Tracking and controlling wells and pipelines with a smart phone

Fuel Fix:
Ed Whitacre, former chairman and CEO of AT&T and General Motors, has joined former Vice President Dick Cheney and Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim to invest in a San Antonio-based technology company that collects oil-field data.

The company, WellAware Holdings Inc., said Wednesday it has secured $37 million in funding that was led by Activant Capital Group LLC, a New York-based private equity firm, and Slim, an investor and CEO of América Móvil, one of the largest mobile phone carriers in Latin America.

Activant invests in technology and software businesses, according to its website.

Whitacre and Cheney, who also invested, are board members at WellAware.

WellAware was co-founded in 2012 by Matt Harrison, a former vice president at San Antonio-based InCube Laboratories, an incubator for biotech companies.

CEO interview: WellAware technology remotely monitors Eagle Ford wells, pipelines

WellAware has created software that lets energy companies track wells, pipelines and other oil-field equipment using smartphones, iPads and computers. Its technology also allows users to control oil and gas production remotely.

The company’s technology helps the oil and gas industry improve efficiency and reduce downtime by catching equipment problems as they happen. The company’s data-gathering also is able to point to potential problems, such as a change in pressure, before equipment fails.

In an interview last fall, Harrison said he funded the company himself for several months in 2013 while he tested the technology. WellAware then raised $9 million in first-round financing from private investors, and last year it launched its real-time, remote monitoring business in South Texas’ Eagle Ford Shale.

Harrison said the company’s $37 million cash infusion will be used to continue to develop software and network communications and to take the company’s technology to other U.S. shale plays.
...
The company network is already working in the Eagle Ford formation and the financing will allow it to expand its Permian Basin network and go nationwide.  It should help companies supervise their operations, but does raise questions about vulnerability to cyber attacks.

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