Abstract
Asset performance can often be improved through continuous monitoring and/or through better utilization of information extracted from the high frequency data that are becoming more readily available in today's digital world. ExxonMobil has a long history of applying advanced technologies in asset management. Today, we continue to use new hardware, integrated software, and improved data infrastructure to enhance asset management workflows. ExxonMobil is taking an enterprise-wide approach (Reece et. al. 2008) to implementing digital technology in asset management.
This paper presents four examples where ExxonMobil has taken advantage of high frequency data for timely asset management decisions. These four examples represent implementation at four different operational scales: for reservoir management, for well management, for facility management, and for plant management. The four examples are: (1) For a West African reservoir: Permanent downhole pressure gauge data have added value in reservoir modeling that in turn provided a method for calculating reservoir rates; (2) For South Texas gas wells: Real-time data access and charting capabilities were implemented and advanced data analysis explored to identify well events and manage well work-over activities aided by artificial intelligence; (3) For Norwegian oil fields: An integrated facility model was developed and tuned for surveillance and operation of a network of wells and production facilities that are shared by multiple fields; (4) For an Australian production plant complex: Production from offshore platforms, a gas plant, a crude stabilization plant, a fractionation plant, and a tank farm was optimized with high frequency data and automatic process control.
