Wireless video ensures a team approach to safety and saves money. Marieke Wijtkamp and Gregory Hale discuss the details.
When a manhole cover fell multiple floors, narrowly missing two rig workers, an immediate health, safety, and environment (HSE) investigation ensued. After all, the workers could have been seriously injured or killed.
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Rig worker can send video back to experts on shore in an effort to diagnose a real or potential problem that could prevent a bigger safety issue. |
Instead of sending a team of three HSE specialists to the offshore rig, the investigators decided to use a wireless video camera on the rig to share the visuals, talk and draw onscreen with HSE specialists using collaborative software on their computers and tablets in their land-based office. Typically, HSE teams need to perform audits if a safety incident occurs and then conduct proactive inspections to safeguard field staff in the future. In this case, the HSE team was also able to record the live discussion and store it for future safety audits and training purposes
This is one case where a safety incident can become a learning experience by using virtual video to help teams perform their work more effectively via remote inspections. With the virtual system, the group was able to remotely assess the risk and direct the investigation to follow certain lines of inquiry, while gaining an estimated savings of about US$56,000.
Today, the offshore industry has access to video surveillance programs, some of which are working through their distributed control system (DCS). Virtual video technology is a rugged version of remote monitoring for platforms. It can show the problem to the experts onshore by virtually connecting field workers and remote experts as they troubleshoot and inspect incidents right on the oil platform or in the field.
In prior situations, field workers would have to explain the problem or share pictures with experts to diagnose the issue, which required a team of subject matter experts (SMEs) to journey out to the field to address the problem on the rig, which would engender more delays and costs. Today offshore workers can exist in a world where a video says 1000 words.
For global organizations facing the retirement of baby boomers, who will be hitting their retirement age at a rate of 10,000 per day during the next 15 years, and a general lack of skilled labor able or willing to relocate out to remote rigs, the oil and gas industry will suffer from the loss of experienced workers. In fact, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics expects 54.8 million total job openings within this decade – with 62% of those openings related to baby boomers leaving the workforce and not enough skilled people to fill them. In the North Sea alone, a need exists for more than 120,000 skilled personnel in the next 10 years to leverage all the projected investment in oil and gas. Hence, the importance of visual communication becomes an even more vital safety tool as pressures to increase productivity become ever more intense.
Going visual
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An expert is able to view and diagnose issues on the rig in real time while remaining at his desk. |
“There is a huge focus on safety where everybody is being super cautious,” says Paul Bonner, with Honeywell Process Solutions’ oil and gas vertical. “We have seen a lot of innovations in safety and automation coming out of the North Sea. People are going deeper, so they are going into more hostile environments and the oil is getting harder to get. Asset costs are higher, so the risks are generally higher. People are focusing on safety and reliability. Safety and reliability go hand in hand in that kind of environment. The bar is continuing to rise.”
Fewer skilled people in the field creates a potential safety issue due to a lack of specialized knowledge needed to help address issues. It also brings more intense demands on the business to quickly bring high-risk events and activities to these experts instead of requiring them to travel to remote locations. The old saying goes, time is money, but with safety, it can also mean: Time means lives. With a virtual video set up, safety, cost savings and training could potentially occur at the same time as experts onshore can share their experience with younger staff globally in real life scenarios.
Brunei Shell Petroleum went virtual with its video with a series of rugged cameras and collaboration software and BGAN satellite connectivity over Inmarsat. A rig worker can connect wirelessly to share live video and snapshots, talk and draw on-screen with onshore specialists in Brunei and Aberdeen using collaboration software on their PCs. Together, they were able to remotely identify and resolve problems in hours instead of days.
Finding a problem and solving it in hours means real money. Shell found the virtual technology reduced non-productive time and lost production, lowered travel costs and time, and provided much more efficient use of their finite global expert base. With trip costs averaging $25,000 and average downtime costs of $20,000 to $40,000 per hour for a deepwater rig, the remote visual system was able to add significant value.
Virtual equipment
The primary components of a virtual presence system include:
These components can integrate with existing industry standard video infrastructure, video management systems and wireless networks. Two of the main Information Technology (IT) requirements include network access and secure communication. Within an organization, IT service groups are critical in supporting this kind of collaboration. An offshore location typically uses an Ex-rated access point to connect to the Internet and shares the live content onshore over a VSAT satellite network.
Typically, systems employ a fixed amount of bandwidth for a location and all systems must continue to perform with the addition of video collaboration. This reality means video must operate effectively with as little as 60 kbps of bandwidth. To do this, the system must provide a high quality audio connection, viewfinder video and high quality image sharing. It also needs to offer IT and operations a method to centrally control the amount of bandwidth consumption allowed.
For all enterprises, content security is critical. To deliver a highly secure system, enterprise-grade mobile video devices must provide content encryption, wireless network authentication, user passwords and centralized administrator control.
With the updated technology, it is possible to conduct secure collaboration over thousands of miles. Companies can find savings and benefits in virtual safety inspections, maintenance and repair, in addition to other applications.
Smart technology
The technologies include Ex-certified wireless video devices for use on the oil platform as well as collaboration software for the expert’s desktop or tablet. In some cases, enterprises are even able to embed video collaboration within their own applications to streamline the workflow and speed adoption. Regardless of how the technology ends up deployed, it must perform with only minimal bandwidth and include tools such as telestration (onscreen drawing) and remote-control capabilities to help teams assess environments and assets with minimal training.
In a live collaboration session, field workers are able to share video, voice, telestration and images with the remote experts who interact through the collaboration software on a computer, tablet or smartphone. Remote experts can also remotely control the camera in the field, or share images and pre-recorded videos to play on the touchscreen panel of the device. By sharing the visual content, experts can provide field technicians with visual instructions. The system can be used anywhere as it can communicate through wireless, satellite and cellular networks, even in ultra-low bandwidth situations.
Asset troubleshooting
A common application for virtual presence systems offshore includes assisting rig workers with diagnosis and repairs of core assets before they become a potentially large safety issue.
One offshore operation in Brazil deploy Ex-rated wireless video cameras across their rigs to bring in vendor SMEs and specialized engineers from their own organization to help teams diagnose issues and maintain assets. At the rig, they use a satellite network to share live video, audio, images and telestration with the specialists that run collaboration software on their computer or participate from video conferencing rooms onshore. In addition, the onshore specialist remotely controls the camera at the rig to capture the pictures they need and can zoom in or illuminate the areas more effectively.
With the labor pool dwindling and video becoming more affordable and ubiquitous, offshore rigs will start to rely more on video to maintain assets and ensure safe operations.
Virtual training brings safety
Virtual environments are good for video, but they can also be used to train operators for safety and general operations.
One training scenario shows an offshore installation where an operator is doing his rounds on a massive floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit anchored off the coast of Angola, Africa. The worker discovers a visible gas leak and a man down — a potential crisis in the making. The operator has to make the right decision immediately. Save the fellow worker or ensure the safety of other workers and the FPSO? Training gives the proper response.
That is why French oil and gas giant, Total, is focusing its operators on its Immersive Training Simulator (ITS). ITS is an accurate 3D immersive environment where a worker can visualize what tasks he should perform and rehearse and look at pathways and accessibility to perform certain workflows that involve any number of stations and steps within each station. TOTAL’s ITS puts workers in a true 3D virtual environment that effectively teaches them what to do and when to do it.
-- Gregory Hale
Marieke Wijtkamp is a vice president at Librestream Technologies Inc.
Gregory Hale is the editor/founder of Industrial Safety and Security Source (ISSSource.com) and is Offshore Engineer’s contributing automation editor.
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