Oil and gas teams spent 2025 in a constant balancing act. Rising production targets, tighter safety expectations, workforce shortages, and shifting regulatory requirements all pushed field leaders to improve visibility and take tighter control of daily operations.
One industry analysis noted that unplanned downtime in oil and gas can average around five hundred thousand dollars per hour, which reinforces how important field accuracy and speed have become. When every hour carries that kind of weight, the numbers teams focus on are not just indicators. They are levers that protect revenue, safety, and long term asset health.
Looking back across the year, a handful of field metrics became the clearest signs of operational maturity. These were the metrics that consistently reduced downtime, strengthened compliance, and helped teams stay productive under pressure.
Here are the ones that truly moved the needle.
1. Time from detection to action
In 2025 the gap between identifying an issue and resolving it became a defining performance signal. Whether it was equipment wear, pipeline integrity concerns, or on site safety risks, the teams that narrowed this window saw fewer escalations and fewer expensive disruptions.
A related insight appears in Field Squared’s guide to field service management metrics and key performance indicators, which highlights how real time visibility directly improves response performance:
What influenced this metric
- clarity of real time field reporting
- consistent documentation and photo capture
- task routing that reached the right person quickly
- automated notifications across teams
Why it mattered
Shorter response time meant stronger protection for production schedules and safer field environments.
2. First visit completion rate
With workforce resources stretched, operators leaned heavily on improving the accuracy and readiness of every work order. The ability to complete a job on the first visit reduced overtime, repeated travel, and scheduling bottlenecks.
Field Squared’s oil and gas mobile app overview highlights how accurate asset detail and mobile workflows improve this rate by giving field teams the right context before they arrive.
What improved this rate
- accurate site and asset information
- verified parts availability
- standardised checklists
- clear dependencies between tasks
Why it mattered
Every completed visit freed up capacity and reduced operational drag across crews.
3. Field documentation accuracy
Documentation quality quietly shaped operational success through the year. Missing readings, unclear photos, and inconsistent notes created a trail of rework and slowed down everything from compliance to closeout.
The Field Squared blog on asset management in oil and gas outlines why consistent documentation is essential for asset traceability and long term performance.
Teams that succeeded did three things
- made documentation part of the job, not an afterthought
- reduced manual data entry
- used consistent detail formats so review was faster
Why it mattered
Good documentation strengthened audits, billing accuracy, compliance reporting, and overall operational trust.
4. Preventive work completion rate
Preventive maintenance programs revealed notable gaps in 2025. Some teams discovered overdue work they did not know about. Others found that their scheduling processes did not match actual field conditions.
The connection between preventive work and operational resilience ties closely to enterprise asset readiness, and Field Squared’s enterprise asset management overview breaks down how visibility supports healthier maintenance cycles.
What supported stronger performance
- clear visibility of overdue work
- simple mobile workflows
- reliable equipment history
- better prioritisation of high impact tasks
Why it mattered
A stronger preventive completion rate reduced unplanned downtime, kept ageing infrastructure safer, and lowered maintenance costs.
5. Ratio of planned work to reactive work
This metric quietly separated steady operators from struggling ones. A high percentage of reactive work pulled teams into costly last minute changes, while a higher planned work share brought predictability and better resource use.
Work order accuracy and routing played a big part in this improvement, and the Field Squared work order management overview shows how structured workflows helped teams reduce reactive load.
What improved this ratio
- clear view of upcoming work
- accurate asset condition data
- better coordination between field and engineering
- simple routing for lower priority tasks
Why it mattered
Planned work created smoother days, reduced burnout, and allowed teams to stay ahead of operational stress.
Looking ahead to 2026
Across every operational group, 2025 reinforced one clear truth. Oil and gas operations scale only when field data is accurate, timely, and easy to share. The teams that had stronger visibility made better decisions. They responded faster, reduced risk, and protected both uptime and field safety.
A real world example comes from the Great Plains Gas Compression story, where improved field reporting and asset visibility helped reduce downtime and strengthen documentation:
These field metrics carry forward into 2026 as guideposts for operators aiming to increase reliability, improve team continuity, and get more value out of the assets they already have.
