What Is Completions?
Completions in oil and gas refers to the process of preparing a drilled wellbore for production after the drilling phase is finished. The completions process includes running and cementing production casing, perforating the casing at target intervals to create pathways into the reservoir, and in unconventional wells, hydraulic fracturing (fracking) the formation to create flow channels. Completions is one of the most capital-intensive phases of well construction, often accounting for 50–70% of total well cost in horizontal shale wells.
What Happens During Completions?
The typical unconventional well completions sequence:
- Run and cement production casing across the horizontal lateral
- Drill out any plugs or obstructions in the wellbore
- Set plug-and-perf assemblies or run a sliding sleeve system for stage isolation
- Pump hydraulic fracturing treatments stage by stage from toe to heel
- Drill out frac plugs after stimulation
- Install production tubing and artificial lift equipment
- Flow the well back and bring it online
What Is Completion Benchmarking?
Completions benchmarking compares well-level completions data — pump rates, proppant volumes, fluid volumes, stage counts, treating pressures, and NPT — across an operator's portfolio to identify best practices, cost savings opportunities, and performance outliers. Operators who systematically benchmark completions can reduce per-well costs significantly.
How AI Automates Completion Benchmarking
Collide's completion benchmarking workflow extracts data from daily completions reports, frac logs, and service company records — reducing manual data extraction from weeks to minutes. The platform normalizes data across wells and identifies patterns in completions design that correlate with production performance.