Oil, Gas Industry Needs Better Understanding of Cost-Cutting Consequences Cost cuts are necessary as the oil and gas industry weathers its current downturn, but industry needs to measure and better understand the long-term consequences of these costs. The results of these cuts come at a price that isn’t seen right away: the reliability of equipment performance, said Shauna Noonan, completions technology manager with ConocoPhillips in Houston, during a panel discussion Sept. 29 at the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ 2015 Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. The discussion by a panel of industry experts focused on how to manage the future impact that the current round of cost-cutting will have on the global oil and gas industry. “We as management and engineers, don’t know what the ultimate price is when we cut costs,” said Noonan. “Historically, we haven’t documented what we have done; we just publicize the upfront cost savings.” When […]