October 22, 2025

How To Misspend $100 Billion Using Excel

31 minutes

Unconventional oil and gas is massive. Every year, over $100 billion is poured into steel, sand, and water just in Canada and the US. Yet, most of the planning behind these extraordinary investments still runs on Excel spreadsheets. Spreadsheets were fine in the 90s, but today they struggle to handle the complex interdependencies and real-world constraints of modern tight plays.

The hidden cost to the industry is huge. Expensive inefficiencies, wasted capital, and missed opportunities to improve well design and execution. Other industries abandoned spreadsheets long ago when margins got thin, but oil and gas clings to them, and keeps burning the billions.

My guest in this episode is Sean Hervo, a former Shell upstream engineer, who saw firsthand how spreadsheets literally strangle unconventional well planning. He co-founded PrePad, an innovative digital solution, that replaces bulkly and clunky spreadsheets with digital simulation and optimization tools, giving operators the ability to make faster, smarter, more profitable decisions. Sean explains how the industry can finally ditch the spreadsheets and run well delivery like the modern manufacturing system it has become.

👤 About the Guest

Sean Hervo is the CEO and co-founder of PrePad, a Calgary-based technology company that helps oil and gas operators optimize well planning and completions. Before starting PrePad, Sean spent more than a decade at Shell in drilling, completions, capital planning, and supply chain leadership, giving him deep insight into the challenges of unconventional resource development.

Connect with Sean on LinkedIn: Sean Hervo

Learn more about PrePad: https://www.prepad.io

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