Well Performance Review (WPR) Consulting
Independent, Phase-Gated Root-Cause Diagnosis for New Wells That Are Not Producing — Well Selection and Placement, Completion and Perforation, Stimulation, Clean-up and Activation
Assign your company's most challenging well-underperformance problems — new wells that came in dry, weak, or far below forecast — to A&A, and let the high-level, seasoned consultants of the A&A Consulting Team determine why, and what can be done about it.
Avasthi & Associates, Inc. (A&A) is an independent petroleum engineering and geoscience consulting firm. A&A sells no drilling, completion, perforating, stimulation or wireline services, no equipment, no chemicals and no software — which is precisely what makes A&A the right party to review work those vendors performed. Our only business is expert technical consulting.
When a New Well Will Not Produce
A cluster of newly drilled and completed wells delivering no flow, or very low production, after stimulation and flowback is both a technical and a commercial emergency. The capital is already spent. The field development program that justified those wells is now in question. And every week without a diagnosis is a week in which the next wells may repeat the same mistake.
A field development program is validated by the productivity of its wells. When a group of new wells performs well below expectation despite operations having been executed as designed, it calls into question one or more links in a long chain — from well selection and placement, through drilling and completion, to perforation, stimulation and clean-up. The failure is rarely where the first theory says it is.
What a Well Performance Review Is
A Well Performance Review is a structured forensic study of the complete well life cycle, carried out by engineers who did not design, execute or supervise any part of it. It rests on three principles:
• Whole life cycle, not one discipline. Every link in the chain is examined — well selection and placement, drilling, completion and perforation, stimulation, clean-up and activation — rather than the one discipline a first theory happens to point at
• Evidence before opinion. Findings are built from the operator's own records — daily reports, logs, post-job reports, pressure charts, flowback and SCADA data — and benchmarked against representative offset wells that did perform
• Root cause, not symptom. Symptoms are easy to treat and expensive to keep treating. The engagement is designed to isolate the true cause, so the remedy is chosen on evidence rather than on hope
The review has two objectives, and the second matters as much as the first: diagnose the reasons for the poor or no-flow results, and prescribe the remedial actions that can restore or improve productivity.
When a Well Performance Review Pays for Itself
• New development wells deliver no flow, or production far below the forecast that justified them
• Wells in the same program perform very differently from one another, with no agreed explanation
• Operations were executed as designed, so the design itself — or the target selection behind it — is now in question
• Remedial work has already been attempted, without the result the operator expected
• A decision is pending on whether to re-stimulate, re-perforate, install artificial lift, sidetrack, or abandon — a decision far more expensive to get wrong than to investigate properly
• More wells in the same program are about to be drilled, and the operator cannot afford to repeat the outcome
• Partners, management or regulators require an independent technical account of what happened
Related A&A Service: For A&A's full drilling, completion and well-construction service list, please see A&A's Well Engineering, Drilling and Completion Consulting page.
1. Well Selection and Placement
The review begins before the rig arrived. If a well was placed where the reservoir could not deliver, nothing done later in the wellbore will fix it.
• The basis and criteria used for well selection, against structure maps and geologic cross-sections for all relevant horizons, and against the Plan of Development that set out the well count and target rationale
• Reservoir characterization, target-zone justification, and placement relative to structural and stratigraphic features, drawing on open-hole logs, offset production history, decline curves, core data and wellbore diagrams
• Well trajectories and landing points against reservoir objectives — planned versus actual well paths, Daily Drilling Reports for the new and representative offset wells, and drilling-fluids programs
Related A&A Service: For reservoir characterization and modeling behind target selection, please see A&A's Reservoir Characterization, Engineering & Simulation Consulting page.
2. Completion and Perforation
A correctly placed well can still be isolated from the reservoir by its own completion. This phase tests that possibility against the records.
• Completion design — tubing size, packer depths and perforation intervals — supported by cementing programs and post-job reports, Daily Completion Reports, and any in-house or third-party completion studies
• Perforation strategy — shot density, phasing and depth accuracy — using perforating plans and post-job reports, completion landing details, completion-fluid programs, and wellhead and production-tree details
• Pressure, temperature and log data before and after perforation, examined for irregularities and benchmarked against representative offset completions
• Cement-evaluation logs for the new wells and relevant offsets, for zonal isolation and behind-casing communication
3. Stimulation Design and Execution
Stimulation is where design intent and field execution most often diverge — and where the divergence is best documented, if anyone reads the charts against the plan.
• Stimulation programs — acid type, fluid composition, injection rate, volumes, diverter systems and energizing techniques — for the new wells and for relevant offsets
• Job-execution data: pressure charts, surface indications and fluid returns from the post-job reports
• Actual job results compared against design expectations, with the key issues, lessons learned and opportunities to improve the stimulation strategy set out explicitly
Related A&A Service: For stimulation, completion-design and artificial-lift optimization services, please see A&A's Production Enhancement Consulting page.
4. Well Clean-up and Activation
A well that was never properly cleaned up and unloaded can look like a reservoir failure for years. This phase separates the two.
• Flowback and well-activation procedures, including nitrogen lift and other unloading methods, for the new and representative offset wells
• Fluid-recovery efficiency, wellbore clean-up effectiveness and post-stimulation pressure behavior, with departures from expectation identified
• Well-testing and SCADA data for early-time performance against representative offsets
• Any remedial action already taken — through-tubing and wireline diagnostics, gauge runs, pressure surveys, fluid analyses and chemical treatments — and what it revealed
Related A&A Service: For mechanical integrity, well-status evaluation and workover assessment, please see A&A's Well Integrity Consulting page.
5. Integrated Diagnosis and Root-Cause Analysis
The preceding phases produce evidence. This phase produces the answer.
• Subsurface, wellbore and surface findings integrated into a single coherent picture, rather than four separate opinions
• A structured Root-Cause Analysis identifying the most probable causes of poor or no-flow performance, well by well
• The key operational and design gaps relative to industry best practice, stated plainly
• Where the evidence does not support a firm conclusion, that is said so — with what additional data or testing would settle it
Related A&A Service: Where the reservoir and its fracture system are themselves in question, this review is run alongside A&A's Continuous Fracture Modeling (CFM) Consulting engagement, which builds and calibrates the reservoir and fracture model that underpins the diagnosis.
6. Development Optimization — Preventing a Repeat
A diagnosis that does not change the next well has solved half the problem. This phase turns the learnings into the drilling and completion strategy for the wells still to come.
• Drilling and completion strategies that maximize recovery, minimize risk and accelerate field development
• Learnings from every earlier phase translated into concrete, actionable recommendations
• Where a geoscience or fracture-modeling study is running in parallel, its results are built directly into the recommendations
Related A&A Service: For field-wide performance diagnostics and ranked opportunity inventories, please see A&A's Reservoir Performance & Production Optimization Consulting page.
7. The Revival Options
The engagement concludes with concrete, prioritized recommendations — not findings alone. Four routes back to productivity are evaluated against the diagnosis, and ranked:
• Re-stimulation — where the diagnosis points to an ineffective or under-placed treatment, informed by the Phase 3 review of design against actual execution
• Re-perforation — where shot density, phasing or depth accuracy is implicated, supported by the pre- and post-perforation data analysis
• Artificial lift — where the well cannot unload or sustain flow unaided, informed by the clean-up, activation and early-time performance review
• Sidetrack — where placement or landing point is the root cause and the wellbore cannot be salvaged — the most expensive option, and therefore the one that most needs an independent diagnosis first
How an A&A Well Performance Review Runs — Seven Gated Phases
A&A organizes the review as seven sequential, gated phases. Each phase concludes with a progress-review meeting at which A&A presents its findings before proceeding — so the client sees the evidence accumulate, and can redirect effort as it emerges. It is never a black-box deliverable.
• Phase 1 — Well Selection & Placement: Selection basis and criteria, reservoir characterization and target-zone justification, trajectories and landing points
• Phase 2 — Completion & Perforation: Completion design, perforation strategy, and pre- and post-perforation data
• Phase 3 — Stimulation Design & Execution: Stimulation programs, job-execution data, and actual results against design
• Phase 4 — Well Clean-up & Activation: Flowback and activation, fluid recovery and clean-up, early-time performance, and any remedial action already taken
• Phase 5 — Integrated Diagnosis: Findings integrated, structured Root-Cause Analysis, gaps against best practice
• Phase 6 — Development Optimization: Drilling and completion strategy for the wells still to come
• Phase 7 — Final Reporting & Close-out: Comprehensive technical report and final presentation at the close-out meeting
A review of this shape is typically scoped at approximately 20-24 weeks from kick-off to close-out. The estimate assumes the project data is provided on or before the kick-off meeting; depending on what arrives, some phases take less time and others more.
What You Receive
• Root-cause diagnosis. A structured Root-Cause Analysis identifying the most probable causes of poor or no-flow performance for each of the subject wells
• Comprehensive final technical report. Covering the summary of findings and diagnostic conclusions, the root-cause analysis for each well, the recommended way forward and revival options, development-optimization guidance for future wells, and all supporting data, charts and interpretations
• Six phase progress-review presentations. A progress-review presentation at the conclusion of each of Phases 1 through 6 — six interim presentations in total — documenting that phase's findings, key issues and emerging conclusions
• Final close-out presentation. A final presentation of findings, conclusions and actionable recommendations at the project close-out meeting
What A&A Needs From You
A&A works from the records the operator already holds — around 29 items for a review of this kind, for the subject wells and for key offset wells. Nothing on the list is a precondition: where an item is unavailable, A&A will work with you to identify a suitable substitute or scope the analysis accordingly. But providing this material on or before the kick-off meeting is the single most effective way to keep the review on schedule.
• Subsurface and placement: structure maps for all relevant horizons, geologic cross-sections, the Plan of Development and target-selection rationale, open-hole logs, whole-core data, and offset production history and decline curves
• Drilling: wellbore diagrams, directional summaries with planned versus actual well paths, Daily Drilling Reports, drilling-fluids and cementing programs with post-job reports, and cement-evaluation logs
• Completion and perforation: Daily Completion Reports, completion landing details, perforating plans and post-job reports, completion-fluid programs, wellhead and production-tree details, and pre- and post-perforation pressure, temperature and log data
• Stimulation: stimulation design proposals and programs for the subject and offset wells, post-stimulation job reports, frac design and PRT charts, mineralogy and frac-fluid chemistry
• Clean-up and early performance: initial production, flowback and clean-up reports, fluid-recovery data, well-testing and SCADA data, and daily reports for any remedial work already performed
Logs are most useful marked with formation tops (MD/TVD) for the productive horizons, plus any known shallow hazards or lost-circulation zones. Comparison against two to three representative offset wells that did perform is central to the method, so offset records matter as much as the subject wells' own.
Why Independence Decides the Answer
A Well Performance Review examines work already performed — by drilling contractors, perforating and stimulation companies, completion vendors, and the operator's own engineering teams. Every one of those parties has an account of events in which they did nothing wrong.
A reviewer with a commercial interest in the tools, chemicals or services under examination cannot give a clean answer, however capable its engineers. A&A sells none of them. There is no service line to protect, no product to recommend, and no follow-on work to win by reaching a particular conclusion. That is the whole value of the exercise.
Why A&A?
• No drilling, completion, perforating, stimulation or wireline services; no equipment, chemicals, proppant or software; and no sales force — nothing to protect and nothing to sell
• Decades of hands-on drilling, completion, stimulation and well-performance diagnostic experience, applied through a disciplined gated methodology
• Principal-level experts — not junior staff — are named to lead your engagement, backed by 135+ consultants across drilling, completions, stimulation, geosciences, geomechanics and reservoir engineering
• A progress review at every phase gate — the evidence is visible as it accumulates, and effort can be redirected before it is spent
• Your engineers can work alongside the review rather than receive a report at the end — A&A has delivered 26 specialized training workshops and courses at 17 international locations
• Never competes with its clients, and maintains strict client confidentiality — glad to execute an NDA before reviewing any data
• Certified to practice engineering by the Texas Board of Professional Engineers (TBPE Firm Registration No. F-12416), independent since 1990
• A&A bills for the actual professional time its consultants take on the assignment, with a phase-by-phase estimate provided up front to support your budgeting
Find Out Why. Then Decide What to Do About It.
Tell us what your wells are doing — and what they were supposed to do. A&A will propose a focused, phase-by-phase Well Performance Review, with the data requirements and estimated effort set out before any commitment. We are glad to sign an NDA before reviewing any project-specific or confidential data, and can typically turn a written technical and commercial proposal around within 5 to 10 business days.
Contacts us by:
- Email: contact@AvasthiConsulting.com
- Telephone: +1-281-359-2674
