The Secret Behind the Popularity of Digital Oilfields
Dwindling oil reserves increase the cost, and risk, of discovering and exploiting new reserves. The oil industry is turning to what is known as the Digital Oilfield to extract and use oil more efficiently and affordably from current fields.
What is a Digital Oilfield?
Digital oilfield might sound like a sophisticated technology hub, filled with hundreds of flashing screens and a couple of hushed experts sharing notes. However, it is better described as a concept covering data streaming from very far wells and the processing, integration, and analysis of that data in various physical systems.
Petropedia describes digital oilfield as “a section of the energy industry which has incorporated advanced software and data analysis techniques to its operations so as to provide better outputs and improve the profitability of the production process. Digitization of an oilfield is the focus of IT on improving the business drivers, which includes improving safety, optimizing production rate of hydrocarbons, environmental protection, finding reserves and exploiting them to the fullest. In business terms it may be taken as the deployment of resources (man and machine) to bring cost-effective and efficient results.”
Digital oilfields necessitate the use of automation, thus boosting productivity. Automation involves removing humans from routine tasks, who are in turn allowed to focus on more challenging, analytical work. Integrating a large number of drilling operations, such as remotely steerable down-hole and integrate-while-drilling instruments, results in massive amounts of real-time data from multiple disciplines. One of the digital oilfield characteristics is the demand for collaboration across a broad spectrum of knowledge, implying that decisions are made with a complete understanding of all issues at hand, greatly enhancing efficiency.
Implementing digital oilfields
Technological advancements have driven the digitisation of the oil industry. As new digital technologies are developed and deployed into daily operations, oil and gas firms require a way to better access, comprehend, and analyse the quantity of data generated by these assets. Diagnostics and other real-time data created by various intelligent devices may now be unlocked through remote monitoring systems.
Planning, designing and implementing remote monitoring and operations-management technologies are the cornerstones of realising the digital oilfield. Oil and gas industries can reduce costs and risks associated with traditional, labour-intensive data collection operations automation. Oil and gas companies can use remote-monitoring technologies to visualise their operations with real-time, complete data that can be quickly translated into actionable information, allowing them to meet their goals of reduced downtime and higher production.
SuperVision Earth’s AI based innovation ensures safety and integrity of pipeline infrastructure. SuperVision Earth combines various monitoring technologies to analyse and detect threats along pipeline routes and to ensure the safety of pipeline systems and operations. Furthermore, SuperVision’s AI innovation analyzes the detected risks and immediately reports risks to the relevant pipeline operators. The SuperVision Space (SVS) app uses earth observation and remote sensing technology to monitor threats along pipeline routes and transmission lines resulting in the creation of resilient infrastructure networks.
How is digital oilfield benefitting the oil & gas industry?
Digital oilfields contribute to better decisions and productivity improvements. With fewer people going to, and working in, potentially hazardous areas, remotely operated fields reduce accidents. By integrating sensors, connectivity, and analytical tools, technological advancements such as the Internet of Things (IoT) improves the ability to gather, process, and analyse data. Data from connected devices and sensors provides real-time insights that can aid in maintenance, planning, and optimization of operations. The benefits of digital oilfields, as listed by Intel are as follows:
• Optimize production — Using scalable edge computing at wells and production facilities, companies gain enhanced asset insights that enable optimal operations, production, and recovery.
• Operate more efficiently — Real-time controls, distributed analytics, automated workflows, and more can help companies lower their field operations costs, improve asset performance and reliability, and eliminate unplanned maintenance.
• Collaboration across teams — By integrating data across teams and disciplines, from automation engineers to data scientists, digital oilfields enable better collaboration and communication that lead to faster, more informed decision-making.
• Enhance health and safety — Through remote operations, fewer site visits, and data-based safety processes, digital oilfields can help companies produce in the safest possible way.
- Improve environmental compliance — More-efficient field operations, deeper sensor intelligence, and AI-based predictions can help oil and gas companies meet or exceed environmental requirements.
Challenges faced in implementing digital oilfields
In an article titled “Why Digital Oilfield projects fail”, written by Luigi Saputelli, the challenges have been attributed to four areas, namely people, automated workflows, processes and technologies. The challenges are enlisted as follows:
1. People
- Limited motivation of the users in changing to a new way of work
- No clear determination to adopt the digital oilfield as a working tool
- Digital oilfield is considered an upgrade not a necessity
- Poor engagement between project sponsors, asset users and technology providers
2. Automated workflows
- Poor definition and effectiveness of the new workflow
- Automation of the old way of doing things, replicating same mistakes
- Long execution times
- Little ability to modify newly implemented workflows without IT support
3. Processes
- No immediate perception of the users regarding the benefits of changing the way of working
- Poor definition and effectiveness of the new work process, and link to the other asset processes
- Digital oilfield seen as an additional work, not the way to work
- Little time dedicated to understand the reservoir, wells and surface issues
4. Technologies
- Data management: cleansing and integration is a never-ending task
- Challenges to maintain integrated model updates
- Little ability to maintain data integrity without IT support
What does the future hold for digital oilfields?
Due to developments in technologies for sensing, automation, networking, and data analytics, the adoption of digital oilfields has accelerated in the last 15 years. In addition to the benefits listed above, improved reservoir understanding, remote monitoring of drilling and completion operations, and logistics and supply chain optimization through digital oilfields can help boost production.
Technology and digital oilfields are essential tools to help the oil and gas industry overcome the COVID-19 crises and ensure its profitability in the future. In order to create sustainable digital oilfields, companies need to take advantage of the range of the available IoT management platforms. IoT can connect different disciplines such as production and asset management, thus enabling oil and gas companies to automate data flow.
Digital oilfields of the future can drive better insights for oil and gas and improve the overall quality of the supply chain. Above all, cloud technology and data will provide oil and gas companies with an alternative solution to traditional processes and infrastructure. Digital oilfields serve as a remote link across an entire company, making information and data immediately available. The role of technology in oil and gas has become essential, and digital oilfields are likely to continue to have a lasting impact on the sector.
References:
https://www.geoexpro.com/articles/2015/12/what-is-a-digital-oil-field
https://www.petropedia.com/definition/8140/digital-oilfield
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141128172529-42418755-why-digital-oilfield-projects-fail/
https://www.intel.in/content/www/in/en/energy/digital-oilfield.html
https://www.offshore-technology.com/comment/digital-oilfield-of-the-future/
