Posted on 09/02/2014 12:10:45 PM PDT by thackney
At this stage, companies are building programs internally to address how they will adopt Internet of Things technologies and how to get the most benefits in terms of managing risks, reducing costs and bringing in new revenues, said Serhii Konovalov, who leads Cisco’s O&G Global Industry Solutions Practice and O&G Innovations, in an interview with Rigzone.
Officials with Software AG are also seeing oil and gas companies starting to lay the framework and mapping their business processes to prepare their organizations for Internet of Things monitoring solutions. Software AG, which focuses on helping companies, including oil and gas companies, become digital enterprises, is seeing oil and gas companies pursue Internet of Things solutions to enhance their cash flow, while others are focused on ways to use sensor technology to achieve greater safety records.
To prepare for the Internet of Things, companies are first seeking to map their business processes to understand how work is done as a way to foster change in their corporate culture. Many firms believe that if they first focus on change management, the tools they use to facilitate operations, including technology, will fall into place.
This strategy of change includes using technology to enable processes as simple as attaching a document that outlines the methodology for a specific process. For example, a document that specifies the requirements for the type of conduit or drilling pipe a company needs can greatly enhance a buyer’s ability to procure the right supply.
“This is a long way from the Internet of Things, but is the top layer of the process automation piece that allows for sensor data to be fed into processes that will give a company enhanced visibility over its operations,” said Donald Fisher, senior director of Software AG Energy Solutions, in an interview with Rigzone.
“Rising CAPEX [capital expenditures] are increasing dramatically in the industry, so firms are very interested in controlling capital costs and being able to prioritize how they spend money,” said Fisher.
Another driver that Software AG officials are seeing in the move towards Internet of Things technology includes operational efficiency, such as being able to secure operational permits for exploration.
“In the process of drilling a well, as the wellbore is sunk, there are a number of control mechanisms, mainly pressures and flows associated with mud used to maintain the hydrostatic pressure in a well as it’s being dug,” said Fisher.
During this process, the operator must ensure that water-bearing zones are contaminated and that hydrocarbons do not enter the well once the reservoir is hit.
Operators can prevent these incidents from occurring by using the relationship between pressure flows and volumes to do data correlations using existing real-time systems. This allows information to be fed to the mud logger and driller to enhance the data that they currently have on consoles in order to give advanced warning that some additional action needs to be taken to avoid an incident, and what options are available to them.
“It leverages sensor technology that is becoming less expensive every day, basically enabling the alert and control of balance conditions in drilling and to then match the appropriate work activity,” said Fisher. “By using data gathered in simulations, an operator can compare in real-time data from previous cementing operations to a cementing job that’s underway to ensure that what has been predicted to happen is actually occurring,” Fisher noted.
Companies not only have to focus on their technology strategy, but their risk and business model strategies. The way that industry contracts its work, in which it spreads risk out among service providers, creates a complicated contractual structure that often hinders the full view of an operation because of the way responsibility for an activity is distributed.
“For example, Baker Hughes may come in to provide a real time system for an operation, but a second company provides mud logging and drilling services,” said Fisher. The focus on risk management at the start of the planning process versus system management and spreading out responsibilities can make it difficult to integrate operations due to numerous standards and technologies in place.
“As CAPEX keeps rising, that will place pressure on the owners to work more collaboratively with service providers to have integrated technology infrastructure in place,” Fisher noted.
While Internet of Things technology can be used to augment the loss of experienced hands facing the industry, Fisher believes that, as new workers enter the industry to replace older, retiring workers, adoption of this technology will speed up as newer workers are likely to be inclined and have the skills to use technology.
“Those involved in drilling operations have one perspective on how operations should be done,” said Fisher. “Often times, technology hasn’t been tool they’ve used in a robust way. There’s still lots of gut feeling used in drilling a well.”
Fisher anticipates this view will shift towards technology as a means of augmenting existing capabilities, not an additional burden to learn and object of skepticism.
The company I work for already does this.
My problem with the “internet of things” is this...
If things that are connected to the web can be hacked, then this opens up a LOT of opportunity for “book keeping fraud” in the “internet of things”....
This lesson brought to you all by “Sh!t Sherlock”, first name “No”....
There was a little known incident in the former Soviet Union previously discussed here Oh, that big 1982 Siberian explosion?.
If everything is connected it could be done remotely.
In my professional life I have seen similar remote monitoring, just in my case it was of locomotives. Telemetry is constantly streamed to satellites and fed back to the IT geeks and through a fault monitoring "playbook" locomotives could be flagged for shopping and repair, with workscopes provided by the quality team.
It was helpful, but these "Red Rx" workscopes (mandatory workscopes) were exhausting and tedious in the field, and all the unit really needed was a qualified, and experienced machinist or electrician to diagnose the issue and make the repair (as long as the stupid "Lean Warehousing", parts store at the shop actually had the parts in stock... fat chance).
I just see ZERO wisdom in promoting a system that takes away from tried and true field engineering and the whole process of mentoring field personnel. It's not a "virtual oil field" out there, it's the real deal where people get hurt or killed... that fact has far greater implications than some actuarial type on the 5th floor of some office building assessing risk for CAPEX decision making.
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