Chevron's self-designed path for IT-enabled transformation shows industry's intent to mine the gold in the IT promise.

The petroleum industry continues to work its way toward the ideals of domain integration, system-wide connectivity, an intelligent or digital oil field, or real-time asset management, which hold the promise of enhanced business performance. Yet the very nature of our organizations has made this a slow journey. The tendency to divide projects into discrete functions and then solve the specific challenges of each function with fit-for-purpose solutions has kept our businesses divided. While further along than we were a decade ago in using digital technologies to connect the various upstream functions, much opportunity for progress remains.
The Chevron "i-field" program, an initiative jointly developed and owned by operating companies at Chevron, exemplifies the industry's digital oilfield journey. As a major international player, Chevron is further along than many companies in applying digital technologies and processes to enhance performance. Yet, as the East Texas field example given herein will reveal, on a practical level the company is far from a process that spans its worldwide operations. This is certainly true of the industry as a whole - although significant progress continues to occur.
The opportunity/challenge
The reason for launching a digitally enabled "i-field" program - the "i" standing for the integration of disciplines - is simple. Chevron strives to remain competitive and double earnings by leveraging the knowledge of today's professional workforce and retaining that knowledge for future generations. To do this requires a high-performance enterprise that joins people, processes and technologies (time and money) toward:
• Arresting the production decline in mature fields;
• Accelerating production by efficiently turning potential and probable resources into proven, producible reserves, despite these largely being more difficult barrels to recover (e.g., deepwater, remote, high-pressure, heavy oil); and
• Managing the increased costs of operations by reducing down time, workover frequency, and regulatory events (e.g., emissions, disposal), among others.
The challenge is exacerbated by this fact. Today there are fewer engineers and geoscientists to manage and/or utilize an increasing storehouse of wells, data, field equipment/tools, and processing/analysis/optimization tools. Given this scenario, Chevron is reaching for a step-change in its operational capability by building i-field capability on top of an information technology (IT) and information management (IM) foundation. The i-field functionality will allow it to:
• Integrate across disciplines and create unified business solutions;
• Improve reliability and efficiency;
• Address emerging demographic challenges; and
• Improve decision-making through better use of existing and emerging technologies, processes and data.
While specific strategies and levels of execution vary from organization to organization, today's oilfield players, like Chevron, are transforming their operations in order to make optimum use of digital technologies to meet specific business objectives. The traditional approach of optimizing one operational function at a time is obsolete, as is the notion that IT is a function that is separate from business strategy. The i-field program at Chevron is all about integrated functionality to serve business objectives - it is not simply an IT project.
Operational transformation
Chevron's i-field program is a stepwise transformation process (Figure 1). Four i-field levels sit atop a basic IT and IM architecture and are defined by specific functionality. It is interesting to note, however, that this basic architecture - or Level 0 - that enables visibility into data and linkage between existing systems across multiple domains is not universally available today. Recent platform developments based on .NET and XML technologies are narrowing this gap in parallel with Chevron's current efforts to achieve more advanced i-field. On average, industry capability today resides between levels 1 and 2 (Figure 1), with level 4 being the ultimate goal.
Level 1. The instrumentation level involves installing the right data infrastructure and well instrumentation to collect sufficient data in real time, or near real time, and using that data to improve day-to-day asset management.
Level 2. At the real-time level, the appropriate software is required to validate, manage, visualize and analyze all available data and turn it into useful information.
Level 3. Intervention in real time requires linking surface and subsurface well controls and adding the capability to automatically detect and manage field events. This closes the loop between monitoring, analysis and action.
Level 4. With levels 1 through 3 achieved, a company is able to add a broader range of innovative technologies to support new processes and teamwork. Real-time reservoir monitoring, characterization, simulation and management use a common earth model that integrates data from all exploration and production (E&P) domains. "Intelligent" wells with infield processing (including subsea fields) are connected to remote control rooms and headquarters computing infrastructure and support systems. A digitally enabled, decision-support environment is used to manage each asset. Technical and business decisions occur in tandem. Virtual operating capability is a reality.
Business and the i-field
To achieve sound i-field solutions, Chevron has fostered relationships with key solution providers such as Microsoft, Schlumberger, SAIC and others to provide the enabling IT systems and framework required, as well as building blocks for i-field solutions. Chevron has also developed a unique relationship with the University of Southern California and created a Center for Interactive Smart Oilfield Technologies (CiSoft), with a key objective to pursue integrated solutions with new concepts for intelligent asset management.
Asset team personnel also are integral to the process of identifying practical opportunities for i-field solutions. The intent is to bring available i-field knowledge, processes and technologies together to meet asset needs as they are identified, as well as to develop new i-field components where gaps exist. Collaboration among all internal stakeholders and external partners is being used to provide the solutions required to keep Chevron moving up the transformation staircase (Figure 1) toward operational excellence.
Quantifying and documenting the value delivered by each i-field project is integral to each initiative's success. New opportunities are being identified by spreading the word to asset teams and business units about what is possible through an i-field implementation.
The i-field lead team can engage projects in three ways, each driven by real business objectives.
• Field trials can be used to develop, install, test and measure the value of new technologies to meet identified needs in multiple assets.
• Asset-level needs assessments can be conducted as a collaborative effort between i-field team members and asset team members. Delineated projects are executed in partnership.
• Business-unit-level needs assessments can be conducted as a collaborative effort among business unit stakeholders. The execution occurs in partnership across all assets in the unit.
A number of tools, processes and documents are in place to guide all aspects of i-field engagements. These encompass identifying and prioritizing opportunities, setting and measuring metrics, and managing change, among others. The focus of each i-field project is to integrate new work processes and technologies to deliver a step-change in performance - move up the i-field staircase. Even a small percentage improvement in operational capability can yield a multimillion-dollar gain for a single asset.
Chevron has defined the basic elements of an i-field project to include (Figure 2):
• Assessing an asset's information, processes and decisions to identify the key issues and gaps (needs);
• Reviewing the current and emerging technologies that can be used to fill the gaps identified;
• Identifying opportunities to improve existing work processes to take advantage of the added technologies;
• Identifying any barriers to change to ensure that value is delivered;
• Identifying the right IT infrastructure to support the new technologies delivered and provide for future growth (plug-in capability); and
• Using the Chevron-sanctioned project design, management and implementation process.
An i-field project in East Texas
The asset team in charge of an East Texas (Carthage, Texas) gas field was open to performance improvement but was finding it difficult to build a business case for an i-field investment. The field was operating with traditional, "low-tech" instrumentation and limited surveillance capability. Traditionally only one data point per well was being captured every 24 hours, and additional manual data entry was resulting in duplication of effort. There was very little use of analysis tools and minimal optimization of the field was occurring.
Working in collaboration with an i-field team, the asset team identified i-field Level 1, 2 and 3 opportunities that would enhance their performance. The Level 1 (surveillance) plan called for eliminating manual data capture to free up the operator's time for other operational improvements and reduce the errors associated with manual data entry, providing for additional data capture of sufficient density for engineering analysis and optimization practices, and adding the infrastructure for control and optimization algorithms.
At Level 2 (analysis), the i-field project would enable the proactive identification of needed well work.
The ability to compare expected well declines with actual decline results over time would be provided.
At Level 3 (optimization) the asset team would be able to continuously optimize field compression and plunger lift performance. Flow could be optimized by reducing flow variance and well loading problems, and flowing wells that respond to intermitting could be managed more efficiently.
The i-field journey
It seems at times that the E&P industry talks and talks about creating a digital oil field but that little progress is being made. Quite the contrary is true, however, when a full picture of the challenge associated with such an endeavor is viewed. Significant advancement has been made in recent years by closely tying digital implementation projects to clear business objectives, rigorously employing sound process and change management methods, and setting up collaborative environments that bring integrated asset teams, internal IT professionals and third-party providers together with a common goal.
In this fashion, companies at Chevron are using an i-field map that delineates the four steps required of each asset to reach the integrated functionality it desires and thus the companywide performance excellence that leads to sustained profitability. While some assets today have accomplished Level 1 and some portion of Level 2 digital functionality based on the Chevron i-field map - strategic implementations are underway in 80% of the company's North America and Europe assets and only 10% elsewhere - few have achieved the virtual operating environment possible at Level 4, although the target is now well-defined. Through clear documentation of the earnings and savings delivered as Chevron and other operators continue down the digital oilfield path, we could see an accelerated push to leverage the gold in the IT promise.

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