With ever-increasing energy needs and the end of easy oil, oil and gas companies are focusing on fields far and beyond as well as unconventional sources. Increased regulatory and safety requirements are coupled with the need for newer discoveries to meet demand and the pressure of reduced availability of experienced manpower for safe, reliable, and efficient operations.

The digital oil field is an aggregation of people, processes, and technologies providing significant value to E&P operators. However, many oil and gas companies have large, integrated operations across the value chain – i.e., upstream, midstream, and downstream. Therefore, expanding the horizon of the digital oil field concept and technologies to cover the entire gambit of operations can significantly enhance the business value of the organization as well as improve safety and compliance to ever-changing regulations.

The availability and use of accurate, reliable, and timely information, rather than just data, is a powerful tool that can enhance asset performance. Integrated solutions that offer advanced diagnostics can help companies manage the control assets more effectively, alert operators about potential problems to enable quick response to issues, and even prevent problems before they occur.

For example, production data from the wellheads in the field can be matched with the demand to maximize profits, and insight into field equipment health status can assist in predictive maintenance and downtime reduction. Real-time monitoring of events, predictive and preventive analysis, and the ability to respond to conditions in the field are crucial for safe operations.

Business advantages of the introduction of these integrated solutions that yield information instead of just data include increased operational effectiveness and response to demand cycle fluctuations, the ability to overcome human resource constraints due to an aging workforce, limited availability of experienced personnel, and lower total cost of ownership of assets.

The following details some of the most interesting opportunities for technology to have a major impact for E&P operators.

Opportunities for technology

Industrial big data. Robust operations data management is a key requirement for strategic growth and a space where IT and technology systems have evolved over time. Advanced historian systems provide features that facilitate a conversion between IT and management because the data provide an enterprise operations intelligence platform that provides complete context in the decision-making process.

The right level of virtualization. Oil and gas companies have been investing in IT infrastructure as well as automation and control for improving safety and performance. While there is standardization to reduce the number of disparate systems, with the advancement of technology and geographic spread, companies are likely to have multiple platforms instead of a single common one.

Data virtualization helps get data from multiple sources within the enterprise to a single repository, which can be used by various departments for visualization of the real-time status of fields and equipment, historical trends, and as a data source for simulation and optimization packages. Virtualization is the key to having a complete picture of the events unfolding in different operational areas within the value chain, be it upstream, midstream pipelines, or the tank storage area, since events in one location can create a backlash in other related operational areas. The prevention of damaging events is a critical factor for safety.

While virtualization is a must, due consideration must be given to how much to virtualize. With the decrease in costs of servers and storage equipment, it is easy to fall into the trap of data and information overload. A balance between "not enough" and "too much" is crucial for ensuring that decision support systems have the relevant data.

Investments in virtualization and visualization deliver value to any organization; however, it is important to document and communicate the benefits during the implementation process to avoid the perception of this investment as "wasteful."

Foresight and insight for increased asset performance. Operational intelligence enables operators of large industrial equipment to understand what is happening across the fleets and to predict and prevent equipment problems. These systems increase production efficiency by improving reliability and availability. The valuable insight that information provides helps boost asset performance. For example, effective analytic systems can preempt alarm and failure events based on historical modeling, enabling "active avoidance" to minimize asset downtime and hence increase yields. These solutions provide actionable warnings of impending equipment problems much earlier than existing condition-monitoring approaches to:

  • detect, diagnose, and prioritize emerging performance and reliability problems;
  • focus maintenance efforts;
  • maximize and leverage resources; and
  • keep operations safe.

The average user of this type of solution can achieve return on investment (ROI) in six to 12 months, and sometimes much sooner.

Intelligent pipeline monitoring. Expanding the digital oil field concept to optimize the transportation of liquids and gases and the storage and custody transfer of end products ensures that the market demands for the products are matched with the production to maximize ROI. The what-if analysis helps business managers have real-time scenario planning and optimize production and supply for increased profitability.

Wellhead automation systems. E&P companies are under intense pressure to maximize productivity, reliability, and efficiency while addressing increasing cost and profitability pressures. Significantly high financial and operational stakes in oil and gas recovery, coupled with sophisticated processes in extremely harsh environments, call for renewed focus on the criticality of wellhead operations. This is the initiation point of the complete oil and gas value chain and the focal point for the implementation of digital oil fields, also known as decision support systems.

Optimizing performance

Reliable information is at the heart of optimized performance. The critical and complex nature of E&P operations demands that technology solutions aid in improving the safety of the environment and people, increase efficiencies, and enable real-time decision support based on data from multiple disparate sources.

Companies that are lacking accurate, timely, and integrated information cannot adequately control and optimize production, leverage a centralized repository of data for real-time and historical analysis, or monitor and enhance field production strategies – a significant disadvantage that results in suboptimal performance.

Comments