Statoil’s Valemon oil field is located 160km west of the Norwegian coast and is one of the international energy company’s largest development projects.
The site contains recoverable reserves of 26 billion cu. m of gas and five million cu. m of condensate, which equates to over 1% of Norway’s gas reserves.
The company will begin work this year to deploy an integrated control and safety system to enable remote operation of the Valemon platform, running the entire operation from the existing Kvitebjørn platform. “With this type of remote monitoring and visualization,” users can more effectively monitor and support equipment “to minimize downtime without de- ploying resources to the platform,” said Bart Winters, product director for Honeywell Asset Management Solutions in Phoenix, Arizona.
This system integrates an automation platform and software applications to enable a distributed control system to integrate disparate data across facilities and feed it all into a unified automation system. A distributed systems architecture integrates processes for multiple units, control rooms, or geographically distributed locations and adjusts to changing user and application demands for information.
This case is just one of many trends making waves in the offshore oil industry. Others include creative uses of radio frequency identification (RFID) on the platform and below the surface, virtual visualization software, and cloud storage of critical information to more effectively manage assets offshore.
The key to maintaining and managing an asset is to look at it from a lifecycle standpoint – from its design and operation to retirement.
“Understanding the health of the asset is critical to maintaining and extending asset life,” Winters said. “With high-dollar equipment especially, that means accessing data and turning that data into actionable information.”
A damaged compressor, for instance, could mean a US$2 million project to overhaul. “It means taking the compressor out of service, shipping it to shore, overhauling, and then returning it to the platform. With compressor monitoring, we can use advanced algorithms to detect abnormal conditions; then engineer- ing and maintenance can investigate and determine the proper intervention or response.”
And it’s not only equipment that needs precision planning to keep operations afloat. Everything to do with the offshore process becomes an astronomical expense when it all has to be mobilized. Working on a facility with limited capacity means personnel on board is tightly constrained; bed space, lifeboat sup- port, helicopter scheduling, food and fuel – all have to be strictly managed and managed safely in a volatile and corrosive environment.
RUGGED RFID TRACKS MOBILE ASSETS
Because offshore assets move around and live in hostile environments, tracking those assets can be a challenge. If you want to track an asset through its useful life, you have to be able to identify it. That’s where RFID comes in.
Operator rounds are becoming more automated with RFID’s use in field inspections. Operators use mobile handheld devices with RFID tags to properly identify assets when they’re performing visual inspections for process equipment, Winters said. “Field operators are key to enabling operator-driven reliability, where operations [personnel] take more ownership of the basic care of the equipment,” he said.
With handheld computers, field operators can scan the RFID tag, check the oil level as well as a leaky field or visible vibration. “They use these handhelds to record and collect data to demonstrate compliance and ensure they’ve collected the right information on the right asset,” Winters said.
The problem with RFID is that it was originally adapted for non-hostile environments, said Mark Riddell, president of The Marrell Group, a management consulting firm for oil and gas businesses, based in The Woodlands, Texas. So, conventional RFID had to be adapted for surface applications, such as equipment around the rig, and downhole assets, such as riser pipes running from the rig to the ocean floor. Since anything going downhole is subject to high pressures and temperatures, RFID has to survive drilling fluids and other corrosive environments. Even with surface RFID tags, the goal is to make them survivable for the life of the asset.
“A lot of these things look the same—a piece of pipe, a pump, or an engine. They all have original serial numbers stamped on them,” Riddell said. “But those become worn off and painted over. If you’re looking at 10 pumps, all manufactured by the same company, you can’t tell which one is which. And you have to know because each asset has its own maintenance schedule and date it went into service,” Riddell said.
And since this equipment moves around so much— going to shore for repairs or to be replaced—you need a mechanism to tag them permanently.
RFID isn’t just an ID number anymore. Downhole RFID uses a combination of an RFID chip and a reading device. “If that reading device is installed downhole, even permanently in a well completion, you could pump RFID chips down the well with instructions on them, and it tells the downhole equipment to do something—close a valve, open a sleeve, or take a measurement,” Riddell said.
RFID is useful in underreaming, where operators activate and deactivate traditional underreamers (reamers operating below the casing of a borehole to enlarge it for the pipe) “by dropping a steel ball down to the tool via the drillstring,” said Tommy Laird, global technical and competency manager for performance drilling tools at Weatherford International in Houston. Laird and co-authors, Luis A. Gonzalez (Marathon Oil) and Eddie Valverde (Weatherford International), explain more about this drilling technique in a 2012 paper, “Improving underreaming reliability with RFID technology.”
RFID creates “an option to improve the performance of the underreamer by allowing multiple activations or deactivations without restricting the drillstring ID. The operator may elect to underream only specific sections of the well, where swelling formations cause stuck drillstrings, or perform full circulation in deactivated mode to clean out sections of the wellbore,” Laird said.
RFID is also seeing use with GPS. An RFID chip by itself doesn’t transmit its location. But active RFID actually transmits information.
The GPS communicates the coordinates of its physical location.
“With active RFID, you could have a single reading device centrally located on a drilling rig and have it communicating with all the assets on the surface continuously. So you have a real-time snapshot of what’s out there,” Riddell said.
ALL EYES ON DECK
When all hands cannot physically be on the rig, virtual visualization software is helping keep all eyes on deck at least. “If I’m sitting in a control room on shore, I can virtually go to the Gulf of Mexico with virtual visual- ization and get a snapshot in time with high-definition clarity,” said Glyn Thorman, senior consultant for ABB in Houston.
“I can see the problem associated with that piece of equipment and look at other details in the planning processes. This contrasts with having to get on a heli- copter or even having a video conference and relying on someone to take a picture.” The technology works like Google maps or Google street view, but in high definition with the zoom on.
“Think of it as driving down the road; you’re at the driveway, and there’s a note on the door,” Thorman said. With this visualization feature, “you can zoom in and read that note. The definition and pixel strength is so high, if you’re sitting in Houston wanting to do structural repairs on the platform, you can zoom in on a data plate on a pump and read it. And there are mul- tiple camera locations where spherical images were taken. The quality is so high, you’ll swear you’re actually on the platform.” Not only can virtual visualization help with repairs, it makes work safer and easier; it can reduce personnel on board and see into areas where planners might have to get a permit to go physically.
“The data on an asset could be several pages of information, and even on the rig you can have hun- dreds of assets,” Riddell said. “If you’re just looking at textual information and data or just searching a database, that becomes consuming and frustrating for users. Visualization offers instant access to complex domains.”
The system can also help users who aren’t familiar with a rig. “We create a database so they can search it and know by location what’s there and tie it all back to their existing data,” said Walt Reed, senior project consultant with ABB in Houston. “Because equipment changes, we have to do reshoots in certain areas. So we have to keep the database current with users’ day-to-day documentation and standard operating procedures, say, for startup and shutdown. You can link these images to procedures and you don’t have to go back out to the rig.”
The interesting part about visualization is “it integrates cognitive science with computer science and business,” Riddell said. “We haven’t spent enough time understanding the cognitive aspects of people’s jobs and their need to understand
the big picture of domains and to share that big pic- ture. We use visualization as a communications tool. So instead of text, we give people a diagram as a way of communicating. It’s faster, and it saves time and money for users. If you look at user preferences, it’s been shown over and over; people would much rather look at a picture and let that guide them as opposed to wading into a database or research box.”
SEA DATA IN THE CLOUD
Not only are assets on board becoming more virtu- ally maintained, the information about those assets can be stored virtually – on the cloud. Operators who have to deal with complex extraction methods and technologies running facilities on the ocean floor are sometimes overwhelmed by all the different alarms from intelligent devices for safety, fire and gas, instrumentation, intelligent motor control, and condition- based monitoring.
“When we started in the oil and gas business, com- munications were remote and infrequent; we had to think of bandwidth. Now we can see information on any operator screen and diagnose any faults we’re allowed to,” said Adam Howard, Business Manager, Oil & Gas Solutions, EMEA, at Rockwell Automation, Aberdeen, UK.
The cloud has helped make immediately available information to support the maintenance and ongoing management of offshore assets. “The cloud is just a means of storing and accessing information to a mutually remote location,” Howard said. “We can upload information from the control room and safety systems to a virtual storage space so we can access that information in real time.”
One big challenge with the cloud is this: “If we can get access to that information, so can others,” Howard said. “And what we find now is a significant increase in the amount of IT compliance to the point that it becomes as important as the safety or control system itself.”
The remote monitoring system allows access to assets in a secure environment using IT-approved, outbound communication rather than transferring it bi-directionally through a firewall. “This helps prevent computer viruses, worms or other digital threats tied to inbound data transfer,” Howard said.
The key to using the cloud successfully is to make sure the information stored is handled appropriately “be- cause you have large volumes of information; if you don’t manage it properly, it could get out of control,” Howard said. “Is this the right revision? Where is the master document?” That’s where version control comes in.
Using an automated change management functionality will help prevent unauthorized changes and assure everyone they’re working from the same ver- sion of the truth. Independent archiving of the newest version saves the entire stream of changes, resulting in improved clarity and accuracy in version selection and helping companies return to production faster.
Another big advantage of the cloud, particularly in northern Europe, is its ability to help transfer information from seasoned operators working on- shore to less experienced offshore workers.
Managing operations through the cloud allows centrally located staff with years of experience to interpret the asset-management data, make it us- able for operators, and analyze patterns and trends that may help optimize production. “When it comes to alarms, engineers can also assess any critical states and notify operators in the field if necessary,” Howard said.
“Operators, engineers, managers and executives all have access dashboards in the cloud, creating a system of checks and balances to ensure they will not overlook a critical detail,” he said. “If the operator misses an important alarm, the engineer with access to the same information can flag it. Production intelligence can pass through multiple sets of eyes, meaning one person’s oversight does not impact the entire operation.”
PEOPLE ARE ASSETS, TOO
Because so many of these oil and gas pioneers are retiring from offshore duties and working more onshore, it’s important for them to have a way to share their knowledge with offshore workers starting out. “Some companies are losing 40-50% of their employees to retirement within a four-year span,” Riddell said. Allowing these remotely located subject-matter experts to drive real-time decisions automates work flows and takes advantage of the ubiquitous environment of the cloud, which in turn drives down costs and lets experts focus on crucial tasks.
“It’s been documented, and we know there are only a few key guys who know how to solve the difficult challenges in our industry,” Howard said. Using this seasoned expertise with cloud technology lets you “get the best out of the people who have that experience and apply it most effectively. By working together, they can solve problems in real time or receive a data dump from a control or safety system. Photos of this equipment can be stored on the cloud, and they can assess situations from there.”
Riddell’s group focuses on communication and factors that impact performance in oil and gas – knowledge, skills, and experience. They use a software- based solution that runs on SharePoint to capture knowledge from experts within the company and those who have already retired. It employs visualization for people to communicate information about a specific domain. “It can be a department, project, or workgroup,” Riddell said. It’s organized into a community of practice (COP), a group of people who have common work objectives. So you’d pull together people who have knowledge they can share that would be useful to each other,” Riddell said. “This can really work well in offshore communities or anywhere knowledge recovery and retention are issues.”
Today, leading operating companies want to locate their engineering staff in regional hubs to help share their knowledge offshore. This way, they can translate asset-management data into less unplanned maintenance, optimized production, and reduced down time. So instead of trying to decipher dozens of alarms, operations can focus on answering those most critical to the operator. And centrally located subject-matter experts can use live data with cloud-computing technology to make life easier for operators and engineers.
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