The current oil industry is characterized by high uncertainties and a subsequent reduction in new investments. This leads to an increased attention towards more efficient exploitation of resources. This scenario, coupled with the industrial digital evolution of upstream plants, highlights the need for an advanced and flexible monitoring platform able to integrate critical information and operator's knowledge, optimizing asset management and decision-making processes. This paper describes the development and creation of an on-line, real time and dynamic monitoring Digital Oilfield Platform (DOF) and an Integrated Operations Center (IOC), based completely on a heterogeneous data system and deployed on a giant brown oilfield.
The key drivers of the advanced DOF developed are:
• Integration of business requirements, from control room operators, through the operations team to the HQ process engineers, Data Scientists and the ICT group;
• A top-down logic architecture, starting from machine learning and predictive models, through dynamic operating envelopes, to overall KPIs, and down gaining a deep insight into plant functional unit performances and finally into field parameters directly reported on process flow diagram of the Plant;
• The flexibility given by the visualization tool, that makes possible to create personalized screen for single defined issues and allows a continuous improvement of the digital oilfield platform.
Several innovations have been introduced supporting plant management, such as dynamic operating envelopes of the equipment based on physical models and advanced analytics. Moreover, predictive solutions focused on asset issues have been delivered. These tools allow operators to rapidly spot variations from correct operating conditions thanks to a user-friendly representation. The final result is the maximization of the production continuity and the asset integrity, a quick troubleshooting of every kind of upsets and a significant reduction in plant down time and environmental impact. The possibilities offered by the DOF, implemented on the on-line IOC developed, support field operators, integrating their knowledge with HQ engineering wide viewpoint, in an on-line collaborative environment. The platform is available both for laptop and mobile devices. Finally, an alarm/warning architecture has been created, generating workflows that direct each problem identified (i.e. waste management, emissions, sale specifications, safety etc.) to the proper department.
