The client
An oil and gas producer running about 2,600 wells in 2 onshore regions. About 1,450 partners own shares in its wells, and the shares differ well by well. About 410 of its sites hold air permits. Accounting and partner billing run in IFS BOLO, and vendor tickets in OpenInvoice.
The engagement
The chief financial officer and the head of environment, health, and safety sponsored one engagement, because accounting and the environmental team keyed the same field data again and again. Six workflows were in scope:
- Field ticket review: 286,000 vendor tickets a year from about 900 vendors.
- Partner billing: about $1.3B of costs billed a year to 1,450 partners, with about 3,400 partner questions.
- Production volumes: monthly volumes for about 2,600 wells, reported to 2 states.
- Air permit deviations: about 3,600 alarms a year checked against 410 permits.
- Leak repair: about 3,900 leaks a year, each with a repair deadline.
- Greenhouse gas reporting: the annual federal and state emissions reports.
What the pilot found
Four forward-deployed engineers ran a 4-week pilot with accounting, the environmental team, and field supervisors. They studied 2 years of tickets, invoices, partner bills, and compliance records. They read the vendor contracts and the permits, and interviewed 34 people.
- Supervisors approved tickets without the vendor's rate sheet, so 4.6% of ticket lines were billed above the agreed rate.
- One flare had 3 numbers. Production and environmental records disagreed by more than 10% in 23% of facility-months, and one state regulator asked about a difference 41 times.
- Deviations were found months late, when the report was built, so 37% were reported after the permit deadline.
Accounting priced a ticket at $7. Counting disputes, recoding, partner questions, and corrections, it cost $21. A deviation was thought to take 5 hours of a specialist's time. Measured, it took 13.7 hours and cost $1,150.
The redesign
Field ticket review was the focus. The agent prices every line against the vendor's current rates, charges each ticket to the right well, and splits shared costs the way the partner agreement says. Tickets that match go to the supervisor in one batch. Any overcharge arrives with the rate sheet and the daily field report attached. In compliance, an agent checks equipment alarms against permit limits every day, and each flare volume is reviewed once for every report that needs it.
Before13 steps, 8 loops
18 days
After6 steps, 2 human decisions, 2 loops
4 days
- Manual step
- Agent step
- Person decides
- Rework loop
Process steps
- Before
- 13
- After
- 6
- Change
- 54% fewer
Ticket received to approved
- Before
- 18 days
- After
- 4 days
- Change
- 78% shorter
Exception loops
- Before
- 8
- After
- 2
- Change
- 75% fewer
Lines above contracted rates caught before payment
- Before
- 17%
- After
- 92%
- Change
- +75 pts
Pad tickets coded to the wrong well
- Before
- 12%
- After
- 1.5%
- Change
- 88% fewer
Cost per field ticket
- Before
- $21
- After
- $9
- Change
- 57% lower
| Before | After | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Process steps | 13 | 6 | 54% fewer |
| Ticket received to approved | 18 days | 4 days | 78% shorter |
| Exception loops | 8 | 2 | 75% fewer |
| Lines above contracted rates caught before payment | 17% | 92% | +75 pts |
| Pad tickets coded to the wrong well | 12% | 1.5% | 88% fewer |
| Cost per field ticket | $21 | $9 | 57% lower |
4 weeks of discovery, then 4 weeks of deployment
- Weeks 1 to 4, discovery: the pilot above maps the process, interviews the team, and sets the baseline for every figure on this page.
- Week 5, build: the agents are built on the redesigned process, the rates of all 900 vendors, and the conditions of all 410 permits.
- Week 6, shadow: the agents work live tickets and alarms with read-only access, and their results are compared with the team's decisions.
- Week 7, validate: the agents are tested on 4,000 tickets already priced by hand and 2 years of past deviations, and the controller, billing, and environmental leads sign off.
- Week 8, deploy: live on every ticket and at every permitted site, with every action logged.
- From week 8, train: the engineers train supervisors, accountants, and specialists on site. Partner billing, production volumes, leak repair, and emissions reporting follow, 4 weeks each.
What the agent does
- When a vendor's field ticket arrives in OpenInvoice, the agent prices every line against the vendor's agreed rates.
- It reads the daily field reports to confirm the work and codes the cost to the right wells.
- If the ticket bills more than the rates allow, it sends the field supervisor the difference with the evidence, then stops.
- The supervisor approves the payment, and each well's partners are billed their share.
Results
Air permit deviations reported on time rose from 63% to 95%, and the semiannual report takes 9 days instead of 26. Late leak repairs fell from 9% to 2%. Production and environmental records now disagree by more than 10% on under 2% of facility-months, down from 23%. Partner questions fell from 3,400 a year to about 1,300, because each bill shows the ticket behind it. Every figure is measured against the pilot baseline.
| Source | Annual value | How |
|---|---|---|
| Rate overcharges recovered | $4.7M | 75 more points of the $8.7M a year billed above contracted rates, at the company's 72% average working interest |
| Capacity released | $8.5M | 108,600 hours at $78 fully loaded: 71,400 in accounting, 44,000 of them in field ticket review, and 37,200 in environmental compliance |
| Penalties avoided | $2.2M | Penalties and settlements on late or missed reports and on volumes that disagreed between filings, down from $2.9M to $0.7M a year |
| Partner billing losses avoided | $2.1M | Audit settlements and miscoded costs past the 24-month adjustment window in the COPAS accounting procedure, down from $2.7M to $0.6M a year |
| Outside consultants | $1.1M | Consultant spend on the Subpart W report and the state emissions inventories, down from $2.0M to $0.9M a year |
| Total | $18.6M | Against the $63.2M a year it costs to run the workflows in scope: about 220 accountants, field ticket coders, and billing and production analysts and about 40 environmental specialists at $78, plus $9.2M of leak survey, emissions testing, and consulting contracts, $2.9M of penalties and settlements, $2.7M of partner billing losses, and the company's $6.3M share of charges billed above contract |
What stays with people
Agents price, code, check, and draft. People make every decision. Supervisors approve every ticket difference, specialists decide what counts as a deviation, and a named official certifies every permit report. The controller approves every payment run. Filings, inspector responses, and any vendor or partner dispute stay with named people. Every agent action records the rule and the evidence, and a wrong posting is reversed with a linked correction.
