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Hey everybody, welcome back to another fun film.
That's the end of the film on the podcast.
Episode 300 something something something.
I say that because we are well above 300.
But I don't know the exact number.
I think we're in the 330s right now.
If I remember correctly.
I wonder if we took a little dive into all the oil field podcasts.
Besides some of the original original ones which I don't even know if they're still going.
But I'd have to say that we're probably out there amongst you know top five in terms of just following the count.
Yeah I mean it's it's been a healthy run.
Yeah yeah so which big shout out to all the listeners out there.
That's certainly why we do it.
We don't do it to have a therapy session between Matt and I every Monday or whatever day we decide to record on.
But nonetheless appreciate all the support as always.
I'm going to start off just by saying you know because I don't know if everyone once they kind of hear us wind down
maybe they skip to the next episode where they go to another podcast or music.
But if you have any good ideas for a show if you have any questions.
You know to be honest it doesn't always have to be drilling fluids.
It could be what's your take on XYZ whether drilling related.
We know maybe you have a personal question.
I don't know.
But if you do we're happy to chat and as long as it's appropriate.
And we're always willing to to ban turnip about just about anything.
If you've listened for long enough we tend to go in different directions at the beginning of the episodes with.
Topics that have nothing to do with drilling or drilling fluids.
But most of you now probably know what's pretty well considering you've had hours of listening.
But nonetheless if you have any good questions drilling related hit us up on LinkedIn or you can reach set the flowline podcast at aesfluids.com.
Matt it's been a while but I think we're due for just a brief Astros update.
Can you give us one?
Well spring training is in full swing.
We have a very crowded infield.
A very inexperienced outfield so everybody is wondering if the trade is going to happen.
That's like my son's team right now.
Yeah very very similar.
Well yeah are you guys looking to deal a kid?
We've got lots of people who do this problem.
When you're seven years old most kids are good at fielding ground balls but the big pop flies.
There's like you know out of our outfielders which we play a rover.
One is about a 90% like catch it catching it and then the rest are about 50.
So if you get a big pop line to the outfield everyone kind of clenches their teeth out.
Oh please drop it again.
But it's getting better.
Back to the Astros I probably say it's probably better than 50% of MLB players can catch pop flies.
Yeah you hope so.
So yeah I think everybody is just sort of antsy to figure out how this all gets resolved.
For our sort of opening day lineup lots of new pitchers that's all really exciting.
So yeah keep it on eye on it but it is spring training so it's easy to just overlook everything.
But yeah so getting excited about the world baseball classic is starting this week in Houston.
Yeah isn't it from...
First game is Friday at noon.
Okay what is that then too?
So I mean you know it's only about a week and a half two weeks but it's different teams, national teams.
So some of the professional players are actually going to be representing their countries.
Oh that's cool.
Yeah so I mean I've heard nothing but great things about how much fun it is.
I've been told make a point of going so...
Are you going?
Yes yes I will be.
Yeah.
Very cool.
And so just looking forward to that although you know I'm sure some of the other teams I'm going to like Great Britain vs Italy or something.
Okay.
And even on the roster I don't think any of these people play professionally.
Yeah so they're having games in opening rounds kind of all over which is kind of cool and then I think the finals are going to be in Miami.
So I have not.
That would be cool.
I've heard it's well worth it but I've got...
I'm trying to set my mind under opening day at the end of March 26th or something.
Oh my gosh it's like right now.
It's upon us.
Well by the time it's air it might be days away.
Yeah very possible.
That's exciting.
Well that's cool.
Baseball is upon us.
It's full swing, spring mode.
Time changes upon us as well.
Yeah.
So yeah lots of things happening here.
Lots to look forward to.
Yeah.
Anyway back to money.
Today's episode is a big shout out to Chris Campbell.
He actually is the one who came into the office.
Matt and I were scratching our heads trying to think of a good topic.
And we had a couple but then Chris came in and you know spurred some idea on talking about mud consultants.
And there's a lot of different I guess titles or roles they have.
Mud gurus, mud cob, germ flu specialists that work directly for the operators.
But it actually be kind of interesting to sort of discuss what they are, what their roles are.
How we strategically work with them and how unique it is for them to be inside the operators office representing them.
But still representing the fluid side of it.
So I think just having a good conversation around that and kind of unpacking the benefits there.
I think it would be pretty cool if you think.
And I think it's really interesting because a lot of these.
It's how they tie into the culture of the company they're working for just as much as.
You know some of them are very strong operationally.
And you know they're not they're like look I'll just ask you if I want to know about chemistry or.
You know others are very very technical and very oriented in that front.
And so operationally maybe you're trying to.
Make sure that some of the things that they think will really help can how can we implement this.
Yeah, that's a good point.
A lot of them have varying ranges of background, right?
Yes.
I've worked with some who are like former mud engineers and they're super savvy on the upside.
And then like you said others are more like almost academic science driven.
Yes.
And so working with them can be challenging if you're of opposite experience.
Yes.
At least for myself I'm not super science academic but operationally is good.
So then dealing with someone who's super academic then I have to kind of leverage our other folks like yourself.
And breaking guys who are getting more technical savvy but none the less.
That's good kind of to describe that.
So Matt how would you you know it oftentimes we get all the referee.
Why do people often use that term?
Well I think referees a great description just because sometimes this can be worked into the idea that it has to be some kind of adversarial thing, right?
Like the mud consultant is there and saying hey I'm protecting you from these service companies that don't know what they're doing.
Where it not for me blah blah blah but like the real like referee the you know the ones.
The general good good relationships and you know the people that we we generally see our folks who say all right guys.
Here's the deal.
If you want to succeed here's what that looks like and by the only way to be successful is to keep the customer happy.
So they're they're aligning priorities but they're also speaking but which so so let's say look I'm not.
I want to hear to pick one company over it other I'm going to tell you what if your company's going to be successful this is what it looks like.
And I'm not going to necessarily play favorites per say I work for an operator but my goal is to kind of get everybody on the same page.
You know kind of enforce the rules but get us you know figure out what wins.
Yeah and for them it's it's in their best interest to support the drilling foods companies and to be successful because of the mud is successful then it's a reflection on that individual.
Whereas a lot of times us as mud companies and I'll be honest like early on in my career seeing that like I was always thinking they were against us.
They need to try to hit me up against the wall for doing something wrong.
So well that's not actually the case and you know as a growing to to to understand more how they play a better role in our in how we do things.
That's not always the case but from an opportunity standpoint Matt how can how can we you know take that as an opportunity when a company.
He's using a.
One of the most important aspects of this is that they're sitting side by side with the drilling team.
They're in meetings that the service companies aren't in they hear not only the kind of ins and outs of priorities but even maybe the cast of characters and how expectations are set.
And because they're listening to it with that drilling fluids ear they can say okay guys here is what our bosses all want you get this right we all win and a lot of times without that voice you can find yourself in a situation where.
You know a drilling issue really seems to want something and and you're sort of guessing at what will please them yeah and I mean it's not always but sometimes in challenging areas or what have you.
It's okay what do you want to see as we address this challenge because it may be that even if you think you know what what's going to fix it there may be a focus on something else and it's like well if if you keep chasing this you're going to look like you're not listening to me.
So those are things where it's like hey mud company here is what's going to keep you on the right page here is how you get that message out if you have an opinion and not only that but maybe I can help line you up so that your voice is heard.
Yeah kind of between two areas of disciplines. Yeah so that you know is is a big thing and then I think even just from a day to day okay these are our objectives these are our KPIs like this is the yardstick and you know I look at these metrics every day and these are the ones I want you to pay attention to.
Versus you know I mean different priorities right it may be hey our our mandate this quarter is get them I bills cost down that's it others it may be look we're we're under pressure to get drilling days down which means we're willing to spend money in places we wouldn't normally to achieve that goal what do you have in mind right and I think just alright this is that these are the important things to keep in mind.
And I think even from a mug perspective we've we've run into these situations with maybe field trials or even just operational changes where the mud is involved and the mud guru can stand in between say let me explain why this wasn't the mud companies fault per say yeah or what you need to keep in mind because a lot of folks just remember something happened and you were there and then you go out of the next well it's like I don't know about and it's like now understand like the the right way to do it.
Steps for follow this is what didn't work out this is what we need to change and and that's where I think my consultants can jump in and really kind of make sure everybody focuses on the right problem yeah no that that's a good point is a lot of times especially if you're dealing with a large operator and there's multiple stakeholders involved the communicate like things can get lost in translation or communication if there's not enough communication.
So hopefully if there's an individual having that role they can take what we're doing and it actually get relayed properly to your point and so that kind of leads into my question man do you have any without getting into the specifics of a company or a name of a person but can you share a case or a story where a mud consultant actually helped the situation
whereas if there wasn't one it may be resulted in a different outcome.
There was a situation this was a very very long time ago and I was with I was with another company at the time I was overseas and we had to use kind of a very specialized fluid to get a cement job in and what it happened was when they went to this place to this fluid that was going to be basically the fluid you would use to run
casing and cement. The driller they put in an assisted driller who was new to know what he was doing and didn't reciprocate the pipe enough and we got stuck but it was right when the fluid was being displaced and so everybody was walking around saying oh your fluid causes stuck pipe we're never using it again you know this kind of thing and the mud team there I was able to step in and say no this is drilling practices like actually the drilling engineers who were throwing rocks like this is more on your side than it is.
But they were willing to you know get the facts straight and ultimately when it was time to do the cement job like okay everything was ready but there was just a lot of misinformation going around that could have undermined some of that success serving the middle of things like well we can't do this you know we can't try that again and it was like well this doesn't have anything to do with the fluid.
So the fluid team was really important to make sense of that you know more recently I think we've had with some of the bigger operators it's been refreshing particularly we're talking about like lubricant evaluations and ideas we have for that and you know they're very open to that and they want to like learn and experience those things and so it's just fun to sort of compare notes.
Yeah and so I think there it's just one of those like sort of the culmination of combined ideas where they're like well that's great that you're doing this but what about this and then you're like oh okay and they're like well let's go talk to somebody at one of my people and we'll see if they'll you know buy into it.
Yeah so that's where I've seen a lot of benefit to is almost just having strategy round tables and these oftentimes we're doing things
because we believe it benefits the operator right and a lot of times like we have that sounds good keep going but sometimes you have a month specialist I can say that's great but what if you focus a little bit more on this because this is actually what they're looking for yeah
if you tie this together and that so it in a sense if they if we can work with them and strategize and that sort of helps accelerate our initiatives knowing oh this is the North Star for them let's really own in on this because we actually kind of thought this but if we pivot a little bit more
maybe we have a better advantage to create more value yeah so that is when they take the time to invest their time in understanding what our capabilities are then it's sort of both benefit from it on the flip side there are challenges yeah so let's talk a little bit about that.
I mean honestly like I know some really great fluids advisors and I think but one of the really hard challenges they have is when they do a good job they don't get noticed and by that I mean like there if it's a tough job because when people are like well we haven't had any mud issues so what do we need this guy for
and it's like no like that's the reason you have them there's this story I mean it's the story of just the the challenger investigation report and the one area that they were testing over and over again was software systems and testing for failure
and there was a tremendous amount of pressure because they weren't having software failures to stop testing because it was costing money and do something else
and the report was basically like the point was that it was that you were testing it it was like not testing it because you're not having failures does it like that's the wrong way to look at this so I think there's you know having the mindset if you are my provider that like look this person is going to keep you honest right like there maybe things that even you're like I don't like somebody breathing down my neck like this
but the other side of it is if you understand how everyone can succeed like hey you know if you're a mud company like make this person look good like that that helps a lot
right you know and then I think there's the tension kind of related to that of you know kind of making sure everybody gets credit
and I mean that just with like the mud company like hey we got to show up and show we're demonstrating value and for running it through this one person you know is the messaging kind of going to get lost or mixed up
because normally there's more than one mud provider and we're competing and we're trying to outshine and you know the this mud consultant is also representing the operator where you know you might have an idea
and it works and guess what they're going to tell the other rig to do it so making sure that everyone gets credit can sometimes be a little awkward because you don't want to go out of your way to be like wait look at me
and so it really helps sometimes when the mud consultants like no this was this was their input really appreciate that so I think there can just be a little bit more confusion there where I think KPIs can be really helpful
just okay here's what we did I've got the blessing of the mud consultant that you know this is sort of the sequence of events
yeah so what how do you deal with if there's tension or let's just say you have a sense that the advisors you know for whatever reason maybe working
so let's just say hypothetically speaking you know so and so worked at some mud company and got advanced and so you know buys these towards a competitor and you just feel like you're up against a brick wall every time I mean how do you navigate that because that's a reality that does and can happen
yeah I mean a lot of it takes time what I'm intrigued by is a lot of these experts come from mud companies yeah and they're sort of like two there's two different scenarios
one is they leave a place and they're really glad they left and they're really like you know there's no love lost after they're gone kind of thing and they tend to favor every company but the one they used to work for
the flip side of it is well I already know all their products and systems and I don't understand where you're not using X
and so you know you see these situations and a lot of it has to do with trying to have some one on one time and listening
I think there's very much sort of a human side to a lot of this you know a lot of it just I think generally takes time and kind of building trust because it's like well I know them but I don't know you
yeah and you know I mean the the biggest thing for me is is trying to put myself in their shoes particularly you know a new gig would have you there's probably some anxiety with that transition
there may be some behaviors that aren't necessarily how they're going to do business once they're comfortable on seat
and you know I would hope to be the first to admit that sometimes I have to show more humility than I am initially inclined and and you know make sure that I'm really helping this person
be comfortable and really having sort of a servant mindset to them yeah even if I might not necessarily agree with the changes they want to make right away
or you know the real tension is they sort of say hey I'm going to come fix everything and you're there with like here's why we don't do that
you know this is I'm trying to protect you from this and then you feel like you've got to go around like there's all this tension of like at what point do I just humbly accept that this is how it's going to be
well also like hey I don't want to be held responsible for this is just a very difficult thing to do because it just looks like your cover you're behind way too far in advance
yeah so I think that's where hopefully between the two of you there's enough of it's the oil field this is a small place
let's find a way to get along and and respect one another yeah you know I just ask for some advice like you know I know you're new
but what would you tell me and yeah you know here are some some ideas I have that I think might help get you off to a running start if you're open to it
yeah so no to your point is I mean you're dealing with people at the end of the day and it goes a long way if you can you'll put the effort in and to your point
is like putting yourself in their shoes right they've got a lot of pressure they're usually brought in to ultimately solve some problem
yeah and by that not just like a small repro but just like care fluids management is is off we need you to revamp the whole entire deal
and so then yeah there's a lot of you know political things going on internally for them perhaps and then for us to be able to work together
so it's an interesting dynamic it's it's a dance yeah yeah I mean way but it can again it overall it can be a huge benefit to everyone involved
yeah and then on the flip side if no one wants to play ball then it can just end in a dumpster by it
yes but I mean I just trying I remind myself I have a friend who is actually you know a mud specialist at an operator
and it was this huge transition I mean I've known the guy for 20 years and he had expressed interest in kind of going over the operator side
there were things he wanted to do they felt like he can only do working for an operator yeah and just to see the human side of like his wrestling with this big change
I mean it was a big step yeah and it sounds like things are going really well now but I imagine those first few days
where it's like what have I done like how do I how do I fit in when do I keep my mouth shut when do I speak up
there's just a lot going on on their side that just might create tension that is just like natural with change
and so I think the thing I I want to remind myself in situations like that is just of their situation
and that I need to like let them get settled before I overwhelm them with you know make sure I'm going at their pace
and not my pace with what they what they aspire to do and and kind of be supportive every step of the way
if you if I can you know no that's true the men great episode good conversation I don't have any other questions
thoughts and we cover pretty good amount of it closing last words I mean anything else I mean you kind of sound up
I mean any of our mud guru friends tell us tell us how we did tell us what we missed
yeah I know a few of you listen so yeah no that'd be great any feedback is always welcome appreciate like I said at the beginning of the episode
hit us up on LinkedIn or if you know matter I personally just either text us email us make sure you check out our YouTube channel
lots of good information on there any videos coming down the pipeline that any tech bites or tech tips
we just had a tech bite come out and the problem is we wrote all the scripts at the same time so I can't remember which one
but yes one was just well it's either launch it's launching this week very cool and we're working on kind of keeping up a cadence
of putting tech bites and tech tips out you know quarterly so there's a lot more in the pipeline very good and if you have any ideas
for tech tip doesn't always have to be an episode of the flow line but if you have any or if you're curious
about seeing some more visuals on anything drawing fluids related Matt and his team are awesome
and would be more than willing to put that in the queue and with that said everyone take care for now
enjoy the upcoming spring and for you baseball lovers out there get your popcorn hot dogs and bruski is ready
because it's coming anyways take care for now take care
take care
I think it was good of you to acknowledge the dumps for fire
because it can be I don't want to see you
it's always good because it's not but I'm sure people
