Time is money. And it’s never been truer for energy companies with operations spread across the globe. Equipment downtime, lost production and high travel costs to troubleshoot problems can kill the bottom line.

If the best engineer is located in Houston and the problem occurs in a refinery in South America, or a pipeline in Alaska, or an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, costs mount quickly. Prior to virtual-presence technologies, field workers would share pictures with experts to try to diagnose the issue, often leading to an expert (or a whole team
of experts) flying to the problem site, causing further delays and incurring expensive travel costs.

With virtual-presence technologies, no one leaves his desk, let alone the country.

Video collaboration

Virtual-presence technologies bring the problem to the expert—rather than the other way around—by visually connecting field workers and remote experts. These technologies generally include Ex-certified (approved for use in potentially hazardous locations) wireless video devices for use in a processing plant, at the pipeline or on the platform, as well as collaboration software for the expert’s desktop or tablet.

Often the total package includes video management systems that are already in use by command center console operators to ease deployment.

Field workers use the Ex-certified mobile device to share video, voice, telestration (onscreen drawing) and images with the experts who interact live through the collaboration software on a computer, tablet or smartphone. Remote experts can also share images or pre-recorded videos to play on the touchscreen panel of the device.

By sharing this visual content, the experts can provide field technicians with visual instructions. The system can be used virtually anywhere as it can communicate through wireless, satellite and cellular networks.

The primary components to the virtual presence system include:

• Hazardous location-approved wireless video devices.
• Collaboration software that runs on the computer, smartphone or tablet of subject matter experts.
• Central management software to control deployments.

These components often integrate with existing industry standard video infrastructure, video management systems and wireless networks to provide a complete system.

The big crew change

Many highly experienced people in the field are fast approaching retirement age. This “big crew change” means there will be fewer people in the field with the specialized knowledge needed to help address issues. This change creates new demands on the business to quickly bring high-risk events and activities to these experts—instead of requiring them to travel to troubleshoot and resolve problems in remote locations.

At a recent International Association of Drilling Contractors’ Drilling HSE [health, safety and environment] Asia Pacific Conference in Singapore, Brunei Shell Petroleum presented a summary of its experiences with virtual presence.

Shell’s solution included Librestream’s Onsight rugged cameras and collaboration software and BGAN satellite connectivity over Inmarsat. A rig worker connected wirelessly to show live video and snapshots, talk and draw onscreen with onshore specialists in Brunei or Aberdeen, Scotland, using collaboration software on their personal computers. Together, they have remotely identified and resolved problems in hours instead of days.

Shell found that virtual presence reduced non-productive time and lost production, lowered travel costs and time, and provided much more efficient use of their limited global expert base. Less travel also meant an overall reduction in HSE exposure.

With trip costs averaging $25,000 and average downtime costs between $20,000 and $40,000 per hour for a deepwater rig, virtual presence drives significant value.

Two of the main information technology requirements for virtual-presence systems include network access and secure communication. Within an organization, information technology service groups are critical in supporting this kind of collaboration. At a refinery, mobile devices most commonly connect with Ex-rated wireless networks to access
the Internet directly.

Pipeline maintenance

In the case of pipeline maintenance, it is more typical to use a cellular network to create a wireless hotspot and share content from the field. An offshore oil platform is more likely to use an Ex-rated access point and send the content onshore over a satellite network. In all of these cases, bandwidth can often be a major challenge.

For all enterprises, security over the content is critical, as it is often sensitive. To deliver a highly secure system, enterprise grade mobile video devices must provide content encryption, user authentication and centralized administrator
control.

Virtual-presence technologies must also integrate with industry-standard video infrastructure and video management systems to leverage existing investments and reduce training requirements.

With the advent of virtual-presence technologies, securely extending the power of collaboration across a refinery, pipeline or oil platform is now a reality. Enterprises are already experiencing the benefits for inspections, maintenance
and repair and many other applications. Now, engaging in a full video collaboration session can be almost as simple as making a phone call.

Marieke Wijtkamp is a vice president with Librestream Technologies Inc., based in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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