Production Dashboards
A production dashboard is a visual interface that displays key operational data from across a field or asset in a single view. It is the primary tool that production engineers, supervisors, and managers use to monitor performance, identify issues, and make decisions.
Below is a realistic example dashboard for a fictional field called "Al Shaheen North". Study each section to understand what information it conveys and how a production engineer would use it during a daily operations meeting.
Al Shaheen North - Field Overview
| Last refresh: 06:00 UTC | Auto-refresh: 5 min
15-Day Production Trend
Active Alarms
5 activeWell-A12
ESP motor temperature 165C (limit: 160C)
Well-D08
High tubing pressure - well tripped offline
Well-B05
Gas lift injection rate below setpoint
Well-C11
Water cut increase +3% in 24 hours
Sep-Train-2
Scheduled maintenance starts 08:00 today
Deferred Production
3,530 bbl/d lostWell Status Summary
| Well | Oil (bbl/d) | Gas (MMscf/d) | WC (%) | Lift | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Well-A03 | 3,420 | 4.1 | 22 | ESP | producing |
| Well-A07 | 2,850 | 3.4 | 18 | Gas Lift | producing |
| Well-B02 | 2,680 | 3.1 | 31 | ESP | producing |
| Well-C04 | 2,210 | 2.6 | 45 | Gas Lift | producing |
| Well-A12 | - | - | - | ESP | alarm |
| Well-D08 | - | - | - | Natural Flow | shut-in |
| Well-B09 | 1,540 | 1.8 | 52 | Rod Pump | producing |
| Well-C01 | 1,320 | 1.5 | 28 | ESP | workover |
Anatomy of this Dashboard
Let's break down each section of the dashboard above and explain what a production engineer looks for in a daily operations meeting:
KPI Summary Cards (Top Row)
The four cards at the top give an instant health check. Oil is 3.8% below target - the team immediately asks why. Water cut at 38.2% is within limits but trending up. Production efficiency at 91.4% means 8.6% of potential production is being lost.
Key question answered: "Are we meeting our production target today?"
Trend Chart (Toggle Oil / Gas / Water)
Click the buttons to switch between oil rate, gas rate, and water cut. The dip around Feb 8-10 corresponds to the Well-D08 trip and separator constraint. The red dashed target line shows where production should be.
Key question answered: "Is the field trending up or down? What happened last week?"
Alarm Panel
Colour-coded by severity: red for critical (needs immediate action), amber for warnings (monitor closely), blue for informational. Two critical alarms overnight explain the production shortfall.
Key question answered: "What happened overnight? What needs attention right now?"
Deferment Breakdown
Shows exactly where 3,530 bbl/d of lost production is coming from. The biggest contributor (Well-D08 trip) accounts for 34% of deferment. This tells the team where to focus recovery efforts for maximum impact.
Key question answered: "Why are we below target? What should we fix first?"
Well Status Table
A sortable list of wells showing per-well production rates, water cut, artificial lift method, and current status. Engineers scan for anomalies: high water cut, shut-in wells, or alarm states.
Key question answered: "Which individual wells need attention?"
Common Dashboard Tools
Power BI
Microsoft's analytics platform
Spotfire
TIBCO (popular in O&G)
Grafana
Open-source time-series
Custom Web Apps
Built in-house (React, Vue)
Use Case: Daily Production Meeting
Every morning at 8 AM, the production team opens the field dashboard on a large screen in the operations room. Looking at the dashboard above, the team sees production is 3.8% below target. The alarm panel reveals Well-D08 tripped offline at 02:47 due to high tubing pressure, and Well-A12's ESP motor is overheating. The deferment chart shows these two wells account for over 50% of lost production. The engineer remotely adjusts D08's choke and schedules an ESP inspection for A12 - restoring 1,200 bbl/d before 9 AM. This is the power of a well-designed production dashboard.