Abstract
The oil and gas industry has made great strides in the individual applications of the intelligent oil field technologies. However, the "big prize"—the integration of the individual pieces into a comprehensive solution that transforms work processes to achieve step-change efficiencies in development and operations—has been more elusive.
This paper chronicles the work and resulting methodologies of the international unit of an oil company as it implements an open platform asset management solution in a newly producing field, and adapts and transforms related processes to develop a template for re-use in assets anywhere in the world to anticipate and pre-empt problems—essentially realizing the promise of the intelligent oil field.
This holistic approach begins at the static model and includes reservoir simulation, surface facilities, processing plants, through economics, thereby making available the comprehensive technical picture to all geoscience and engineering professionals, and providing the basis for sounder economic decisions.
The development of this methodology is possible because of the ability to exploit these factors:
A relatively new field coming online, with limited production problems, provides a solid starting ground on which to develop the methodology.
Implementation of the most current asset management solution, based on an open platform that will allow the integration of other technology for the full spectrum of upstream applications, from static model through economics, provides the right technology.
A commitment from the operator to not simply implement the solution, but to dedicate the resources to assess and analyze the workflow and processes, and combine the expertise of the operator, service company and consultants to develop methodologies that can be applied globally, to any operations.
