Chevron information technology teams from around the world put their stamp on Jack/St. Malo, providing the technical support that helped the major capital project achieve first oil in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico (GOM), reports the company.
Jack St. Malo's floating production unit (FPU) sits in 2134m of water and will tap reservoirs beginning at 5944m beneath the seafloor, for a total depth of 8077m.
Chevron IT experts delivered telecommunications and the infrastructure needed to support operations at Jack/St. Malo as well as network connectivity on the FPU, the pipe-laying vessel, floating hotel and drillships.
"One of the big wins was the great collaboration we had that ensured we were aligned not only in transition to the GOM business unit, but on the facility itself," said Keith Breaux, Chevron's deepwater exploration and production (DWEP) IT manager. "IT teams from Jack/St. Malo, DWEP and GOM were phenomenal and worked together seamlessly."
A total of nine digital oil fields, or i-fields, solutions were implemented, including operator workflows and the production reliability and efficiency programs. "These i-field solutions will help the GOM team increase facility reliability, reduce health, environment and safety risks, and decrease costs," said GOM IT manager Jennifer Scriabine. "In addition, real-time reservoir management will provide engineers with real-time information enabling faster, better decisions to accelerate well ramp-ups, reduce downtime and maximize production."
Providing connectivity to the FPU required 88mi of new network subsea fiber optic cable on the ocean floor. The cable runs from the FPU to a high-performance network connectivity system that is made available by BP to oil and gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico. The semisubmersible FPU also boasts more than 220,000mm of telecommunications cabling onboard for fast, reliable access to data and systems.
More than 200,000 documents and drawings were processed, including regulatory and specifications documentation, process safety information and safety and environmental management system documentation, and operating and installation manuals. The team migrated construction data to a document management system for use during handover and operations and developed a central document archive.
"The IT challenge for a major capital project is staggering," explained Eric Sirgo, DWEP's general manager of major capital projects. "IT is integral to all aspects of the project, including document management, telecommunications, security, operational data gathering and control and reservoir management. IT's role and contribution were critical to the project's overall success."
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