inflow control devices (ICD’s) and swell packers. Reduced drill times from over 100 days to under 40 days in the first six months. Major changes included adding mud centrifuges to rigs, replacing 3-1/2” DP with 4” high torque DP and putting two Sr. direction drillers in the field as trouble shooters.
Wellsite consultant for four Independent Operators (Halcon, ENXP, Navidad and Rockefeller Hughes or RHC) in East Texas Horizontal Eagle Ford and Stacked Carbonate plays. This included drilling, completion, stage frack operations and drill out of plugs with coiled tubing. Operations were in Brazos, Leon, Madison and Houston Counties. Involved in over 100 wells with about half being Eagle Ford/Woodbine horizontals and half being Buda through Glen Rose stacked carbonates.
Supervised the drilling of some of the first deep gas exploration wells in Saudi Arabia. The wells were in the 16,000 to 19,000 ft. depth range, HP/HT with two HP transition zones and one reverse transition zone.
Innovative strategist with a record of cost effective designs using available technology in new and unique ways.
Drilled the second dual lateral in Saudi Arabia with the first successful completion. This well allowed the later drilling of many successful quad laterals.
Worked with a service company to modify their expandable sand screens for use in an offshore horizontal sandstone completion.
A HP transition zone was thought to be random and associated with shale permeability. Mapped the wells with HP and found that there was a definite pattern. Showed maps to the geologist and determined that HP was only where the shale had natural fracturing. Was able to predict which wells would not need an extra casing string and high mud weight. Saved the company about 2MM per well.
Worked with well test group and service companies to come up with DST methods for the deep HP/HT gas zones using 15M test strings in 10M BOP stacks (15M BOP were on order but not yet available).
Modified a workover rig by adding a full BOP stack and substructure in order to run 5-1/2” casing when the drilling rig suffered a major failure.
Worked with service companies to modify their pressure/temperature monitoring devices for use with 5-1/2” (tubing) oil completions so that data could be relayed real time to the production office.
Member of a team of 5 who configured a land drilling rig for rig up on a slotted barge in order to drill exploration wells along rivers in West Africa.
WORK HISTORY
Consulting (June 2008 to present):
February 2016 until present: Wellsite consulting for Elliott Oil and Gas, Evergreen Petroleum and RHC Energy. Wells were both horizontal shale completions and vertical conventional workovers and completions. This worked included frack prep and logistics, supervision of frack job and drill out of stage plugs with coiled tubing (frack work was RHC).
June 2015 until Janurary 2016: Drilling & completion foreman for Saudi Aramco in the Persian Gulf. Wells were primarily horizontal oil development. Work included both drilling and ICD completions/testing wells into platform facility. Logistics were done through SAP software, requiring that foremen bring all service company equipment and tubulars to an onshore staging area and then schedule work boats for timely delivery of equipment and crew boats or helicopters for personnel.
September 2014 until March 2015: Worked through Partners In Drilling (PID) for EOG Resources in China as Drilling Superintendent on a five well directional program. Drilling foreman on rig was my direct report and I reported to the VP in Houston office. Project was successfully completed in March of 2015. Also worked through PID on a two well directional project near Bakersfield Ca. Wells were 14,000 TVD and HP/HT.
March 2014 until August 2014: Wellsite Consultant for Energy Exploration Partners (ENXP) in Leon and Madison counties, Texas. Wells were both Eagle Ford horizontals and stacked carbonates. Wellsite supervision for workovers, completions, frack prep, fracking and drill out of plugs with 2-3/8” coiled tubing.
August 2013 until March 2014: Project Engineer at Signa Engineering for Kerogen Exploration, planning vertical shale core tests below 10,000’. Planned the first horizontal and contracted the rig. This was the very early stages of a new shale development in the southern Permian basin. 3D seismic had just been processed and leasing was ongoing. Wells were to gather log and core data and identify the oil corridor.
March 2013 until August 2013: Wellsite Consultant for Halcon Resources in Brazos and Leon counties, Texas. Supervised Drilling, workovers, completions, frack prep, frack jobs and coil tubing drill out of plugs. Wells were horizontal Woodbine/Eagle Ford Shale. In July, drilling focus was shifted to other areas where better results were being obtained.
Jan. 2012 until April 2013: Sr. Drilling Advisor for QRI. I was the only drilling engineer on a team of 12 to 15 advising Kuwait National Oil Co. (KOC) Reservoir and Drilling groups. QRI was contracted to KOC to improve production in old fields with horizontal drilling and Inflow Control Devices (ICD’s). It was my job to assist in the well planning and give operational support when problems were encountered. Myself or my rotational relief were always on site when ICD’s were run in the horizontal. In early 2013, we had completed 52 horizontal wells with rig count up to 13 rigs (then reduced back to 10). Average days (spud to release) since starting the project in May had gone from over 100 to less than 50. One well had been drilled and completed in 42 days. As this time I did a one week job for Halcon Resources on my 21 days off and liked the work and people.
May 2010 until Dec. 2011 I completed a 1-1/2 year assignment as well site supervisor for Navidad Resources through Signa Engineering, primarily in Houston and Madison counties (Texas). This work included drilling, completions, and workovers. I installed Gas Lift, ESP’s, did selective completions, squeezed off water production and mechanically isolated water production, supervised fracks including frac prep and drill out of stage plugs with coiled tubing.
June 2008 until April 2010 During this period I was primarily consulting for ANLOC but had an arrangement where I could do other overlapping projects. For ANLOC I was manager of operations. Hockley Dome and High Island were the areas of operation. I planned the wells and did the wellsite supervision along with a second consultant who reported to me. We drilled three successful wells at Hockley and I supervised installation of production facilities on two of those wells. These wells were re-entries and deepening of old plugged wells.
For “OGJO” in Dhahran Saudi Arabia, I did engineering and new business development related to well stimulations (removal of oil base filter cake) in horizontal oil producers.
For Saudi Aramco (direct consulting to Saudi Aramco Professional Development Dept.) I worked with the University of Houston to choose and develop curriculum for their new drilling/workover school in Dhahran. I traveled to Dhahran Saudi Arabia to wrap up the project and present final results.
Supervisor; Drilling Engineer; Workover Engineer; Production Engineer; Completions Specialist;
Saudi Aramco, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (1991-2008)
My seventeen years with Saudi Aramco include four years in offshore drilling, four years in offshore workover, four years in deep gas drilling, two years in production engineering and three years in Technical Services as Completion Specialist.
My first job with SA was as a drilling engineer in the offshore group for four years and as an engineer and supervisor in the deep gas drilling group for five years. I planned and supervised the drilling and completion of some of the first horizontal wells in Saudi Arabia in 1991-94. Drilling these wells was a challenge as the directional engineers in the middle east had little horizontal experience. The biggest challenge was completing them in a way that would draw equally from the entire 3,000+ foot lateral. It took several years to get the proper equipment to accomplish this.
I had a 3 year assignment in Technical Services as Completions Specialist, coordinating completions involving new or developing technology. The job involved working with reservoir, production and drilling/completion engineers to insure that the wells were completed according to each group’s requirements utilizing the latest available technology. It also involved selecting the proper equipment and services to give the best value to the company. New technology we introduce to the company included electric downhole choke/control valves, fiber optics P/T sensors, expandable sand screens, expandable liners, inflow control devices (ICD’s), MPAS packers and later swell packers. During my time at Aramco I was directly involved in over 100 horizontal wells.
I also spent 4 years in the deep gas drilling group. This involved abnormally pressured and sour gas exploration and development wells in the depth ranges of 13,000 to 18,000 feet. These wells usually had two high pressure transition zones with a reverse transition between.
I had a one year assignment to production engineering in order to do a coiled tubing well clean out and stimulation campaign in a new field (Hawtah) in central Arabia. We used foam along with flow from perforations to achieve annular velocity to lift sand. All work was done live with the well on flare to pit.
My last position with Saudi Aramco was Supervisor in the Offshore Workover group where I supervised 6 to 8 drilling engineers and 4 jack up rigs. Most of our work involved cutting windows in the production casing of older wells and drilling horizontal sidetracks with top cemented equalizer screen completions (laterals of 1500’ to 3500’). This work was done to increase drainage efficiency without having to set new platforms.
Consulting Petroleum Engineer: Eaton Engineering; Conoco Congo Ltd. and Conoco Gabon Ltd., Pt. Noire Congo and Libreville Gabon (1989-91).
Various engineering and operations assignments, primarily involved with exploration drilling, for Conoco in Gabon and the Congo, West Africa. Wrote drilling programs and worked as well site foreman. I resigned in February 1991 to join Saudi Aramco.
Region Reservoir/Production Engineer: Cabot Petroleum Corp; Houston Texas (1984-89).
Chief Reservoir and Production Engineer for Cabot’s Gulf Coast Region. Responsible for preparation of annual reserve report on approximately 150 Cabot operated and 350 outside operated wells (audited by Miller & Lents). Proposed and supervised all recompletions and workovers in the gulf coast region. My group ran economic evaluations on all potential acquisitions, as well as on exploration and development expenditures. Cabot made the decision to break up and sell this region in 1989. I worked in the data room to assist buyers in evaluating the properties.
Prior to Cabot I worked as an Operations Manager for The Prudential Energy Co. and Duer Wagner Co. Prior to that I worked as a Drilling Engineer for several medium sized independents including Houston Oil and Minerals. I was trained as a well site supervisor at Pennzoil in 1974 under Herb Merkel, Sr. Foreman and approved to work on my on in the fall of 1974.
EDUCATION, SKILLS AND TECHNICAL TRAINING:
Bachelor of Science in Petroleum Engineering; Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas
Skills and Certifications:
IADC WELLSHARP level 4 certification, Surface/Subsea BOP and Workover/Completions, Supervisor level(ID 00075450).
Issued by Murchison Drilling Schools and good until may 2019.
H2S certified and co-wrote Saudi Aramco’s H2S Contingency Plan for Drilling and Workover.
Tropical HUET certification.
Experienced in multi-lateral horizontal drilling and completions
Experienced with expandable sand screens and all types of sand control.
Extensive Coiled Tubing operational experience in deviated and horizontal wells.
Continuing Education and Technical courses:
Well planning and maximum load casing design, horizontal well planning, drill string design and stuck pipe prevention, horizontal completions seminar, coiled tubing seminar, rock stress analysis (as related to horizontal drilling), under balanced drilling, sand control, reservoir engineering refresher course (2 weeks), conducting business meetings and giving presentations, and effective supervision and management.
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND ACTIVITIES: Society of Petroleum Engineers
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