CLOSER TO THE Fangda Qiu, Schlumberger, USA, Zaki Ali, Schlumberger, Kuwait, and A. Al-Jasmi, KOC, Kuwait, examine the concept of the ‘digital oilfield’ and look at the Kuwait Intelligent Digital Field (KwIDF) project as an example.
digital oilfield T
he digital oilield is not a new concept, and has been known by many names over the last 20 years. Originally the term was oten used in a airly narrow context; reerring to sotware and/or hardware employed to perorm or automate a particular exploration and production task. It is only more recently that the genuine possibility o a much broader and comprehensive concept has emerged. The digital oilield concept has evolved, alongside key enabling technology, over the last 40 years rom simplistic data gathering activities to online analysis, real time optimisation and automated worklow eiciencies – all
signiicantly impacting an operator’s bottom line. The modern digital oilield, however, is an expression o the link between people, processes and technology. With operators working in increasingly remote, unconventional, and challenging environments, collaboration between the oice and the ield must be properly integrated to enable optimal decisions to be made on live data. Powerul 3D modelling and visualisation systems are updated with new inormation as it becomes available to keep plans current. Data volumes have also increased greatly, bringing technical management and administration challenges.
The digital landscape
Figure 1. Digital oilfield decision support model.
Figure 2. The modern digital oilfield is an expression of the link between people, processes, and technology. With operators working in increasingly challenging environments, collaboration between the office and the field must be properly integrated to enable optimal decisions.
Digital history The modern digital oilield concept evolved alongside the technology that makes it possible. A number o key developments can be observed in this respect, starting with the irst logging data transmission via satellite, in 1968. Five years later the irst permanent pressure and temperature (P/T) gauge was installed, and the 1980s saw quartz crystal permanent downhole P/T gauge itted to a subsea well. In 1989 the irst transmission o onshore downhole gauge data was made to the surace, and in 1994 online gas optimisation was introduced. Continuing the online theme, on demand data delivery was made possible in 1999, and two years later it was possible to monitor electric submersible pumps over the web. The new millennium saw urther developments, including remote cementing irst undertaken in Norway in 2003, and real time racturing control introduced in 2006. Many o these historical developments have been related to surveillance technology advancements. More recently, measurement technologies such as multiphase low meters and high pressure, high temperature (HPHT) gauges and sensors have been introduced, making the modern digital oilield truly possible. As a result, the industry has converged in the last decade on a common digital oilield deinition: enhanced asset management supported by a modern decision-making system designed to increase reserves, optimise reservoir drainage, improve production and operations and lower costs and capital expenditure. This is made possible through an open working environment: real time, targeted data and inormation transmission, modern modelling and visualisation technology and reliable remote control systems.
| Oilfield Technology Reprinted from March 2014
Most o the companies currently providing enabling technologies can be divided into hardware providers and sofware providers. The hardware companies offer items such as pressure gauges, temperature and gas leak sensors, automated choke equipment, data management hardware and ield wireless connectivity systems. Sofware providers supply engineering applications covering petroleum data management, asset modelling, analysis and optimisation, real time surveillance and worklow integration and collaboration. Other service companies provide indirect support, such as IT or business integration and change management consulting. It is worth mentioning that ofen, as well as signiicant new technology implementation in a digital oilield project, attention must be paid to the related changes to asset team processes and working practices. Top management must be committed and all business units should be involved and aligned. Successully handling this change rom an asset team perspective is key to success in such a project. These changes are ofen tied to the signiicant productivity gains and worklow efficiency increases that are regularly realised through digital oilield technology implementation. Intelligent worklows and processes elevate the digital oilield concept rom the realm o straightorward supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), and allow the most experienced engineering resources to be ocused on analysis and planning rather than monitoring dials and screens displaying huge volumes o ield data. In addition, production and operation engineers beneit rom new collaborative work processes, as do geologists and geophysicists: crucial in exploration activities. Reservoir engineers can work within a ully integrated digital environment taking advantage o enterprise-level inormation architecture.
Digital decisions The modern digital oilield uses real time operations data rom the ield in a continuous cycle o production analysis, optimisation and detailed reservoir management. SCADA or distributed control systems (DCS) acquire diverse operational data rom permanent subsurace well instrumentation, lowline network sensors and surace acilities; as well as manage ield actuator equipment such as control valves. This capability supports real time operation control and shutdown in an immediate (minutes to once-per-day) timescale. Beyond that, ield data can be integrated into production management sofware over the medium term to allow accurate and ongoing evaluation, analysis and optimisation to take place. Over longer timescales o months to years, assets integrate ield data to construct, calibrate and run numerical subsurace simulators and economics to plan the best ield development scenarios. This digital coniguration allows operators to make key decisions centrally, across a number o assets. In the shorter term this can include topside process equipment control, rotating equipment monitoring and saety considerations. Medium term production decisions include well pressure drawdown to balance sand control and unwanted luid breakthrough, production testing and well-rate estimation, and production optimisation through the ideal distribution o lifing gas. Longer term considerations include in-ill well planning, and deining the reservoir depletion strategy. Figure 1 shows a conceptual model o how such a digital oilield decision system can be supported. In Figure 1, level zero represents data gathering and transmission resources, including ield measurement instrumentation and smart control equipment. Level one is the surveillance level. Here potential production and reservoir drainage problems are detected using real time eeds and
production optimisation. The ability to use a common platorm or data management, modelling, simulation and production management activities greatly improves multidisciplinary collaboration.
Case study: Kuwait Intelligent Digital Field
Figure 3. KOC digital oilfield production management workflows.
other data to compute key perormance indicators (KPIs) and comparing them to expected levels rom business plans, historical trends, company business rules or model predictions. Proactive alerts o impending or incipient problems are sent to users, allowing them to ocusing effort only where it is needed, improving asset management efficiency. Level two is the analysis level. The ocus here is on analysing issues predicted or detected during level one. Sofware modelling and analysis is carried out to understand and deine the situation and any possible solutions. The third level is optimisation. It is here that alternatives are assessed, based on all possible data, technical constraints, risks and economics to inorm strategic optimisation decisions and improve the reservoir and production system.
Integrated operations Integrated operations, in a modern digital oilield context, reer to processes and methods o exploration and production, acilitated and connected by inormation and communication technology. Characterised by cross-disciplinary collaboration or the producing asset, it is an approach that leverages technology to streamline the interaction o people and processes. Typically, the undamental objective is to improve operational effectiveness and maximise or optimise production or the lie o the asset. This is achieved by taking the right decisions at the right time, using a holistic, asset-wide, perspective and recognising that the different process cycles or loops range rom seconds to months, or even years. Typical integrated operations applications include: Reducing downtime via early detection o underperorming wells. Ì Increasing well production by matching well potential. Ì Reducing operational costs by decreasing ailure rate. Ì Ì Ì Ì Ì
Automating processes to predict or troubleshoot production problems. Increasing asset team productivity using standardised worklows and tools. Delivering actionable inormation in the orm o key perormance indicators (KPIs). Implementing visualisation environments to promote cross-discipline collaboration.
It is important that the sofware used in these processes is seamlessly integrated to drive maximum asset team efficiency during
An example o how the digital oilield concept has been applied to a modern unconventional production project can be witnessed in the Kuwait Intelligent Digital Field (KwIDF). The integrated cross-domain project was launched to bring together ield instrumentation, automated worklows and multidisciplinary collaboration. Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), the operator, was acing a challenging asset environment in one o its greenield development projects in the orm o a heterogenous carbonate reservoir. Parts o the reservoir exhibited tight, densely connected ractures, but others were more sparsely connected. The HPHT env ironment, the near critical nature o the ields and the presence o hydrogen sulide and carbon dioxide provided urther development hurdles. KOC wanted a digital solution to increase production and recovery rates, while helping to keep costs down and maintaining saety and reliability. The company was also keen to reduce shutdowns, better utilise data to accelerate decision making and improve multidisciplinary collaboration. Afer meeting with Schlumberger, it was agreed that the Avocet production operations sofware platorm would provide an ideal basis or the solution. KOC was keen to introduce a server-based, worklow-orientated approach to production management, with data consolidated in one environment rather than in multiple applications. It also sought to create comprehensive worklows to automate data acquisition and conditioning, event detection, alarms and production perormance management. The Avocet platorm is able to import and store data rom a number o conventional analysis applications to build production worklows which deliver intelligent notiications that enable optimisation o daily constraints. Steady-state multiphase low simulation sofware can be seamlessly embedded to provide model-based pressure volume temperature (PVT) analysis, as well as estimations on production rate and network pressures. The team worked together to implement the proposed solution. KOC’s new integrated solution gave the project team the ability to design real time production surveillan ce and optimisation worklows, automating and standardising many existing engineering processes.
Digital KPIs The results o these new worklows, including key perormance indicator (KPI) inormation, are accessible to KOC users via a web portal surveillance solution or monitoring production at a glance. KPIs were introduced as part o the system implementation to provide speciic, reliable and accurate inormation, tied directly to strategic production and business goals. KPIs are central to the project, since they indicate production progress and perormance. Beore each KPI was deined, the methodology o its measurement was careully documented
Reprinted from March 2014 Oilfield Technology |
and agreed. An important part o this process was managing the required changes to everyday working practises or KOC management and ield operators. The Schlumberger team worked alongside KOC senior management to change the corporate culture rom the top down, introducing new collaboration methods. Sofware training was also provided to introduce the new system to users and demonstrate the improvements to everyday operations. This proved particularly helpul in ensuring employees were more comortable and able to adapt to the new digital solution. The new digital solution allows KOC to better manage its knowledge base o technical data and collaborative insights. The project team beneits rom improved decision making as a result, with aster access to production data, which is now more accurate and customisable through the visual integration o datasets in management display screens. KOC’s new integrated ramework provides production data and operational worklows spanning the ield to the main office. It has enabled validation o high- and low-requency data or all production optimisation worklows and models, transorming ield measurements into deined perormance metrics. Intelligent digital ield technology, combined with industry best practices means KOC is better positioned to minimise costs, utilise scarce resources and more effectively gather, manage and analyse essential ield data. In addition, multidisciplinary collaboration has improved through the introduction o a common worklow platorm and interace, streamlining operating processes. Widespread standardisation o common asset team procedures has delivered urther efficiencies. Productivity also increased due to the automation o routine tasks. Potential production issues can be proactively identiied and visualised through the analysis o relevant data in context. Real time data eeds
| Oilfield Technology Reprinted from March 2014
are combined with other sources or a consolidated view o any asset perormance. Extensive new capabilities include early event detection, daily reporting, trending, data diagnostics, predictive modelling and a calculation engine. The project also delivered a number o saety beneits. Potential equipment hazards can now be immediately identiied, chokes are remotely operated and controlled, and a remote monitoring and shutdown capability enables well closure and isolation to be undertaken rom a sae location.
Digital resistance and the future The uture o the digital oilield is clearly linked to developments in related sofware and hardware - part o a wider theme to be discussed at the 2014 SIS Global Forum, held in Barcelona on April 15 - 17. This biennial industry conerence will ocus on the uture o digitally mitigating E&P risk, using simulation and sofware technology. As well as managing the technological aspect o the move towards a universally digital approach, an equal challenge is present in a conservative attitude to such change which, according to a 2012 BP poll, is widespread in the industry - 60% o respondents believed that resistance to change represented the biggest obstacle to realising the digital oilield’s ull potential. It seems this resistance is gradually being overcome, however - the digital oilield technology market has steadily grown over the years, taking an estimated US$ 18.7 billion in revenues in 2011. This trend is set to continue with a compound annual growth rate o 4.8% expected until 2022, when the industry should be worth US$ 33.3 billion. This could be attributed to the increasing complexity and expense in exploration activity, orcing operators to consider upront investments in technology to mitigate risk and realise longer-term efficiency and cost savings.
