High Technology, High Efficiency

Allied-Horizontal Wireline Services
Written by Leon Bracey

Allied-Horizontal Wireline Services is committed to collaborating with oil and gas companies to develop industry-leading formation evaluation and completion solutions. Efficiently combining advanced reservoir analytical tools and completions, Allied-Horizontal Wireline Services’ team of professionals tailors solutions to the characteristics of the reservoir to maximize stimulation and well completion.
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Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the company was founded in 2010 as Allied Wireline Services. In March of 2014, Allied Wireline Services and Horizontal Wireline Services merged to form one of the leading independent full-service wireline providers in the country. Besides its offices in Houston, Allied-Horizontal also has facilities in Brighton, Colorado; Dickinson, North Dakota; Irwin, Pennsylvania; Oklahoma City; and the following locations throughout Texas including Abilene, Midland, Pleasanton, and Victoria. The company is positioned to serve customers from established oil plays in the Marcellus, Utica, Mid-Continent, Eagle Ford, Permian Basin, Cline, Niobrara and Bakken regions.

Chief Financial Officer Peter Brink spoke about Allied-Horizontal and its services, and the rapid growth since inception just four years ago.

“We started with the idea of taking the customer service mindset of an independent service provider and married that with the technical capabilities that mirrored the sophisticated services of larger oilfield service providers,” states Brink. “We felt that larger, more diversified players were not focused on the service quality aspect of wireline and independents were not focused on technical services because of the money and time needed to develop those tools.”

The marriage of these two concepts served as the foundation for launching the Company, which offers a variety of services to meet client needs and boasts the most advanced independent reservoir analytics in the industry.

“We differentiate ourselves in the marketplace with technology and service,” Brink says. “Allied and Horizontal came together to increase our geographical footprint in the U.S., broaden the customer reach and share best practices in customer service and market technology. We combined technical services, best-in-class analytics, and completions services to offer our customers better solutions.”

Utilizing state of the art Open-Hole Wireline technology, the company’s technical experts provide quality information and insight to help oil and gas companies make the most effective decisions for maximizing the economic returns of their production plans. Allied-Horizontal is consistently growing its specialty services such as Rotary Sidewall Coring and Resistivity Micro Imagery, while providing the most reliable traditional technologies such as Induction Array, Dual Laterolog, Micro Spherical Focused Logging, Microlog, Lithology Density, Compensated Neutron, Multi Array Sonic, Spectral Gamma Ray, and Gamma Ray.

The Company has an exclusive agreement with GE Oil & Gas and serves as an integral part of the open-hole tool design and development process. The resulting tools are shorter, lighter and more reliable without compromising functionality, meaning less downtime on location. Shorter tool strings require less total well depth to position sensors into the zone of interest, reducing the overall drilling time.

For Cased-Hole Services, Allied-Horizontal’s complete portfolio of reservoir evaluation and completion services helps its clients locate any bypassed pay and evaluate cement or casing that may be siphoning off valuable production, as well as providing the information needed to make the decision to abandon or recomplete a well. “Combining best-in-class answer products with the most efficient completions services allows our customers to more cost effectively develop the resource,” Brink explains, “resulting in better returns on their investment.”

It is Allied-Horizontal’s goal to provide industry leading service quality for every job, whether it is setting packers or running multi-arm calipers. Utilizing the right people, process, equipment and technology ensures better economic outcomes through superior evaluation and efficient completion services.

Allied-Horizontal offers both wireline and tubing conveyed perforating services to maximize reservoir productivity. The Company’s perforating systems are focused on achieving optimal production or injection in each well by optimizing the interface between the wellbore and the reservoir. Experienced wireline specialists matched with best-in-class technology and best practice-based processes provide a safer wellsite environment and reduce non-productive time – enhancing economic returns through increased efficiency.

The Company employs nearly 700 personnel across every key basin in the U.S. “We’ve grown quickly, especially as a combined company, but we’re still young in the marketplace,” says Brink. “We try to maintain a smaller company feel, to know our employees and position ourselves as the employer of choice in the field. We recruit and retain the best people and then provide continuous training, creating paths for advancement for our employees to grow the Company. An employee who gets an entry-level position can move up within our company through several avenues including operations, safety, or a standalone service quality team that assists operations and safety in developing consistent service delivery outcomes for our customers.”

Brinks elaborates on the Company’s focus on hiring quality personnel. “Our goal is to find the best people out there with the right mindset to be part of what we’re creating in the industry, then, with training and career progression opportunities, continue to develop them into the leaders we need to sustain our growth.”

Allied-Horizontal is committed to establishing and preserving the health and safety of employees, customers, the public and the environment. Experienced personnel are equipped with the most advanced tools in the market and are continuously trained and measured on their health, safety and environment performance.

“Safety and Service Quality are especially important in our business,” Brink says. “We believe we have the right people, processes, and equipment. With those elements together, employing the right technology delivers value to our customers and differentiates us in the market. We drive that culture and philosophy in doing things as safely as possible and focus on doing everything right and following the right steps in the chain.”

Key elements of Allied-Horizontal’s Health, Safety & Environment programs include:
•providing guidance to all managers and employees with clear HSE requirements, such as safe driving practices
•exploring proactive ways to prevent accidents and incidents of all types
•investing in training and certification for all levels of personnel
•requiring all employees to notify co-workers, clients and management of any potential or existing HSE occurrences
•implementing lessons learned to prevent future occurrences.

“We serve large and small clients in locations across resource plays in the lower 48 [states],” says Brink. “We’re competing against larger companies every day. Our operational safety / efficiency allows us to do it better and as a result, continue to advance our image and reputation with customers.”

Allied-Horizontal has a number of expansion plans besides growth in the existing footprint. The Company will continue to advance its technology portfolio, through strategic alliances with leading technology providers such as GE. For example, the rotary sidewall coring tools will allow the capability to core and retrieve up to fifty 1.5 inch rock samples in a single run. Another example of specialized technology developed through these joint efforts is the new Resistivity Micro Imaging tool, delivering high resolution images over a greater operating range than before. This high-resolution imagery will determine the best steps to complete and develop a well, maximize production and outcomes.

“We’re always looking to determine the right opportunities to drive returns and meet the needs of customers,” says Brink. “We’re constantly refining our processes to make sure that we are putting people and equipment out there that deliver value for customers.”

In just four years, Allied-Horizontal Wireline Services has become one of the leading independent full-service wireline providers in the U.S. oil and gas industry by combining modern technology with good old-fashioned customer service. Brink feels this is a winning formula for the company.

“We believe we have built a business that is a combination of the most sophisticated technical solutions and operational efficiency. As a result, we deliver higher service levels for our customers.”

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