Putting Trust and Sense into Data for More Sustainable Energy Operations

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The dash for data to drive down costs and improve safety and sustainability is seeing offshore oil and gas assets, rigs and vessels transform into sophisticated sensor hubs. The generation and collation of vast amounts of historical and live data can now be converted and interpreted into valuable insights and shared at the touch of a button to reduce emissions and significantly lower the cost of operations.

In addition, advances in machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence can further eliminate unnecessary over conservatism, detect and predict anomalies, and ensure smarter decision-making in the future. 

Digitally enhance global rig operations

Odfjell Drilling wanted a global overview of its rig operations and fuel consumption to enable the business to be more innovative, competitive and offer increased value to clients—rig operators. The challenge faced was to gain access to data from several sensors and control panels, siloed in respective vendor control systems on the rig.  

A local physical connection had to be established to all control systems whilst ensuring the necessary security and control access to limit cybersecurity risks. By gaining access to operational and sensor data from its rigs, Odfjell Drilling improved its vessel operations, created new business models and satisfied client requirements for secure data access.

Odfjell Drilling contracted 4Subsea, a provider of digital technology and services to the energy and maritime sector, to deploy its Internet of Things sensors in conjunction with its data analytics platform, 4insight, to digitally enhance the company’s global rig operations.

Easy-to-interpret insights and reports

4Subsea’s technology began by deploying a data connector to the rig to collect data from various sources. The data connector is a component of 4insight Data Analytics and interfaces with local sensors and rig control systems, pushing time-series data to DataReservoir.io. 

Each sensor channel was mapped to a unique time-series in 4insight DataReservoir.io, which can handle large amounts of time-series data, making those data accessible securely in the cloud. DataReservoir.io enables access to the time series through REST APIs or Python APIs, giving engineers a choice for ingesting the data into their own applications.

To enable easy access to data generated by different operational systems and allow those data to be available to a single cloud application, Odfjell Drilling implemented 4insight to capture and catalogue all time-series data. 

The data are cleaned and processed by data analytics tools and distributed securely and efficiently to the customer. The results are presented as clear and concise, easy-to-interpret insights and contextualized dashboard reports to simplify the complex analysis process and effectively support critical decision-making.

Case study result

Odfjell Drilling improved rig operations, developed a new business model and easily shared rig data with clients using 4insight. The company made important progress on the digital transformation of rig operations with data-driven decisions to improve client services.

By monitoring and analyzing energy consumption patterns, rig crews could monitor rig performance, share best practices and encourage data-driven operational decisions. 

The monitoring of fuel consumption used in the vessel also allowed fuel efficiency to be maximized, saving on costs and reducing the environmental impact of operations.  

Lastly, Odfjell Drilling gave the client access to the required time-series data using DataReservoir.io APIs. The client could then extract the data directly from the cloud and analyze it for efficient future field development planning. 

Uploading this to the cloud allowed the operations team as well as selected clients the opportunity to create their own detailed analyses into the performance of semisubmersible drilling rigs without providing physical access on site. This safe and secure transfer of critical, time-series data can then be used to support more efficient field development planning in the future.

“4insight has opened many ways to access data,” said Andre Baadsvik, project manager with Odfjell Drilling. “When you open that door and get access to the data, you begin presenting insights to the team that change the mindset. We get a constant flow of ideas about smart things to do.”

About the author: Igancio Marré is executive vice president of operations with 4Subsea.