One day my father drove home his brand new 1973 Ford Thunderbird. Neighbors gathered in the driveway to admire it, and one, an engineer in the atomic energy industry, noticed the tires were low on air pressure. My father proudly told him that they were fine and how it was fitted with the latest “radial” Michelins. The nuclear engineer went on to explain how those tires would wear quickly, have poor steering and certainly would have a higher rolling resistance, which would reduce gas mileage. Today it is well-known that radial tires are better in every way. All passenger cars are fitted with them due to their longer tread life, better steering characteristics and lower rolling resistance.

When introducing the latest in upstream oilfield technology, I’m more often than not met with the same resistance that our neighbor had with those Michelins. Most people that have been in the oil patch for 20-plus years are pessimists with respect to new technology. Is it because they have tried so many things that have not yielded the results promised, or rather is it a lack of understanding of the technology? Or is it because the technology was not invented here?

I came across this phenomenon in the early 1990s while working with pump-off controllers. Lease supervisors were questioning why someone would want to shut off a beam pump. They didn’t believe they could make more revenues without the walking beam, well, walking.

Like the radial tires, pump-off controllers are standard equipment today for numerous leases.

In relation to Yesss Oil’s EOR technology, there are those that tried products of similar design or theory base in the mid-’80s with no increase in oil production. When Yesss Oil studied the 30-plus-year-old technology, the company found that the design was of much lower power output and in no way could elevate near-wellbore temperatures to provide magnitude production increases. The companies behind those early designs were well-known for their great engineering feats. It is just that $10/bbl oil wasn’t economically valuable enough to warrant high power solutions.

Others say the production data are flawed or they simply can’t understand how the technology could work. Many are nervous of the life span or durability. More often than not, the company’s offering is dismissed as ineffective. Others respond with, “If your technology worked, it would be everywhere.”

Yesss Oil’s current solution is not a panacea for every well or crude composition. Like radial tires, it has its fit and will become more mainstream as more upstream veterans understand it, see published data and come up with the idea of deploying it on their own.

Companies should not let the “not invented here” syndrome keep them from discovering a new technology that will help them attain their goals.

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