By Heather Douglas
“Everything that can be automated
Will be automated.”
-Robert cannon, internet law and policy expert
“Oil companies have been taking a longer view. For decades, they have attempted to rejig their entire value chain, harnessing technological advances in IT, communications (ICT), and engineering. The 1960s’ manual logging of operational data eventually evolved into digitization of data and transmission via satellites. Now, oil companies must embark on a sophisticated and ambitious program to integrate (and increasingly automate) every stage of company operations.” Communication in the Digital Oilfield, published by Tait Limited (2016).
In the Age of the Internet of Things (IoT), energy producers have shifted their perspective from believing that spending sums to digitize their data was a luxury to now knowing it’s a necessity. They understand that automated and remote monitoring of production facilities and wellheads, as well as distributed control systems, are invaluable – to improve production, lower drilling times, and allow the company to have its experienced operators and engineers working on the most challenging technical issues.
To extract the most cashflow from older fields, producers are implementing new time-based reservoir modelling systems to pinpoint where expensive problems – stuck pipes, lost circulation, and wellbore instability – will probably occur and fix them before the company is faced with equipment failure or delays in exploratory drilling.
Technology Evolved Incrementally
It was the upstream industry that pioneered intelligent oilfield operations as it focused first on reducing costs and then mitigating high risk ventures. From there the digitization of fields (DOF) advanced.
In the early days, before the 1980s, companies collected data from multiple wells in various fields, collated it, and then recorded it onto spreadsheets. This allowed the engineers to coax faster, more consistent production from an entire field. Next, the bright lights in the service industry added instrumentation at the wellheads, figured out how to capture the data automatically, and the results were fed into massive SCADA (supervisory control and data automation) systems.
Management was pleasantly surprised this improved the quality and delivery of the data, but also allowed them to reduce the number of field operators.
The big leap forward in the 1980s was 3D seismic and the explosion of data it provided. Industry invested in large databases to store the resulting drilling, production, and field data. Then the engineers wanted embedded systems monitoring and controlling the surface operations at remote locations. They also demanded instant alerts and analyses on demand.
Naturally, automation of permanent gauges and flow controls created “intelligent field equipment.” This, in turn, drove oilfield suppliers to find ways to fully computerize all communication in downhole drilling. Producing wells became almost self-managing.
In the 1990s, companies chased horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to tap unconventional resources in less-accessible areas and reservoirs. In the 2000s, time lapse 4D seismic was introduced and generated petabytes of data that had to be transmitted over very high bandwidth connections and the possibility of dynamic monitoring of fields.
“With the possibility of real-time monitoring and control, vast quantities of data pouring in and the big picture of the company’s assets, operations, and market suddenly visible,” report the anonymous Tait author(s) of Communication in the Digital Oilfield. “Now there are tools to see that production is optimized, non-productive time is minimized, as much oil as possible is recovered from fields, and the best possible financial outcome is obtained.”
The technology evolution didn’t stop at field operations. Today we have drilling by (computer) mouse, dynamic monitoring of reservoirs, and distributed production control. As machine-to-machine communication improved, more and more of the processing facilities and refineries run automatically, even to the point of adjusting and repairing itself as necessary.
Today’s Technology Makes Sophisticated Decisions
Many corporate centres, including headquarters and regional offices, are now also mechanized and skeleton staffs manage legal, human resources, finance and accounting, human resources, and public affairs. They are locally and globally connected by secure, high-capacity IP (intellectual property) networks. The technical employees manage big data applications – reservoir stimulations, advanced analytics, production planning and optimization, pricing and demand forecasting, etc. – using powerful computing resources.
Streams of sensor data is gathered and synthesized from drilling and other equipment transmitted to metering, processing, and control stations. The equipment monitors surveillance, video, and camera feeds, reviews employee voice and data conversations, and spits out recommendations to solve issues and make things even more efficient.
“An onshore field comprises a number of drilling rigs with instrumentation over each wellhead that includes sensors and triggered actuators for remote monitoring and control of valves, drill heads, and other equipment,” reports Tait in its paper. “Each rig feeds data – often wirelessly through a remote terminal unit (RTU) or programmable automation controller (PAC) – into metering stations, SCADA systems, or distributed control systems (DCS). This can automatically log sensor data when monitoring oil and gas levels from the well. Rigs are connected to a control panel so that valves can be closed or opened manually or remotely.”
The metering stations also transmit production data and alarms, mainly through fibre-optics connections, to a process station where the gas, water, solids, and other non-saleable components are removed.
This plethora of data enables geologists to “see” into the oil reservoirs and engineers, using portable devices, to perform diagnostics, control well equipment, integrate multiple DCSs, and manage multiple fields from a single unit.
A large percentage of upstream costs used to be wasted paying for non-productive time. Frequently, this was caused by a stoppage in drilling when the rig experienced an equipment failure, stuck pipe, and or lost circulation. Gone are the days when drilling mud would leak underground causing the pipe to seize up, shear, off, and have to be dug out. Today’s rig equipment comes loaded with sensors to detect problems before any occur. The sensors transmit unusual data to experts, who may be based in another country or jurisdiction, who are able to quickly identify the potential failure and send a correction course of action.
“Since oilfields tend to be in remote – even hostile – locations, robust and resilient communications act as a lifeline,” reports Tait. “Land-based fields are difficult enough, but offshore fields add a new level of complexity and costs. Conditions are often harsh and unforgiving, they may be far from land, and operating in depths of 2,000 to 3,000 metres.”
Communication is critical on these self-contained, man-made islands, fixed or tethered in the ocean. Each contains all the needed drilling, producing, and even processing equipment needed to extract and store hydrocarbons until the output can be pipelined or transported ashore.
“To transmit real-time field data onshore and to support remote monitoring and control of field equipment depends on a very fast, high capacity-link between platforms, and between platform and shore,” Tait notes. “The standard method has been to use VSAT (very small aperture terminal) satellite communications … Sometimes submarine fibre optic cable is an attractive alternative because if offers much higher bandwidth, low latencies or delays (20-50 ms), and relative immunity from weather-related interference.” Some offshore operators use microwave technology.
Tomorrow’s Technology Tested Today
The industry has already entered the era of big data where terabyte and petabyte volumes from numerous sources stream in daily. “While on the face of it, the data communication requirements of oil and gas companies resemble the challenges other industries face, these are amplified by the scale of their global reach, complexity of operations, and the immense commercial, human, and environmental risk,” says Communication in the Digital Oilfield.
The oilpatch has established stringent standards that must be met. These include: totally reliable (must not lose service), resilient (must recover from failure quickly), robust (must work in harsh environments), durable (long-lasting), secure (communications and data must be protected from loss, damage, or intrusion), safe (may require intrinsic safety in some regions), and integrated (must run many processes seamlessly).
The bright lights of ingenuity are already refining:
• VSAT satellites – expanding bandwidth while reducing costs;
• Radio – expanding bandwidth while boosting privacy and security of all parties;
• WiMax (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) and LTE (long-term evolution) – expanding coverage and to create fastest 4G, super-fast connections;
• Fibre optics – lowering cost and increasing reliability of installation in remote and distant locations;
• RFID (radio frequency identification) – delivering real-time object identification at short range and extending range, refining security and safety; and
• SCADA – currently vulnerable to cyber-attacks so new versions are replacing proprietary network protocols with less-vulnerable, open standard protocols (IoT).
The newest standards will encompass: IP-based architecture with built-in security at all levels, providing insulation between all networks (especially between the producing fields and processing/refining facilities), delivering high capacity/low latency linking backbone for entire systems, and integrating company experience with real-time data and business/workplace processes all reflecting industry best practices.
“Few organizations have the capacity and expertise to carry out specialized projects on this scale,” Tait notes, “so clearly this mission calls for integration experts. It is little wonder then, that oil and gas service providers anticipate a bright future for investment in integration,” it concludes.
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