September 2006 Issue 3

Systems approach to
knowledge management

Better ways to assess

drilling risk

In-well fibre optics

Preparing platforms to
operate unmanned
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© 2006 Schlumberger
 Contents
Software
Flow simulations in real time
Norwegian flow modelling company Scandpower Petroleum Technology has adapted its
3
OLGA multiphase flow simulator so it can provide information about the flow which is hap-
pening right now

Siemens oilfield performance management software

Siemens company IndX software has launched a new performance management software
4
tool for the oil and gas industry, ‘Oil Field Management Intelligent Pack’, which is designed
Sept 2006 Issue 3 to provide information about emerging problems in the field

Digital Energy Journal Shell - 60+ per cent ultimate recovery,

Frans van den Berg, Smart Fields Foundation manager with Shell, said that Shell believes
7
213 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9FJ, UK that technology can help it get towards better than 60% ultimate recovery
www.digitalenergyjournal.com
Tel +44 207 510 4935
Fax +44 207 510 2344
Systems not stepwise approach to knowledge management
David Storey, principal IT technical adviser with the Technical Systems Group of Australian
9
oil and gas company Santos, believes the oil and gas industry needs to change the way it
Editor approaches knowledge management in order to meet more success
Karl Jeffery
karl@digitalenergyjournal.com
Better ways to assess drilling risk
Scott M Shemwell of US oil and gas IT consultancy Strategic Decision Sciences suggests
10
that drilling risk can be evaluated much better with a much broader, systems approach
Technical editor
Keith Forward
keith@digitalenergyjournal.com
E-purchasing for service suppliers
Oil and gas electronic purchasing portal OFS Portal is testing the water with services to
12
enable first tier service suppliers to use it for their own purchasing
Production, design and circulation
Katerina Jeffery
Structuring oil and gas information
Tanker software company Ulysses Systems talks about the concept of structuring data to
14
katya@digitalenergyjournal.com co-ordinate complex activities

Advertising sales Premium Drilling signs to SpecTec

Premium Drilling, an operator of 16 jack-up rigs, has signed up to use maintenance and
16
David Jeffries spares management software by SpecTec, including for condition monitoring
Only Media Ltd
1 Santley Street, London
SW4 7QA
Hosting your data remotely
Digital Energy Exchange of Aberdeen is growing a service to remotely host data, so compa-
17
Tel 44 207 733 1199 nies can collaborate without one going behind another’s firewall
Fax 44 207 733 1615
djeffries@onlymedia.co.uk Marise Mikulis, Microsoft
Marise Mikulis, worldwide oil and gas industry manager with Microsoft Corporation, speak-
18
ing at the IQPC Future Fields conference in Amsterdam in June, said that a lot of her pas-
Digital Energy Journal is published on print 8 times
sion is about accelerating adoption of software tools in the oil and gas industry.
a year, supported by a free website and email
news service

We cover information technology and communi- Communications and Monitoring

cations in upstream oil and gas production,
drilling / completions and exploration. Real time rig monitoring
Telecom International Incorporated of South Carolina is developing offshore oilrig remote
21
Each issue of Digital Energy Journal is mailed to monitoring services over Inmarsat
2000 oil and gas executives, as well as distributed
at major trade shows such as ATCE, Petex, Digital
Energy and Intelligent Energy.
Sakhalin remote rig monitoring
An Inmarsat monitoring system installed in a Sakahlin unmmanned rig under construction,
22
800km offshore, reports no problems after a year apart from a defective camera
Each issue of Digital Energy Journal is also posted
online for free download - our June 2006 issue had
1600 electronic downloads. Automation
For lists of sample readers to Digital Energy Journal
(company name plus job title), please see
www.digitalenergyjournal.com.
Weatherford’s fibre optic sensing systems
Weatherford has installed the first in-well fibre optic seismic system for BP Norway, is devel-
25
oping fibre optic sensing systems with Statoil, and helped Chevron reduce well failure rates
Front cover photo - Halliburton's Real Time from 30 to 10 per cent.
Decision Centre. Photo courtesy
Halliburton
Unmanned rigs
Rigs that operate unmanned - Invensys believes that US oil and gas companies can learn
27
from the experiences of European ones, which are far more likely to build platforms which
Additional material on our website
can operate unattended
www.digitalenergyjournal.com

You can download our report of the IQPC confer-

Integrated Control Systems
Invensys has launched a new middleware software suite called InFusion, which makes it
29
ence in Amsterdam in June ‘Future Fields’ - includ-
easier to gather data from different control systems
ing speeches from Microsoft, UK Department of
Trade and Industry, Norwegian Petroleum
Directorate, Alcatel and Invensys.

September 2006 - digital energy journal 1

 Software
Halliburton's 'first fully integrated' Decision Centre
Halliburton's Digital and
Consulting Solutions (DCS) divi-
sion has opens what it believes to
be the industry's first 'completely
integrated and fully digital Real
Time Decision Centre,' for an
[unnamed] international oil com-
pany to monitor its drilling rigs
worldwide.
Halliburton says that this is the
first centre with its own applications
hosting environment, connected to
its PetroBank data storage system.
There is a Sony SXRD display sys-
tem, with a new control system that
can be customised to every compa-
ny, asset team, and individuals using
it, based on their workflows and
processes.
The purpose is to provide staff
with easy, secure access to all of their
data, applications and workflow
processes.
The philosophy is to break down
all the 'silos' between traditional
visualisation and operation centres,
bringing all the hardware, software
and people into one place, so they
can make decisions collectively,
Halliburton says. Halliburton’s 'completely integrated and fully digital Real Time Decision Centre’
Halliburton says that some of its
the company says.
customers have experienced a ten-
fold improvement in productivity Intel, Silicon Graphics, NetApp, "The Real Time Decision Centre is
when asset teams collaborate in a Hewlett-Packard and Cyviz are all
providing products and services as
designed to be one of the most fully used,
common environment, and early
adopters of real time monitoring can part of Halliburton's Real Time multi-functional centers at our customers'
Decision Centre offering.
see cost savings of 35 to 50 per cent.
"These are compelling figures
sites - a work space that will increase pro-
www.halliburton.com
that could have an immediate posi- ductivity and allow them to operate more
tive impact on any size organization,"
profitably in today's booming market"

IBM acquires MRO software Wellogix upgrades Complex Services

IBM has acquired oil and gas
asset management software com-
pany MRO for $740m.
MRO makes software which compa-
nies use to decide how to buy, main-
tain and retire assets, such as pro-
duction equipment, facilities, trans-
portation and IT.
As well as the oil and gas indus-
try, the software is used in utilities,
manufacturing, pharmaceutical, and
telecommunications. Oil and gas
customers include BP, ExxonMobil,
China National Offshore Oil
Company (CNOOC) and DTE Energy.
IBM bought MRO as part of its
strategy to develop a range of busi-
ness consulting, IT and software
services to help clients optimise and
develop their businesses.
IBM will integrate MRO´s technol-
ogy into its IBM Software and IBM
Global Services offerings, providing
its clients with a standard way to
manage their assets.
This means that customers will
be able to buy asset management
software and consulting from the
same place. This should make it easi-
er to implement more complex asset
monitoring solutions, for example
including RFID and embedded chips.
IBM will establish MRO Software
as a business unit within its Tivoli
software unit.
"In a recent IBM study, 40 percent
of CEOs indicated that asset utiliza-
tion would be a key focus in
strengthening financial perform-
ance," says IBM.
"This acquisition will provide
companies with a single view into all
of their assets, helping them to max-
imize efficiencies, drive productivity,
and innovate business processes
across the enterprise."
The two companies have been
working together since 1996.
www.mro.com
Management Suite
Wellogix of Houston has platform. It runs on 2007 Microsoft
announced plans to develop the Office SharePoint Portal Server and
Next generation of its ´Complex uses Microsoft SQL Server 2005,
Services Management (CSM) Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0,
Suite´ solution for planning, pro- SharePoint and Microsoft Office
curement and payment of com- Business Scorecard Manager 2005.
plex oilfield services, working in
CSM Suite has been through a
partnership with Microsoft.
number of architect design review
sessions at Microsoft´s Technology
The software is designed to be used
Center in Austin, Texas.
by engineering, procurement and
"We decided to form a strategic
financal personnel.
relationship with Wellogix because
Using the SharePoint Portal
of its portfolio of patented technolo-
Server, company engineers can put
gy, as well as its leadership's willing-
together project teams, specify who
ness to gain early insight into the
can see what information, manage
opportunity for the development
project and well-specific informa-
and delivery of solutions using SQL
tion, put together requests for
Server 2005, SharePoint and
Complex Services proposals and
Business Scorecard Manager," said
evaluate them, put together service
Marise Mikulis, Microsoft's world
provider contracts for Complex
wide oil and gas industry manager.
Services, and manage electronic
field tickets and invoices. www.wellogix.com
CSM Suite is built on a Microsoft

2 digital energy journal - September 2006

 Software
Scandpower simulator - information about current flow
Norwegian flow modelling com-
pany Scandpower Petroleum
Technology has adapted its OLGA
multiphase flow simulator so it
can crunch real time data and
provide information about cur-
rent operations.

It can also provide predictions for

the future based on current data.
The new system is called "e-dynamic
production management" (edpm).
It has three operations modes. A
'real time' mode tells them what is
happening now; a 'look ahead'
mode can be used for forecasting;
and a 'what if' mode can be used to
try out different approaches and see
what might happen. This mode may
also be used for training.
In real time, it provides estimates
of pressure, temperature, flowrates
in different areas of the system. The
system can also provide warnings
when slugs are likely to arrive. It can
provide information about liquid
accumulation in gas pipes. The mon-
itoring provides information about
leaks, erosion and deposition. You can obtain in-depth information about flow through your pipes in real
In the 'what if mode', it can work time using Scandpower's OLGA simulator combined with data from the
pipeline
out the best way to set the controls
after a shut-down to achieve the
fastest start up, for example.
Operators can make sure they and work on tuning the models, ber of subsea fields tied back to the the simulator model which edpm is
can get the production level they alarms and alerts. host rig. built on, is the most advanced flow
want, avoiding hydrate formation, Edpm is being used by BP at the Na The software is also being used in an simulator in the world. OLGA was
wax formation, liquid buildup and Kika oilfield in deepwater Gulf of underbalanced well design (UBD) developed as a tool for designing
when to do pigging operations. They Mexico, as part of its advanced warn- being drilled and operated by Shell. and monitoring flow systems out of
can predict the daily volume, speed ing system, providing support to The software was used to provide the wells, through flow lines and into
and structure of slugs. flow assurance and subsea engi- information about the past, present the receiving facilities.
They use it to work out how long neers. and future of the well bore fluid It can model non-steady state
systems will take to cool down after The Na Kika field operates in dynamics, and work out how to flows (eg during start up or shut
being shut down. They can do simu- water depths of 6,350 feet, with pro- maintain the underbalanced condi- down), not just steady state as most
lations for the future to plan produc- duction wells 7,600 feet deep. The tion by controlling bottom hole and
other simulators on the market do.
tion. water pressure at the bottom of the well head pressure.
Remote staff can access the data, ocean is 3,000 psi. There are a num- Scandpower claims that OLGA,
www.scandpowerpt.com

IHS to give every well unique ID

Oil and gas information provider
IHS Inc has signed a letter of
intent with the Petrotechnical
Open Standards Consortium
(POSC) to develop an industry
standard set of unique well iden-
tifiers, which will cover all 4 mil-
lion known oil and gas wells in
the world.
This will address the problem of oil
companies, service companies and
regulators having different practises
for naming wells, which can lead to
problems reconciling data about the
same well in financial and technical
databases.
IHS will also provide standard
identifiers for all new wells. It will put
together a Master Well Index.
IHS has been offering well ID
services to its customers since the
1990s. Now the service will be avail-
able to the whole industry.
A formal agreement covering the
service deliverables will be
announced by IHS and POSC by the
end of 2006, and in the interim IHS
will provide a basic service.
"The service (should) be as open
as possible so that no oil company,
service company or data vendor is
precluded from obtaining a standard
well ID," says IHS.
POSC has been working on the
project since 2003.
"IHS has extensive experi-
ence with the regional vari-
ances of well ID systems
around the world, not only
because of their management
of well identifications, but also
because of their network of
global experts positioned in
local markets," says POSC.
www.ihsenergy.com
Soon, every well will
have a universal unique
ID number

September 2006 - digital energy journal 3

 Software
Siemens oilfield performance
management software - new levels
Siemens company IndX software
has launched a new performance
management software tool for
the oil and gas industry, ‘Oil Field
Management Intelligent Pack’,
which provides information to
upstream production supervisors
about current and emerging
problems, so they can make bet-
ter decisions about how to man-
age assets and respond to situa-
tions.
All technical personnel, engi-
neers, supervisors, managers, can
instantly access the technical infor-
mation from any company PC.
The software crunches real time
data and provides information
geared to the specific roles / respon-
sibilities of different users.
It provides information, about
production wells, metering stations,
injection systems, environmental
monitoring stations and gas / oil
separation plants.
Engineers and technicians can
create displays for reading data from
multi-phase flow meters, well tests,
work orders and field production
maps.
There are tools for energy man-
agement, sand management, moni-
For those that want to coordinate intensely critical and
expensive collaborative processes.
Ulysses Task Assistant:
Grown up in the most traditionally dispersed business in the world we are
ready to serve the next industry up in the energy hierarchy.
Contact details:
Ulysses Systems UK Ltd , 3rd Floor, Transworld House, 100 City Road, London, EC1Y 2BP, England
Phone: +44 (0)20 7324 5700 • Fax: +44 (0)20 7324 5701
Email: info@ulysses-systems.com • Web: www.ulysses-systems.com
4 digital energy journal - September 2006
toring corrosion, monitoring well
shut-in history, looking at inner cas-
ing pressure monitoring, water man-
agement and pump monitoring.
Users can establish design and
operating limit envelopes for assets
and specific pieces of equipment,
and receive real time monitoring to
show that operations are within
these limits.
The software should make it easy
to recognise trends and patterns in Gathering real time production data using Siemens IndX
operational performance, and keep
production levels optimal. can provide information about
Information is easy to find, and
Siemens says it has included best alarms triggered in remote locations
accessible quickly during production
practices and operating procedures so operators can investigate if it is
upsets, when it is most needed.
of oil field management engineers necessary to go to the location.
For example, operators can use
and operators around the world in Users can monitor specific critical
the technical information about the
the software. process variables for deviations, set-
well (eg decrease in pressure, water
There have been software pack- ting up alerts by e-mail or pager if
production, sand production, well
ages on the market for some time certain conditions are met. E-mail
test information) to help adjust the
which present oilfield data for the alerts can be sent with detailed
financial production allocation mod-
specific needs of oilfield operators, maintenance information about the
els of how much revenue is expect-
production engineers, reservoir engi- specific asset causing the problem
ed from each well, instead of basing
neers, earth scientists and financial and associated technical drawings
financial predictions on one well test
analysts. and documentation, work orders
and not changing it as production
But what is unique about this sys- information, maintenance history
from the well changes over time.
tem, Siemens believes, is that it con- and information suggesting correc-
The software can also be used to
nects together data from financial tive action.
improve management of alarms. It
and operational systems, so for
can switch off unnecessary alarms
example the operator gets the oper-
triggered by maintenance tasks; it
ational data in a financial context.
Co-ordination systems for the most
critical and highest turnover environments.

Scandpower Petroleum Technology
acquired by VCs
Venture Capitalists Altor has
acquired a 70 per cent stake of
Scandpower Petroleum
Technology, a Norwegian compa-
ny which makes flow modelling,
drilling and reservoir modelling
software.
The company was previously
owned by HitecVision Private Equity,
which will retain a 30 per cent hold-
ing.
Altor says it is expecting 'strong
growth' in the company, particularly
in international markets, as a result
of the acquisition.
"We have a number of growth
opportunities that we plan to pursue
with our new financial resources. We
believe working with Altor and
Chevron outsources IT infrastructure to
Getronics
Chevron has signed a contract for
over $10m to outsource its North
American IT network infrastruc-
ture to US company Getronics.
It will also take over monitoring
and management of over 1,200 net-
work routers and switches, and ulti-
mately manage 5,000 enterprise net-
work devices.
Getronics will also deliver 'onsite'
services to certain Chevron facilities
in the US and support over 100 addi-
tional US sites.
It will provide management and
monitoring of SCADA, microwave
and other systems for Chevron Pipe
Line Company.
Getronics offers an outsource
company IT manager service, taking
Halliburton's free 'eRedBook' field
calculations software
Halliburton has launched free
'eRedBook' software for calcula-
tions commonly made in the oil-
field. The software can be down-
loaded free of charge from the
Halliburton website
People using corporate computers
which do not allow downloads can
go to their home computers, down-
load the software and burn it onto a
CD-ROM; Halliburton even provides
an image for a sticky label to put on
the CD.
It builds on Halliburton's 'RedBook'
HitecVision will provide a good com-
bination of continuity and new
thinking that will support us on this
journey," says Scandpower.
HitecVision believes that
Scandpower developed its organisa-
tion, product portfolio and interna-
tional 'footprint' during its tenure
fully owned by HitecVision.
Altor manages a fund of Eur
1.8bn, with investments including
Lindorff, Ability Group (AGR),
Relacom, Simrad Yachting, Dynapac,
Byggmax, Meyn, Aalborg Industries,
Ferrosan, PaloDEx and Nimbus Boats.
HitecVision manages $410m and
grew out of oil service company
Hitec ASA.
www.scandpowerpt.com
responsibility for managing PCs, lap-
tops, PDAs, servers, data storage and
core office software, using a mixture
of remotely delivered services and
on site work.
The contract fits in with
Chevron's strategy to aggregate the
services delivered to its business
units.
www.getronics.com
cementing tables reference guide,
first published by Halliburton in
1929. The software contains all of
the data in the original guide, but
with expanded content.
The software can be used for quick
and reliable calculations for compu-
tations used in daily operations.
There is also a tool to enable engi-
neers to share well schematics with
other engineers quickly.
Users can access information about
Halliburton's Energy Services Group
product lines.
They can access the American
Duvernay Oil Corp buys esi.execute
Duvernay Oil Corporation of
Alberta has bought a license to
esi.execute software, for tracking
its wells, tasks, dates and costs.
The company bought the soft-
ware so that all the different groups
of employees involved in bringing a
well online could share data, rather
than retype it as it moves between
different software applications.
Companies can use the software
to manage all their operations relat-
ed to wells, up to the time the asset
comes onstream.
It can also be used for re-comple-
tions, workovers, production optimi-
sations, surface facilities manage-
ment, and abandonments / reclama-
tions.
Enertia Software develops financial
tools
Upstream accounting software
company Enertia Software has
developed new functionality to
integrate mapping systems,
enabling all property, equipment
and facilities to be shown on a
map. Data can be accessed and
added to the map from anywhere
in the system.
It is possible to download aerial
photographs and topographic map
data directly into the system using
Microsoft Terraserver. It can also inte-
grate with data from WhiteStar and
Petroleum Geographics.
Enertia has developed new func-
tionality for its financial analysis and
reporting tools.Software upgrades
Petroleum Institute's latest pipe
data.
"eRedBook software is the most
user-friendly, most complete digital
oilfield toolkit available today, and
it's simply a smarter way for industry
professionals to work," the company
says.
Users can download the whole soft-
ware or just the applications they
want. Users can copy and paste data
into other software.
The software will automatically
update itself with new content,
revised API pipe data and new fea-
tures as they become available.
www.halliburton.com/esg/ered-
book/erb_dnld.jsp
September 2006 - digital energy journal
Software
Employees can access informa-
tion about the status of each project
or well, access all the documents
associated with the project, and get
different levels of summary informa-
tion.
The software enables all process-
es to be auditable, and makes it easi-
er for people in different functional
groups to work together.
This should lead to more stream-
lined processes and reduced cycle
times.
3esi recently signed a 'original
equipment manufacturer' (OEM)
agreement with software company
BEA Systems, to use its AquaLogic
software as a basis for its esi.environ-
ment software.
www.3esi.com
include advanced column layout fea-
tures, and a tool to create Excel
tables or charts which are automati-
cally recalculated whenever the
underlying data is changed.
"These new features pretty much
allow the user to gather as much
data in whatever period format they
desire, then securely link the results
to Excel for any further analysis and
charting they need," says Enertia.
The company released new func-
tionality to facilitate SOX compliance
and provide detailed audit tracking,
making it possible to control every
change made to the data and pro-
vide a clear history of the changes.
www.enertia-software.com
5
 Software
Endeavour out-
sources IT to
CentreBeam
Houston-based North Sea oil and
gas company Endeavour
International Corporation has
signed a deal with US outsource
IT company CentreBeam to man-
age its IT infrastructure.
Endeavour sees itself as a 'niche'
company, which has a business
opportunity in the North Sea, as the
major oil and gas companies gradu-
Vietnamese oil
companies buy
Roxar´s Tempest
Vietnamese oil and gas compa-
nies Hoan Vu Joint Operating
Company and Hoang Long Joint
Operating Company has signed
up to buy Roxar´s reservoir simu-
lation software Tempest.
Roxar will also supply a detailed
training program to help personnel
make best use of the software. The
training will emphasise the need of
incorporating all available data when
constructing geological and simula-
tion models, and adopting a multi-
disciplinary approach.
Other Roxar customers in
Vietnam include BP, Petronas Carigali
(Vietnam), Japan Vietnam Petroleum
Company and PetroVietnam. Roxar is
works closely with the Vietnam
Petroleum Institute. Roxar opened
an office in Ho Chi Minh in May
2005.
Merrick Systems updates dashboard
tool
Houston oil and gas software
company Merrick Systems has
released the latest version of its
Carte software which provides a
web-based 'dashboard' tool to
monitor oil and gas production
trends.
Merrick pulls together data from
different sources, including engi-
neering, operations and economics,
putting all the data on the same
page. Users can view it in different
graphical formats and export data.
The new version has a user-
administration function, which
allows companies to add any data
6 digital energy journal - September 2006
ally leave to seek better opportuni-
ties elsewhere.
Endeavour believes it has a lower
operating overhead and better tech-
nical insights than the oil majors,
and so is able to take advantage of
reservoirs not viable for the larger
companies.
The company is using a new 3D
seismic database to try to identify
overlooked or new oil and gas
prospects.
It has license rights to almost
105,000 km2 of 3 dimensional seis-
mic data over the continental
shelves of the UK, Norway and the
Hoan Vu and Hoang Long will
use the software in Vietnam´s off-
shore blocks 9-2, operated by Hoan
Vu, and 16-1, operated by Hoang
Long.
Vietnam is estimated to have 6.5
to 8.5 billion barrels of oil and 75-
100 trillion cubic feet of gas.
"With much of its production
coming from fractured, offshore
element of their own to the dash-
board, without having to write any
new code.
Another new function is the abili-
ty to map data trends from individ-
ual wells, alongside other wells, so
for example workers can compare
performance data for a new well
with older wells.
Individual users can customise
data views for their own needs. So
for example analysts can use it to
access variance reports, and man-
agers can use it to get a complete
picture of their upstream operations.
Users can also access near real
time data.
www.MerrickSystems.com
Netherlands. It also has access to
regional maps taken from 110,000
km2 of 2D seismic data around 1,200
wells. "We believe no other firm cur-
rently has access to comparable seis-
mic data of this size and quality in
the North Sea," the company says.
Endeavour's strategy is to main-
tain a lean staff focussing on devel-
oping value from the seismic data-
base.
CentreBeam was put to the test
when Hurricane Rita threatened to
destroy Houston. CentreBeam staff
in San Jose helped Endeavour
employees to put the seismic data
onto their own notebook computers,
basement reservoirs, it is essential
that accurate and robust models are
fully simulated to reduce risk and
uncertainty," says Roxar.
It is possible that the two
Vietnamese companies will buy
Roxar´s reservoir modelling solution
IRAP RMS, in particular its
RMSFracPerm module for incorporat-
ing fracture modelling into the simu-
Schlumberger E&P software
to Romania university
Schlumberger has signed an
agreement with the Petroleum
Gas university of Ploiesti,
Romania, to supply exploration
and production software, and
ongoing technical maintenance,
worth $9.5m.
Schlumberger is doing this to
help students learn in a high-tech
environment, and get familiar with
its software. Schlumberger has been
recruiting engineers from the
University since the beginning of
2004.
"We believe the graduates are
well equipped to manage the chal-
lenges we face on a daily basis," says
so they could carry on working from
wherever they were.
"With a company that is relying
on the interpretation of a data base
as a competitive advantage, it is criti-
cal that we partner with an informa-
tion technology company that is
responsive and understands the
importance of science to our busi-
ness," says Aimee Stadtfield, of
Endeavour's corporate IT executive
office.
Endeavour also needs good IT to
help it comply with Sarbanes-Oxley
requirements.
www.centerbeam.com
lation, Roxar says.
Tempest is a reservoir simulation
tool which can simulate a wide
range of physical processes includ-
ing black oil, compositional, dual
porosity, steam, coal bed methane
and polymer injection.
It was recently developed to add
a new method for modelling natural-
ly fractured reservoirs, with a Single
Grid Dual Porosity approach. This
can halve the run time compared to
conventional dual porosity models,
Roxar says.
Another recent development to
Tempest is a Tensor Permeability
option which can be used to
describe complex heterogeneous
reservoir systems.
The standard Tempest modules
are Tempest-MORE, for black oil sim-
ulation modes; Tempest-View for
simulation pre and post processing;
Tempest-PVTx for fluid characterisa-
tion; and Tempest-Venture, for eco-
nomic evaluation and risk analysis,
estimating cash flow and net present
value from the reservoir model data.
www.roxar.com
David Waterland, general manager,
Schlumberger, Continental Europe.
"The training programs devel-
oped at Petroleum Gas University of
Ploiesti are unique within Romania
and they provide the local oil and
gas industry with the essential
expertise."
"The Schlumberger software
packages make an essential contri-
bution to the graduates' develop-
ment, giving them the chance to
model and interpret the results of
specific processes from the oil and
gas industry," says University Rector
Vlad Ulmanu.
www.slb.com

Shell - 60 per cent ultimate
recovery
Frans van den Berg, Shell
Frans van den Berg, Smart Fields Foundation Manager with Shell,
speaking at the IQPC Future Fields conference in Amsterdam in June,
said that Shell believes that technology can help it get 'towards better
than 60 per cent ultimate recovery.’
hell has established, we want smart tech-
S nology in all of our existing fields and in
all of the new fields," he said. "We want a
real time view of what's going on," he said.
"We have field wide monitoring of what's
going on. We get production history. It alerts us if
something isn't responding the way it should," he
said.
Without a real time view of what is going on,
the only way to spot problems is when you see
that the flow from the rig has reduced, and the
only way to fix problems is putting experts in a
boat and sending them out to a rig. "It can take 24
hours between a well dying and us having it back
online," he said.
"I asked Schlumberger, how many wells in the
industry have real time data sent to office," he said.
"The answer was 5 per cent. In Shell it is 10 per
cent."
Oil companies must face a market with higher
hydrocarbon demands, he said. They must be
committed to the environment and its sustainable
development, have leading technology to handle
new complex reservoirs and mature fields, and
operate safely, at all times, regardless of the chal-
lenges.
Shell is implementing a range of different tech-
nologies to achieve this, he said, including subsea
technology, 4D seismic, real time data from
remote operations, 'intelligent' completions, real
time reservoir information, 3D virtual technology
and visualisation, operational / financial reporting,
integrated supply chains, transactional processing.
It is also using e-learning, including home learn-
ing.
"The key concept is having the ability to opti-
mise," he said. "We need to do everything a lot
faster."
Developments in the smart fields concept are
rapidly gaining in momentum, he said. "I rarely
meet people who say, it's all wrong. We're getting
more detailed discussion rather than general dis-
belief. [They see that] we are collecting oil we
would otherwise be unable to produce."
One particular benefit of smart technology is
having better control of water flooding, he said.
"The conventional way is to open the produc-
ers and hope for the best," he said. "The smart way
is to analyse all the results. You see that one rock is
more permeable - the water goes through faster."
"You can get 20 per cent more oil out and 15
per cent less water. In many cases, we are not con-
strained by anything other than being able to
manage the produced water," he said. "Less water
production has an enormous value."
Mr van den Berg talked about the Draugen
Field, 160km offshore Norway, where Shell main-
tains a very detailed reservoir simulation model,
including doing water flood simulations.
It does repeated seismic surveys (3D seismic)
so it can spot the oil which is not being drained
properly and work out how to tackle it.
In one example, Shell found that the well they
were planning to drill was close to where the
waterfront was, so it moved the well. "We can see
what's going on and change what we were plan-
ning," he said.
One priority is developing a standard within
Shell for its smart fields systems. "We have 200
assets we work with, and many hundreds of
fields," he said. "We need a standard architecture
that makes this possible without re-inventing the
wheel."
"We now standardise - it helps this kind of stuff
enormously. We have a standard data acquisition
and control architecture."
Shell's tool 'Production Universe,' is used for
well monitoring and optimisation. It provides real
time information what is coming out of each well.
"The system estimates the total flow in real time.
We can see the estimated flow in comparison with
the total measured flow," he said.
The biggest challenge, he said, is change man-
agement. "A lot of people don't like opening
valves on a PC," he said. "We have to go through
awareness training with all asset management
teams."
Shell did particularly well with change man-
agement on the Brunei Champion field, he said.
"They didn't go with a top down change manage-
ment program," he said. "The top manager had a
strong belief, so people felt comfortable to try out
and fail here and there."
"We had a small team that went to the plat-
form, and listened to guys and gradually designed
solutions, so people on the field understood what
was going to hit them. We had a support desk. We
started with a few things and gradually grew."
"They are gradually building up from small to
big, designing whole new fields as 'smart fields'.
They are trying to build things in from the start
they will need."
Legacy systems
Shell has a large amount of legacy equipment in
its wells, which either doesn't produce data, or is
not connected to the IT system, or produces bad
data.
"There's a huge amount of historic kit out
there which is not connected," he said.
A lot of the data is generated by instruments
September 2006 - digital energy journal
Software
Frans van den Berg, Smart Fields Foundation
Manager with Shell
which were calibrated 15 years ago. "We're cali-
brating them correctly," he said.
"I ask reservoir engineers, is the production
data good enough to do reservoir management
with," he said. "They say mmm. If you ask them
over a beer, they say its no so good. We haven't
put in the tools to do it."
"We have a production history, but we're not
sure what came out of each well at each time.
"Sometimes we have to make a model and try to
work out what the well did. We need to get better
at having the production history," he said.
Better collaboration
Improving collaboration between different staff
members is also a priority.
"We need to get away from how we worked
before - we acquired data, geologists built a
model, reservoir people understood the reservoir,
production engineers understood the production,"
he said.
"We need to get everyone to sit together, to do
their work in one room. Get the four key disci-
plines together."
"We need integrated processes where [for
example] everyone thought about what would or
wouldn't happen if we put in a compressor."
Security
Shell is making more and more connections
between different parts of its network all the time,
which means additional security risks. "People get
really nervous," he said. "Everybody is struggling
with the same thing."
"We build more links because we want to," he
said. "For example, we might have someone at the
end of the globe monitoring a compressor he
knows all about."
"We've had times when pieces of our system
have been shutdown by viruses," he said. "But of
course we had redundant systems [so no damage
was caused]."
The systems are designed so that if there is any
concern about hacking, it is possible to immedi-
ately isolate the communications network from
the control system.
Mr van den Berg said he thought that using
Windows "increases the risk seriously, not because
of Windows but because viruses work on
Windows."
This was disputed by Marise Mikulis, head of oil
and gas with Microsoft, who said that there could
be threats and hacking with all different types of
software, and also people don't realise that new
versions of Windows are much more secure than
older versions.
7
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Systems not stepwise approach to
knowledge management – Santos
principal IT advisor
The oil and gas industry needs to act fast to adopt a systems approach to knowledge management, rather
than its current step-wise approach, says David Storey, principal IT technical adviser with the Technical
Systems Group of Australian oil and gas company Santos
avid Storey, principal IT technical advi-
D sor in the technical systems group of
Australian oil and gas company Santos,
believes that the oil and gas industry
needs to act very quickly to improve its knowledge
management systems, but the industry is not
going about it in the best way.
No-one doubts the urgency with which the oil
and gas industry needs to create better KID
(knowledge, information and data) systems as the
amount of data and information rapidly increases
and the number of people entering the workforce
decreases.
But the current approach the industry takes, a
stepwise approach of data to information to deci-
sions to action, is not the best, he suggests.
“The normal approach is to try to reduce large
data and information sets to just what is needed to
make a decision and act,” he says, but this does not
seem to be working.
“Knowledge, Information and Data in the oil
and gas industry is now known to a number as
managed chaos,” he says. “It has taken over 10
years working on data management and more
than five years working on information manage-
ment to get to where we are now. There has been
comment that the industry cannot come together
and crack this nut.”
The normal oil industry technique is to try to
reduce a work process to its raw elements, to make
it easier to automate. But this can miss out crucial
dependencies and interactions, and tends to bring
more information to decision makers’ desks, rather
than less.
Also, there is no framework for people to make
decisions the computer hasn’t predicted they will
make.
The system is not geared for the complexity of
continuous decision making that people do. “The
industry needs to keep its operations running well
and there are many decisions and actions required
every instant, for that to happen, for a worldwide
enterprise,” he says.
“There is the possibility that the industry has
applied its talent and its schooled methods and
spent too much time inventorying data and infor-
mation instead of looking at the situation from a
completely different angle: “what is the use of the
data and information?” he says.
“We have been applying a divide and conquer
approach and that is clearly inadequate.”
“The reason why knowledge, information and
data is complicated is because we are not treating
it as the connected whole that it is,” he says.
Systems
Mr Storey suggests that instead of seeing informa-
tion as a stepwise flow of data to information to
decisions to results, companies instead should
look at data, results, knowledge (tacit and explicit),
information, decisions and action, together as one
integrated system, with information flowing in
both directions.
The starting off point for building such a sys-
tem could be working out what specific informa-
tion people need to make their decisions, and
then build a system to provide them with that
information.
Mr Storey compares this idea to how Triage
works in medicine, deciding who to treat when
the number of patients needing treatment
exceeds the medical resources available.
The decision is made with simultaneous
knowledge both of the needs of the patients and
the medical resources, not trying to make a step-
wise approach starting with gathering compre-
hensive information about the number of patients
and their medical requirements, then using this
information to decide who to treat.
“You have a simple game plan when you
would normally be overwhelmed by the number
of casualties. You go into Triage to sort out who to
treat based on limited capability to deliver care
and limited facts to decide and act,” he says.
“The same applies to firefighters’ methods.
You find out a few things to get your terms of ref-
erence and you decide, then act.
“Decisions require just the right amount of
data and information to execute,” he says. “In an
action world doing is key, but doing the right
thing requires applied intellect and timing and the
right information.”
“We don’t need the Library of Congress but
just the facts that service decisions and action,” he
says. “Some things in this world need only a rou-
tine answer, not a treatise to win a Nobel Prize.”
“Data and information must be streamlined for
people to make decisions and act.”
The unknown unknowns
“Going beyond known actions is an important
goal. Converting ideas into actions is particularly
important. But the prize is pushing the idea space
ever into the unknown and trying to convert the
unknown to the known,” he says.
“In the oil and gas industry, too often we are
navel gazing at all the options of what to do in a
given situation. Or we have given a person the
freedom to do it his way.
September 2006 - digital energy journal
Software
“There are many things in this world that we
can give a pretty good process to follow to
resolve. These situations only need specific facts
to decide and act upon. But if the oil and gas
industry prides itself on exploration there is more
to do than just service known decisions and
actions,” he says.
“This is a larger process with the larger process
with the possibility of more enduring scope and
return,” he says.
“If we applied this type of approach more we
could be at the beach, and more time could be
spared for idea generation and applying our-
selves.”
“There is more to apply ourselves to, than con-
tinuing to serve repetitious things we know how
to do or work out how they work.”
David Storey is principal IT technical
adviser with the CIO, development
systems and Technical Systems Group
of Australian
Mr Storey worked in the oil and gas
industry for 30 years for
Schlumberger, Oracle and now Santos
Ltd. covering many technical and
business domains of both upstream
and downstream in Europe, Middle
East, Africa, North America and now
Australia.
"I have heard the phrase "Waiting on
Schlumberger" many times in my
early years in oil and gas. I have done
a lot of waiting for the industry's
applied intellect to deliver smart oil-
fields," he says. "I know the difference
between the expressions "Have a go"
and Go for it".
9
 Software
Assessing drilling risk
Scott M Shemwell of oil and gas IT consultancy Strategic Decision Sciences suggests that drilling risk can be
evaluated taking into account a much broader amount of information (eg the accuracy of the data), using a
mixture of multidiscipline teams and computer models. We asked him to explain his idea
e have developed a new method
W that enables drilling decision mak-
ers to input all data, geoscience,
engineering, procurement, eco-
nomic into a single computer model to work out
drilling risk, working out the expected value,
adjusted for risk, of each prospect, and ultimately
to maximise investor returns.
Normally, oil and gas companies evaluate
drilling options using Monte Carlo simulations, run-
ning a statistical model of the opportunity. The
problem is that these models are expensive, cum-
bersome and are limited in the data sets and sub-
jective input into the model.
We are proposing an alternative method which
takes all the available information into account,
enables engineers and geologists / geophysicists to
work together and continually assess each other´s
data, doing the process iteratively until it is as good
as possible, and using a computer to determine the
best options taking everything into account.
The knowledge processes involved include
management integration, project scope, time, cost,
quality, human resources, communications, risk
and procurement.
Optimality
Optimality can be defined as the best that could be
achieved without disadvantaging at least one
group.
Any given oilfield operation involves integrating
a number of geoscience, engineering, economic,
financial, and managerial criteria into the decision-
making process.
The economic utility or overall level of satisfac-
tion (value) attained in this decision-making
process is a function of the optimization of all vari-
ables not just the maximization of one or few.
No single variable in the decision-making
process is maximized but overall, the expected
return for the project is optimal (maximised).
The process
The first step is to form the project team and iden-
tify which disciplines will be involved and who will
be accountable in each team. The engineering and
geophysical / geological team work in parallel.
The next step is to try to validate / improve the
available data as much as possible, and identify
unknowns and gaps.
The engineering team, working together with
the service company and other data sources, can
provide information about wells drilled in the basin
already (such as drilling reports, hole problems,
mud weight information, lost circulation) which
can be validated by the geophysical / geological
team, which can put together a new seismic earth
model.
The engineering team can work out the pore
10 digital energy journal - September 2006
pressures and fracture gradients, and the geologi- The solution enables engineers, management and
cal / geophysical team can draw maps and cross
sections of the field geological picture. All the
information can be collated and the process can go
through iteration loops until it is as good as possi-
ble.
geoscientists to manage a large amount of data
and variables in a single model of the entire
process.
The models are very robust and some have
been run using a million nodes, although most
The third step is a more robust decision model applications only require a hundred or so.
which includes procurement, regulatory compli- The inference engine runs a series of iterations
ance issues, and greater detailed engineering with feedback loops that drive a large set of vari-
(often including input from the service companies). ables to convergence or the optimal solution.
The geological and geophysical team can do A typical inference engine control panel would
additional data refinement using mud logs, make control the workflow and data input of the overall
predictions about leak paths and oil trapping process. It would include the ability for manage-
mechanisms, and can talk to other experts about ment ot override based on an individual or group
the strength of assumptions. of individuals knowledge.
The engineering team can work out how confi- In the preliminary risk assessment (stage one),
dent it is in finding oil in the locations chosen, and the inputs would be:
work out contingency plans. It can validate costs Outside issues: the impact of organisation
and put together a draft drilling program. process assets; the impact of external factors
Selection criteria: if the well is shallow, intermedi-
Both teams can do a final review to verify all
ate or HTHP, the level of confidence in the model
data and decide how reliable it is, what is known
From other processes: the quality of definition of
and what isn´t known. If necessary, the entire
the project scope statement; the availability of
process can go through more iterations.
project resources; the capabilities of project
Meanwhile necessary purchases and personnel
resources; the quality of the project management
plans can be submitted for approval. At this point it plan
will be possible for management to decide if the From the earth model: the number of offset
project can go ahead. wells; the quality of horizon maps; From the engi-
neering model: the number of other basin wells;
A computer model the quality of other data. Ratings of the service
Once this process has been documented and deci- companies involved can be input, also if the proj-
sion feedback loops determined, it can be modeled ect is on schedule, or early / late.
using a Structural Dynamics based inference In stage two, the final drilling risk assessment:
engine.
About the Author
Strategic Decision Sciences, Inc. provides its clients with tai-
lored strategic behavioral economics based programs designed to
provide organizational flexibility, rapid operational response, and
culture adaptability.
The firm’s clients include Fortune 500 global firms, non-profit
organizations, as well as mid-size companies faced with the need
to swiftly transform when confronted by global business dynamics.
The firm has been addressing business process optimization
with integrated knowledge management systems for Fortune 500
firms. The majority of this effort has focused on difficult problems
faced by large global industries such as energy and telecommuni-
cations with Decision Support Solutions.
Dr. Scott Shemwell has been using process simulation tech-
niques to solve complex integrated problems since the early 1990s.
He has also used this technique to assure the performance of
online real-time process control systems evaluating possible fail-
ure/consequence scenarios.
Dr. Scott M. Shemwell
281-414-6958
Scott.Shemwell@StrategicDecisionSciences.com
www.StrategicDecisionSciences.com
 Software

Inputs can include: Quality of assumptions for
drilling, contingencies, cost of additional data,
HES
For human resources: the availability and
capability of people, and their confidence in the
drilling option
The various well options can be evaluated for
whether the G and G assumptions need refining;
if cost criteria are met; if the drilling assumptions
have been validated; how good the drilling
practises are; how good the engineering
assumptions are.
The computer can crunch the information
and determine the quality of the preliminary
and final risk assessments, the level of confi-
dence in the final model, how good the different
drilling options are, which is the preferred serv-
ice company and ultimately the level of project
risk.
Finally, the output can feed to executive
dashboards, adding a level to field intelligence
that typical solutions, including those with
Monte Carlo simulation, cannot emulate.
The output will include a number of scenar-
ios from which management can selection imple- basis for true lean energy management which is the
mentation plans. next great step towards maximizing shareholder
value.
Business intelligence The promise of lean is not just anointed on
Business Intelligence (BI) is beginning to take on those with deep pockets, value will be earned using
the mantel of Field Intelligence, recognizing that sophisticated decision-support models such as
revenue generation and direct costs are the major described herein.
variables in any upstream operator.
One has only to look at other industry sectors
To-date, management dashboards are fairly sim-
who have employed lean techniques such as statis-
plistic, far short of providing executives with the
tical process control to see who the winners and
tools necessary to run the revenue producing asset
losers are.
and the enterprise at optimal levels.
This type of solution has been used in other
This is the beginning of real analytic and deci-
industries with great success and it is now poised to
sion support power—the optimal solution that
do the same for upstream oil and gas.
decision makers from the field to the board room
For example, one recent simulated scenario
can use to attain competitive advantage.
saved a refinery almost 18% during an upgrade
This approach towards asset utilization is
process. The value is documented and it is substan-
grounded in economics and capitalizes on the
tial.
proven portfolio management techniques to realize
A similar scenario is possible for the upstream
significant value to the firm.
sectors as it embarks on the digital path.
Inference engines when tasked to specific
The future will belong to the bold and innovative,
processes offer high value propositions and will
just like it always has in the oil and gas industry.
help firms realize the potential of digital energy.
These tools and techniques are forming the

Roxar buys Energy Scitech

Reservoir modelling software
company Roxar has acquired
Energy Scitech, a UK consultancy
and software development
house.
Energy Scitech agreed to the
acquisition because it felt it needed
the support of a larger company
with complementary technology to
continue to grow.
Energy Scitech´s flagship product
is EnABLE, a software tool for history
matching and reservoir uncertainty
estimation, which Roxar believes is
the best on the market. It is used to
understand and measure uncertain-
ty in reservoir production perform-
ance predictions, and to optimise
production plans.
Roxar customers will be able to
use EnABLE together with Roxar´s
reservoir modelling tool IRAP RMS
and reservoir simulation tool
Tempest.
With all the tools working togeth-
er, customers will be able to examine
numerous geological scenarios, cre-
ate simulation models and work out
how likely the oil will flow as predict-
ed.
This is the first acquisition Roxar
has made since it was acquired by
investment company Arcapita Bank
earlier this year.
"This deal confirms that Roxar
and our owners, Arcapita, are pre-
pared to make the necessary invest-
ments to further reinforce our lead-
ership position in our markets," says
Roxar.
Energy Scitech also provides Roxar's reservoir modelling tool IRAP will work together with EnABLE
services with field development software for history matching and reservoir uncertainty estimation
planning and asset valuation.
www.roxar.com

Petris buys Maurer Technology software

Oil and gas data management
software company Petris has
bought the software and support
assets of the Maurer Technology
drilling and completion software,
previously owned by Noble
Technology Services.
The software is used to plan and
execute drilling and completion pro-
grams. This includes well planning,
engineering studies, analysis, report-
ing and troubleshooting problems
before they become critical.
Clients can design wellbore tra-
jectories, design and verify casing
strings, minimise casing wear, design
cement jobs, analyse torque and
drag, verify wellbore hydraulics, plan
for well control, determine pore and
fracture pressures, determine well-
bore stability and numerous pro-
grams for coiled tubing design and
completion programs.
There are 18 separate software
programs in the software suite.
The software has been carefully
designed so it can be mastered by
new users very quickly, Petris says.
Petris will take responsibility for
development, sales, service and
development of the software, which
will continue to be produced under
the Maurer name.
Petris has previously offered the
software as a web hosted tool under
its 'applications on demand' service
PetrisWINDS Now.
It should now become easier for
users of Maurer software to integrate
it with other software applications
they are using, using the
PetrisWINDS Enterprise technology
integration system.
"We see a great future for this
combination, with a positive outlook
for the drilling and completion mar-
ket," says Petris.
www.petris.com

September 2006 - digital energy journal 11

 Software
When suppliers use
e-purchasing to buy
Dave Wallis
Oil and gas suppliers are getting used to using e-commerce in their dealings
with oil and gas companies; they are only now starting to think about using it for their
own purchasing. They probably need to go about this in a different way than they did
for selling electronically. By Dave Wallis, European representative, and Bill LeSage, CEO, of OFS Portal
or the last five years, the focus of e-com-
F
nies.
merce for upstream oil and gas service
suppliers has been on the sell side;
exchanging documents with oil compa-
The adoption and adherence to PIDX standards
has been instrumental in driving the success of
document exchange between operators and serv-
ice suppliers from both a technology and business
process perspective. The service suppliers are now
beginning to focus on their buy side processes as
well.
Although PIDX has enabled success within the
upstream oil and gas vertical, service suppliers
cannot rely on PIDX standards to address all the
complexities that will be faced by the buying
organisation.
Before embarking on a buy side electronic doc-
ument exchange program a service company
should consider an integrated organisational
approach and flexibility in both technology and
business processes in order to communicate with
a variety of trading partners in a number of indus-
tries.
Although the focus of internet based data
exchange for service suppliers in upstream oil and
gas has been managing the process of selling to
operating companies, buy side data exchange
promises to be as important for saving money and
driving efficiency for service companies.
Though many of the lessons learned from
building a sell side document exchange organisa-
tion are applicable to the buy side, there are three
key differences, related to the service company
organisation, the IT technology and industry busi-
ness processes that should be considered when
expanding a sell side document exchange busi-
ness to the buy side.
Although buy side and sell side programs may
use different applications and different business
processes to communicate with trading partners,
the basic IT infrastructure will be the same.
This basic infrastructure includes the network-
ing infrastructure, the applications that sit behind
a company’s firewall, as well as the staff and proce-
dures to maintain this infrastructure.
In addition to infrastructure, the internet
domain knowledge that is required is similar
whether buying or selling. Security requirements
tend to be the same, and while documents and
data exchange protocols may be different, they are
more variations on a theme than new concepts.
The project management methodology is com-
mon, and at the highest level, the business
12 digital energy journal - September 2006
processes are also similar. For example, both the
buy side and sell side will have a purchase order
process and an invoicing process, even though the
details of these processes might be very different.
Even though the sell side and buy side of e-
commerce is different for upstream oil and gas
services suppliers, there are significant commonal-
ities that give a company with an established sell
side practice a head start on creating a buy side
practice.
Organisation
The first major differentiation point between sell
side and buy side e-commerce is organisational.
Key company stakeholders are very different
between buying and selling, and these stakehold-
ers also have different roles in the company, differ-
ent criteria for success and require different busi-
ness cases to initiate projects.
On the sell side, the key business stakeholders
tend to be the account management teams, who
focus on customer service and tend to view e-
commerce as a way of enhancing service to the
customer.
On the buy side, the key stakeholders tend to
be in procurement and finance, and their empha-
sis is on using technology and business process
changes to save money.
Since the direct financial benefits of e-com-
merce tend to be realized by the buyer in the rela-
tionship, buyers usually pro-actively push e-com-
merce, while sellers react to the requirements of
their customers.
While there are benefits to sell side e-com-
merce, they tend to be difficult to measure; such
things as increasing the chance of maintaining
current customers, increasing the chance of win-
ning new business and better general customer
satisfaction.
Therefore, the first consideration when begin-
ning a buy side e-commerce program is to recog-
nize the different organisational priorities and to
structure the buy side program accordingly.
Changes in business process
The second major point of differentiation between
sell side and buy side e-commerce is business
process related.
While there are subtle differences between the
preferred process for each oil company, the
upstream oil and gas industry as a whole works
though the Petroleum Industry Data Exchange
(PIDX) committee of the American Petroleum
Institute to help standardize the business
processes.
Bill le Sage
Standardisation around PIDX in upstream oil
and gas has been very effective and thus virtually
all integrated purchases use the PIDX standard.
In part this is because most of the direct buy-
ing done by the oil companies are purchases from
upstream oil and gas service companies – direct
purchases within the industry vertical.
When service companies buy, a much larger
percentage of direct spend is from companies out-
side of upstream oil and gas industry, like steel,
chemical and machine shop companies.
Thus for the buy side of service companies,
there is no standards body that encompasses this
wide range of industries from which service sup-
pliers purchase and it is much more difficult to set-
tle on a single standard.
In addition to the differences between buying
direct goods and services, the other difference
between oil company and service company pur-
chases is the nature of the purchase itself.
Most direct purchases from oil companies are
for non-explicit buys from a service company;
whereas the majority of direct buys executed by a
service company involve explicit purchases.
A non-explicit buy is one in which the details of
the transaction are not specifically known at the
time of purchase. Given this background, one can
see that it is not even possible to establish a single
business process for the wide variety of businesses
a service company buys from.
Therefore, the second consideration when
beginning a buy side e-commerce program is to
recognize that while the sell side is able to benefit
from a single standard, the buy side requires a
number of additional standards to achieve the
flexibility necessary to handle a variety of business
processes.
Changes in technology
The third major point of differentiation between
sell side and buy side e-commerce is information
technology (IT) related.
For sell side e-commerce for upstream oil and
gas service companies, there are a small number
of relatively large trading partners with which to
exchange documents. Each buyer tends to be well
advanced in IT systems and represents a large
number of documents, and each document can
represent a large financial transaction.
For these reasons, the bias on the sell side is for
a technology that is extremely automated and
robust.
On the buy side, there are also large companies
with high transaction counts, but is important to
 Software

be able to connect with smaller companies
because they represent a larger percentage of the
business.
For these smaller companies, the bias is
towards an easy to implement technology, that is
cheaper to implement, but does not have to be as
robust.
Often, the IT systems of buy side trading part-
ners cannot even support integrated connections,
so manual steps are often acceptable on the buy
side, where they would not be on the sell side.
To connect to these smaller, non-integrated
trading partners, some type of ‘manual’ web form
or file upload capability may be more practical
alternatives.
There is also a standardisation aspect to the
technology.
Since document exchange for the sell side of
service companies is based on the PIDX standards,
it is possible to be able to manage the entire sell
side e-commerce program with a single technolo-
gy (Rosettanet Integration Framework (RNIF) for
example.)
Although PIDX standards are mature and work
very well on the sell side of service companies; on
the buy side, because of multiple standards, and
the complexity of RNIF, it is also necessary to sup-
port additional integrated protocols.
A good additional protocol to use is AS2, which
is both a PIDX recommended protocol, and has
wide cross industry acceptance.
The third consideration when beginning a buy
side e-commerce program is to recognize the
additional IT software, to handle varied connectivi-
ty protocols as well as manual connections and
integration across industries will be necessary to OFS Portal is a group of
connect to a wide variety of trading partners.
diverse suppliers working
Managing an integrated organisation
Although there are significant differences in together with a non-profit
requirements between sell side and buy side e-
commerce for the upstream oil and gas services objective to provide stan-
supplier, there are enough common aspects that
they should be managed by a single organisation. dardized electronic informa-
The primary challenge in managing this inte-
grated organisation is in balancing the different tion to B2B trading partners
priorities of the buy side and sell side business
stakeholders, while being able to take advantage
to facilitate e-commerce in
of shared knowledge and infrastructure to be able
to scale the organisation.
the upstream oil and gas
Establishing an objective measure for compar-
ing projects with different business owners is the
industry. Members include
best way to balance priorities, while establishing Baker Hughes, BJ Services,
best practices for integration project management
and document libraries is necessary to be able to Cameron, FMC
take advantage of shared knowledge and scale the
organisation. Technologies, Greene Tweed
Experience has shown that to achieve overall
program success it is necessary to have C-level & Co., Halliburton, M-I
program sponsorship, preferably from an execu-
tive with responsibility over both the sales and SWACO, Schlumberger,
procurement organisations.
When a service company initiates a buy side e- Smith International,Trican,
commerce program, the company should establish
a plan for managing an integrated IT organisation Vetco Gray, and
which serves both the buy side and the sell
side.
Weatherford.

EDS develops oil and gas IT outsourcing
services
Global IT giant EDS is promoting
IT outsourcing services to the oil
and gas industry.
"IT outsourcing of infrastructure
related components is increasing
within this industry," says David
Smith, head of portfolio energy
industry frameworks for the oil and
gas sector, at EDS.
"Global oil and gas organizations
need a robust, secure and flexible IT
capability to help them capture, ana-
lyze, communicate and apply the
information needed for effective
decision making."
A major trend is 'applications
outsourcing,' enabling a company to
run its software applications over a
single network, rather than over
many different networks in different
locations. This can be cheaper to run
and enable business processes to be
streamlined and standardised across
the company, he says.
Oil and gas copmanies keep busi-
ness components which reflect their
core business competences in house,
such as technical computing,
upstream applications, engineering,
non-standard software applications,
asset management and work man-
agement applications.
Software applications which are
likely to be outsourced include "cor-
porate systems like financial services,
human resources and supporting
applications, like document manage-
ment," he says.
Oil and gas companies should
choose EDS because it can rapidly
put in place IT components globally,
and provide outsourced financial
servies, human resources, procure-
ment and logistics services, he sug-
gests.
www.eds.com
Wellogix PIDX invoices for smaller com-
panies
were the realm of large service
Houston oil and gas purchasing
providers, costing thousands of dol-
and payment systems company
lars and taking weeks, sometimes
Wellogix has deployed its PIDX
months, to complete," the company
Small Business Adapter, which
enables small to medium sized says.
oilfield service companies to put The first company to install the
together a PIDX compliant system was SOA Pump and Supply,
invoice process, much more which installed it in order to meet
cheaply and quickly than they requests for electronic invoices from
otherwise could. customers without having to rekey
invoice data and without having to
Using the adapter, service hire additional personnel.
providers can create invoices in PIDX After using the adapter for three
XML format straight out of their months, SOA says it has seen a
accounting software. They can put reduction of 20 days in its Day’s Sales
the process together in ´minutes´ at Outstanding.
a cost of ´less than a thousand dol-
lars,´ the company says. www.wellogix.com
They can import them into their
Wellogix Complex Services
Management Suite (CSMsm), which
checks the security, reliability of the
content and the receipt. No data
rekeying is required.
"Previously, PIDX integrations

September 2006 - digital energy journal 13

 Software
Structuring oil and gas
information
Ulysses Systems makes systems which structure information and
co-ordinate activities in the oil tanker industry, both on ship and
shore. Could the concept work in the oil and gas industry?
here has been plenty of talk in the oil
T and gas industry about the problems of
having too much unstructured informa-
tion.
Information is not provided to the right people
at the right time; people do not learn from the
experiences of other people doing the same task
elsewhere in the company; and it is very hard, or
maybe even impossible, to find out why certain
decisions were made in the past.
Most people agree that efficiencies and safety
improvements could be made if people could co-
ordinate their work better.
The challenge is how to set about making a
software program that can co-ordinate people’s
activities and store the relevant information as
people go along, without creating additional work
for people.
UK software company Ulysses Systems has got
close to creating a solution for the commercial
maritime industry, where its software is being
used onboard around 1,000 oil tankers, offshore
support vessels and other vessels; it is now seek-
ing business opportunities in the oil and gas
industry. 50 shipping companies are using the
software, twice as many customers as it had 18
months ago.
It recently signed up French marine services
giant Bourbon Offshore, which is using the soft-
ware onboard its 130 vessels, including 7 multi-
purpose supply vessels, 21 anchor handling tug
supply vessels, 22 platform supply vessels, 3 termi-
nal tugs, 8 fast support and intervention vessels,
and 11 crew boats.
Bourbon purchased the software, Ulysses says,
as a means of co-ordinating and consolidating all
of its corporate communications plus mainte-
nance, purchasing, crewing and document co-
ordination, and because it thought it was the easi-
est to use.
The information is structured around company
activities, as defined by the Bourbon employees.
Ulysses’ solution
Ulysses solution is about designing ‘activity mod-
els’, creating software which can be used to co-
ordinate regularly completed tasks and store the
information about them, so it can be accessed
immediately in other parts of the company, and
kept as a record for the future.
Ulysses does not try to drag people away from
their spreadsheets and e-mails; but all emails and
spreadsheets are automatically indexed so that
they can easily be accessed at a later date.
14 digital energy journal - September 2006
Activity models can be built for any task people
commonly refer to; the tasks can be relatively pre-
dictable, like a planned maintenance task, or rela-
tively complex and as yet unpredictable, like
bringing in experts around the world to try to
explain a drop in production.
To date, Ulysses has built software modules to
manage tasks and information flow related to
maintenance, purchasing, crew management and
documentation.
The software system is not so rigid that it
requires that staff standardise their business
processes; they just need common reference
points.
The software is possibly best suited for busi-
ness processes which are prone to failure or unex-
pected success, because they can easily record the
reasons failures happened or successes happened,
so the organisation can learn from them.
So, for example, if a company wants to find out
why boiler controls were changed 5 years ago, all
the communications and documents related to
this decision will be automatically stored and can
be retrieved by their relationship to current con-
cerns.
If there is an occurrence the software system
can retrieve structured information about every-
thing which was relevant to the occurrence as well
as how it was remedied.
This requires no special reporting or indexing
by users so information collects in the system from
which subsequent users can learn so as to avoid
the same occurrence.
The software can provide information to users,
taken from other parts of the system, about what
they are currently doing.
The relationships between activities can
change continuously and the system can be set up
to adapt to the changes.
If staff members like to use e-mails and spread-
sheets, they are automatically indexed.
When individuals log onto their computers
every day, they see a list of tasks outstanding,
which need their attention. When they click on
them, the software provides ready information
they need.
The software can also provide rapid access to
information which might be needed when specific
tasks are being performed.
Ulysses stresses that this is not calling its soft-
ware ‘knowledge management’ software, which
operates in a very different way, normally requir-
ing people to type in their experiences into the
system, rather than indexing the information they
Dimitris Lyras, advisor,
Ulysses Systems.
“Knowledge management should
be built around activity models”
create anyway.
Ulysses believes that activity co-ordination
software such as this is most suitable for work
environments which have a small group of
employees doing many different tasks but doing
the same processes repeatedly (eg corporate com-
munications co-ordination and purchasing, main-
tenance, crew management), where there is criti-
cal issues which justify the software investment
(eg high risk / high liability, expensive assets, regu-
latory requirements.
Examples
Here are some specific examples of how activity
co-ordination software can work.
One offshore vessel master told of an oil rig
captain who asked the vessel to accept drums of
chemicals, but refused to disclose what the specif-
ic chemical was, on the grounds that the vessel
operator had signed a contract that it would
accept all deliveries from the rig.
The vessel master needed rapid access to com-
pany policy information, to tell him what to do in
such a circumstance, whether to accept the drums
or not, which the Ulysses Systems software could
make available.
Another example is purchasing. If someone
needs to make a purchase, the software can be
configured to have information readily available
about the last time similar items were bought in
the company, if the items were actually used (or
are sitting in storage somewhere), who the suppli-
er was, what the price was, and how well the prod-
uct performed.
Another example, taken from the maritime
industry, is of a ship with two ballast systems, one
of which is suddenly not operable and the other
with a hidden defect that could only become rele-
vant under certain circumstance.
The engineer knows that he can pump the bal-
last in twice as much time (half speed), so the ves-
sel does not need to be taken out of service.
However this means that the second pump
needs to pump and also to purge the tanks at full
capacity which it may well not be able to do and
while this may have been its condition for a long
time it now becomes highly relevant to the safety
of the vessel.
If ballast is being pumped out and cargo is
being loaded simultaneously, the minute by
minute loading characteristics of the vessel will
change with just one ballast pump, which could
lead to the vessel being overloaded at certain
points or dangerously strained or touching bot-
 Software
staff might not know what they are looking for
because they are not aware of its existence.
For example, in the case above with the ballast
pump, the chief officer would not necessarily
search for documents to find out if the second
working pump had a defect which prevented it
from being able to pump tanks at full capacity –
this needs a system to ‘push’ the information rather
than wait for someone to go out and find it.

Text search vs structured information

Ships have high demands for knowledge management systems, with a small
number of crewmembers doing many different tasks, with safety implications
if they are not completed. Would shipping company software be useful in the
oil and gas industry?
tom during loading.
A structured software system such as Ulysses
can relate the process of planning the loading
with the process of running all the related machin-
ery and can highlight potential hidden problems
in the machinery that may not come to notice
until its too late.
A further example of typical problems with e-mail
systems is a document which belongs in three dif-
ferent folders because it is related to three differ-
ent issues. Using a Microsoft Office type system,
the user has to save it three times, and then might
find that one version is being updated and the
other isn’t, causing all kinds of problems.
With a more structured software system, the
document is only saved once, but the system is set
up so people can assess it when they need it for
the three different issues it relates to.
It might be possible to access all of this infor-
mation by searching through company intranets,
but it would take a lot longer, filtering through lots
of poor matches; there is also the problem that
Most people are comfortable doing text-based
searches, both on their own PCs and on internet
search engines, and have a good knowledge
about the type of information that can be
retrieved easily with this kind of search.
Most of us are even very reliant on text based
searches to find all the information we think we
need – for example, searching for someone’s
phone number on the internet using Google,
rather than writing it in our phone directory.
What is not so readily understood is how much
a structured data system can help provide the
right information when people need it.
On a system like the one Ulysses develops,
since all information created during work is auto-
matically indexed as it is created; there is no need
to file or label anything, and there is no vital infor-
mation on people’s personal PCs, or lost in their e-
mail systems.
“Outlook is not an information management
system,” says Mr Lyras. “It is a linear messaging sys-
tem. It is not even a shared document system.
“Even shared document systems on the market
have no model of what people discuss and do in
the company.– So the system cannot help manage
its own content within the pattern of the organisa-
tion.
Ours is a whole different way of looking at how
you manage the information. It’s a revolution in
how you hold information. That’s much closer to
how people classify information in their own
mind.”

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 Software
Premium Drilling
signs to SpecTec
Premium Drilling, an operator of 16 jack-up rigs, has signed up to use
maintenance and spares management software by SpecTec, a compa-
ny which produces software which is used onboard 6,000 deep sea
vessels.
remium´s sister company Premium
P
Offshore has also signed up to use the
software to manage maintenance and
spares onboard onboard 4 Floating,
Production, Storage and Offloading vessels
(FPSOs).
SpecTec´s biggest oil and gas client is Saipem,
the world’s largest offshore services supplier,
which signed a deal 10-15 years ago to use the
software onboard oil rigs and barges.
SpecTec also has a strong penetration within
Italian oil company ENI, and oil company Agip
Libya.
Several oil and gas companies are using the
software for planned maintenance and condition
maintenance, monitoring temperature, vibration
and pressure.
For limited data connectivity
SpecTec´s software is specifically designed for
applications where there is limited data connectiv-
ity between remote computers and headquarters.
Many rig operators are finding that even fast
always on VSAT connections struggle to run main-
tenance software which has been designed for
land applications where data connectivity is not
an issue, such as SAP and Microsoft Navision.
Often with VSAT communications from rigs,
software communication is queued up behind
voice and videoconferencing, so there is no instant
connectivity with the main database, which con-
fuses the software.
SpecTec´s software does not have any of these
problems, because it was specifically designed for
use on ships, where the shipboard computer com-
municates with the headquarters computer briefly
twice a day, but the headquarters still needs to
know what is going on.
All of the data is labelled; so the computer sys-
tem always knows which piece of data has been
changed in which database, so the necessary
updates can be made during the database replica-
tion.
So, for example, a large cruise ship operator,
which has 1.45 million spare parts in circulation,
has 1.45m ID codes (known as ‘primary keys’).
“The trick is to be able to create separate pri-
mary keys for databases which then need to share
information, so that, for instance, spares or compo-
16 digital energy journal - September 2006
nents can be moved from one rig to the other, or
from a stock room ashore to a rig,” says Giampiero
Soncini, president of SpecTec.
“It is easy to do when you deal with one data-
base located centrally, with all remote computers
linked via cable. But when you try to do so in scat-
tered locations such as rigs, well, you soon find out
the difference between one software and another.”
If the same piece of data is changed in two dif-
ferent locations, then business rules are written to
determine what should be done.
This is something which cannot be achieved
using software applications designed for shore
industries, such as SAP or Microsoft Navision.
“I try to convince cus-
tomers, you need the best
combination of planned
maintenance and condi-
tion maintenance,” says
Mr Soncini.
“But where SpecTec is
going to go full force, is
towards reliability cen-
tered maintenance and
risk analysis. This is what
the customer advisory
board advice has been, and
this we are already doing”
Condition maintenance
Many SpecTec customers are starting to look at
condition monitoring systems, using, for example,
vibration data to check on the condition of equip-
ment as a supplement to the normal planed main-
tenance.
SpecTec’s standard approach to condition
monitoring is to set things up so you receive con-
tinuous information about one item (eg vibration
Giampiero Soncini, president of SpecTec
"providing the best combination of planned and
condition maintenance - Giampiero.."
of an Electric Motor) and get an alert if the reading
changes.
“I try to convince customers, you need the best
combination of planned maintenance and condi-
tion maintenance,” says Mr Soncini.
“But where SpecTec is going to go full force, is
towards reliability centered maintenance and risk
analysis. This is what the customer advisory board
advice has been, and this we are already doing”
New offices
SpecTec has recently opened offices in
Shanghai, Greece, Dubai, Germany and Ukraine. It
plans to expand in former Soviet countries, with a
new office planned in Moscow in addition to the
already existing one in St Petersburg, and possibly
in South America where it is represented only by
one agent.
The company is also planning to reinforce its
operations in Asia.
SpecTec’s strength, Mr. Soncini believes, is in
the size of its international network, which allows
it to provide a software engineer or consultant at
short notice at any major maritime or offshore
centre, with an intimate knowledge of both the
shipping / offshore industry and of the software.
Software development is handled in Norway
and Cyprus, and is currently opening new, fully
owned, product development offices in Ukraine
and the Middle East.
AMOS2
The company has started developing and
rolling out the next generation of its software,
AMOS2, which will work in a different way, push-
ing information which users need out to them,
rather than requiring them continually to go into
the software to find what they need.
“The system recognises you,” says Mr Soncini.
“The usability of the software is different, yet it will
look familiar to our users.”
The first 200 ships will go live using the soft-
ware in September / October this year.
The development of Amos2 will be driven by
the Customer Advisory Board. It is an upgrade to
Amos, but will take into consideration more than
300 suggestions received by the customers.
www.spectec.net

Hosting your data remotely
Aberdeen company Digital Energy Exchange offers a service to host data remotely, so companies can share
large files without going behind each other’s firewalls. We interviewed managing director Sam Gomersall
berdeen company Digital Energy
A Exchange offers services to remotely
host data, so that it is easier to share it
between different companies, without
the complications of one company having to go
behind another’s firewall.
The company has been in business for since
early 2005, and is currently completing its devel-
opment work and is in a business development
phase, seeking further discussions with oil and gas
companies to discuss take-up of the service.
The service is currently set up for managing
files which are too large to comfortably manage
with e-mail.
It can be used for sharing documents, collabo-
rating with third companies, or obtaining material
from third parties.
The service can be accessed over the internet
or over the Secure Oilfield Information Link (SOIL)
operated by OilCamp, a secure communications
network.
Companies can set things up so they access
the data via a ‘mapped network drive’ on their PCs
- ie drive C is your hard drive, drive D is the CD
ROM, and drive E is the Digital Energy Exchange
network drive.
Users do not have to bother themselves with
making sure they have sufficient data storage
capacity and they are backing up the data, or
managing secure access for everyone they want to
provide access to the data to.
The system is possibly more suited to smaller
oil and gas operators, which tend to have more
complex external networks, with many companies
sharing data with each other, as opposed to a sim-
pler scenario where a small service provider wants
to share data with a mother international oil com-
pany.
Applications could include sharing seismic
data, so that the owner of the data, and seismic
survey company and third party companies which
are interpreting it, can access it.
“If there’s material to be input by the provider
and interpreted by the third party it makes sense
to have it in a common place they can all get
access to it,” says Mr Gomersall.
The next level of development will be updating
the system to handle real time data. This is more
complex (because it is a data stream, rather than a
data storage issue).
DEEX is also planning to offer services to host
software.
The service was established by three Aberdeen
companies, Fast Frog, Suretec Systems and YR20.
The company works closely with British
Telecom (BT), sharing capabilities and expertise in
Software
this area.
Users can have a pay as you go fee of 20 MB
transferred (£5 per month minimum). Or they can
take various contract pricing schemes (eg £200 /
month to transfer up to 10 gb). There are no regis-
tration or setup fees.
Logs are kept of all file transfers and revisions
so there is a full audit trail. E-mails and text mes-
sages can be sent to recipients notifying that a
transfer has taken place.
Documents can be encrypted during transfer if
necessary.
People raise security concerns about storing
the data with a third party rather than store it
themselves, but Mr Gomersall believes that storing
it with a third party can actually be more secure,
because it can be transferred from one person to
another without printing it out or using insecure
“Normally the company
that’s highest in the food Sam Gomersall, Managing Director, Digital Energy
Exchange
chain - says - do it in my
server, that’s eventually
what happens,” he says. More third party storage?
“But if all the service Managing director Sam Gomersall, himself a
companies would do this petroleum engineer, believes that the industry
should be questioning a lot more whether it
they would need a differ- should store all of its data within its own computer
ent system for every oil system or use neutral third party storage, and he is
keen to ignite the debate.
major they work with.” “Normally the company that’s highest in the
food chain - says - do it in my server, that’s eventu-
“Is the long term future ally what happens,” he says.
for us to store data in our “But if all the service companies would do this
they would need a different system for every oil
buildings?” he asks. major they work with.”
“Is the long term future for us to store data in
our buildings?” he asks.
e-mail to transfer it. Mr Gomersall believes that the Google vs
Access to the data is controlled by password, Microsoft discussion is similar -with users having
but could be further secured by smart card system the option, for certain products, of having Google
if more security is needed. web hosted services or Microsoft software running
On the DEEX system, for each document it is on their own PCs.
possible to specify who should be able to see it, “In the long term - the management of data,
and even when the document expires, so you can and the collaboration of using that data will be
make sure everyone is using the same version. better served by having it on a third party server,”
However Mr Gomersall admits that there are he believes.
big cultural problems to be overcome before com-
panies start storing their data externally on a large www.deex.com
scale. “There is all this castle-type IT mentality,” he
says.
September 2006 - digital energy journal 17
 Software
Marise Mikulis,
Microsoft
Marise Mikulis, worldwide oil and gas industry manager with Microsoft
Corporation, speaking at the IQPC Future Fields conference in
Amsterdam in June, said that a lot of her passion is about accelerating
adoption of software tools in the oil and gas industry.
ommonly the sense is, it's not happen-
C
ing fast enough. How do we help accel-
erate the adoption?," she said.
Ms Mikulis has been in the oil and gas industry
for 20 years. She was previously chief marketing
officer for Upstreaminfo, which supplies asset
management systems to the oil and gas industry.
Before that she was with Petroleum Geo-Services,
POSC, Digital Equipment Corp and Superior Oil
Company.
"I want to be provocative - bring in ideas you
may not have seen before," said Marise Mikulis,
worldwide oil and gas industry manager for
Microsoft, speaking at IQPC'sFuture Fields confer-
ence in Amsterdam in June.
Ms Mikulis said that many oil and gas compa-
nies have got a lot further with installing 'smart'
technology in individual wells, than they have for
the reservoir (integrated operations).
Putting the question to conference delegates,
nobody in the room said they had optimised their
entire reservoirs, but many delegates thought they
had made progress on individual technology and
subsystems.
The biggest challenge is persuading colleagues
to get more enthusiastic about technology, she
said. "We need a lot more confidence and trust.
"The soft stuff is the hard (difficult) stuff. We need
people willing to take the leap."
Microsoft has a big advertising campaign
called 'people ready,' stressing the user friendliness
of the software. "That's the core of what we're try-
ing to do," she said. "Corporations don't do the
work, people do," she said.
However Ms Mikulis noted that new younger
employees are likely to have a very different atti-
tude. "A lot of new people coming into the indus-
try have a whole different set of boundaries about
sharing, what information has to be kept confiden-
tial and what doesn't," she said.
On the topic of workflows, Ms Mikulis said that
the topic is "bubbling up more prominently now."
There is a gradual shift from a dashboard / por-
tal model for software (where you have all the
information available on a screen) to workflow
software, where the software tells each user what
specific task they have to do. "Advancing that I
think is quite key," she said.
Ms Mikulis talked about some of the world
changes mentioned in Thomas Friedman's book
'The World is Flat,' because it could be some com-
fort to oil industry executives to know that the rest
18 digital energy journal - September 2006
of the world is going through the same turmoil as
they are.
"When we talk to colleagues about what we're
trying to do, it's important that they see this is not
a spurious activity," she said. "People have to
understand, things have changed while they were
looking for oil and gas."
The book talks about three things all happen-
ing at the same time which are forcing enormous
change to all industries. These are new ways of
doing business, new populations of workers, and
new technologies.
The relationships between companies and
suppliers worldwide is changing, as echoed in the
changing relationships between national oil com-
panies, international oil companies and suppliers.
"We can do business in new ways," she said. "This
is the most important force in shaping global eco-
nomics and politics."
Ms Mikulis said that most people have an opin-
ion, positive or negative, about POSC
(Petrotechnical Open Standards Consortium), a
"A lot of new people com-
ing into the industry have
a whole different set of
boundaries about sharing,
what information has to
be kept confidential and
what doesn't,"
body which develops electronic communications
standards for upstream oil and gas. "There is so
much scepticism, so many bruises out there, so
many failed projects," she said.
Ms Mikulis talked about the audience vote
held at the Intelligent Energy 2006 conference in
Amsterdam, about how reliable delegates thought
intelligent completions were, with most present
saying they thought they were around 50 per cent
reliable. This is clearly an inhibitor to further devel-
opment of the technology.
"There have been some big successes. We have
to make sure our colleagues are hearing about
them. Our assumptions of vulnerability are not
always well founded," she said. "If our colleagues
don't think this can be done, they're not going to
do it."
"On one hand, perception is reality for our col-
leagues. But we need to uncover the facts to shift
these perceptions.
"We need to think about where reliability is
and isn't. You have operations reliability, project
reliability, user reliability and privacy reliability.
There are a number of aspects of reliability that are
getting attention."
"Certain parts are reliable, like control systems.
There is a perception that communications sys-
tems and IT infrastructure have questionable relia-
bility."
Ms Mikulis raised the issue of using software to
improve the reliability of project management.
"We know how much money this industry spends
on capital projects," she said. "You can manage
projects better if you have more information avail-
able. We call it project intelligence."
One way to improve project intelligence would
be to bring in digital oilfield technologies much
earlier in the exploration and well development
efforts.
"The broader the base of the information you
can get, the better chance you have of managing
it well," she said.
Ms Mikulis raised the issue of using computer
game-type tools for training, perhaps enabling the
oil and gas industry to draw on Microsoft's expert-
ise building the X-Box. "Computer games are no
longer a sub culture," she said. "The average 8th
grader plays video games over 5 hours per week."
"The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) is
producing new learning tools with gaming tech-
niques, that are more usable and attractive," she
said. "These tools are highly motivating and can be
more impactful in making sure learning gets
through. This helps accelerate the depth of expert-
ise. It has the potential to teach complex, higher
order skills."
FAS is doing similar work for the US
Department of Defence and medical industry, she
said.
On the subject of security, Ms Mikulis talked
about digital rights management, which is includ-
ed in standard Microsoft Office software. You can
define who can read a document, who can for-
ward it, and how long it lasts for (so access is auto-
matically denied after a certain time).
This is a useful tool to make sure that out of
date documents are expired and everybody is
using the right version.
 Communications and Monitoring

RigNet ties real time data tool to
satcoms
RigNet Inc has signed a market-
ing agreement with Sense
Intellifield to market, sell and
support its ‘SiteCom’ real time
data management products.
This means that RigNet will be
selling Sense Intellifield’s real time
data management products togeth-
er with its oil rig satellite communi-
cations services.
The SiteCom software can be
used to automate data manipulation
and management tasks associated
with real time data, as well as con-
vert the data so vendors can be
WITSML compliant.
““SiteCom is the recognized stan-
dard in the industry for real-time
data management based on
WITSML,” says RigNet.”Our agree-
ment with Sense Intellifield allows us
to be the only independent single-
source solution that links multiple
drilling rigs with real-time onshore
decision centres and applications.
“Our services now include the
complete communications package
of voice, video, networking, and real-
time data management.”
These services are available to
link any data source offshore with
any client system onshore through
the standard WITSML format.”
www.rig.net
IHS sells iNodes wireless sensors to
Ferguson Beauregard
Oil and gas information company
IHS Energy has sold its iNodes
wireless sensors range to oilfield
equipment manufacturer
Ferguson Beauregard of Tyler,
Texas.
IHS is selling iNodes because it
feels that providing and supporting
oilfield monitoring equipment is not
part of the company´s core compe-
tency, which is delivering critical
information to customers.
“We believe a better way to wide-
ly implement these innovative prod-
ucts and provide value to our cus-
tomers is to sell the technology to a
company like Ferguson Beauregard,
which specializes in the manufactur-
ing and field service of oilfield equip-
ment and automation,” IHS says.
IHS launched iNodes in 2004, to
gather data automatically in the
field, so that it would not have to be
all entered by hand. It was intended
as an extension to its FieldDIRECT
services which use handheld person-
al digital assistants (PDAs) to trans-
mit daily production data from the
field to a remote hosting centre.
www.ihsenergy.com

Expro wireless monitoring on aban-

Ormen Lange wave data for Norsk
Hydro over Inmarsat
Meterological data company
Fugro GEOS has been contracted
by Norske Hydro to set up a sys-
tem to provide real time data
about wind, waves and currents
in the Ormen Lange oilfield in the
Norwegian Sea.
The data is transmitted to a web
server in Trondheim using Inmarsat
satellite communications, and then
shown on a dedicated web page for
the vessels working on the project.
Knowledge of the situation is
vital for construction work on the
gas field and associated pipeline,
due to the powerful and unpre-
dictable environmental conditions in
this area.
Fugro GEOS has been providing
measurement services into a data
logger since 2001, but now the data
will be sent back to shore.
The data is collected from three
locations along the Ormen Lange
pipeline route.
www.geos.com
doned BP well
Aberdeen oilfield service compa-
ny Expro International has installed
its first wireless ´Cable-less Telemetry
System´ (CaTS) for monitoring reser-
voir pressure and temperature in an
abandoned subsea well in the UK
North Sea, operated by BP
Exploration.
BP wanted to monitor how the
pressure was building up in the well
after abandonment, and also to
monitor any interference effects
from production or injection activity
on the nearby Clair platform.
Data is transmitted wirelessly to
and from the bottom of the well. It
can be used for remote control of
downhole instrumentation.
In this application, the data is col-
lected, processed and stored at the
seabed, and then transmitted to a
supply vessel on demand. The pres-
sure and temperature data can then
be analysed by reservoir engineers.
Expro says that the first data
interrogation visit was made in early
July this year.
Expro believes that wireless com-
munications can also be useful dur-
ing exploration and appraisal stages,
because they enable communication
with downhole devices without the
hassle of putting in cables.
www.expro.com

Telenor Satellite Services acquires Track your oilrigs with Inmarsat

Norse Electronics
Telenor Satellite Services has
acquired the satellite communi-
cations business of Norse
Technology AS, and also the
majority of stock in Norse
Electronics.
Telenor made the acquisition to
strengthen its position as the ‘lead-
ing’ communications provider for the
North Sea oil and offshore market.
Norse Electronics will become
part of the ‘customised solutions’
business of Telenor Satellite Services,
part of its Sealink broadband mar-
itime services offering.
Delta Wave
The company is located in Communications
of Morgan City,
Stavanger.
Louisiana, has
“Adding Norse’s integration and
launched a system
installation capabilities along with
to track oil rigs
our Sealink broadband maritime
over Inmarsat.
services, and all located in very close
proximity to our Eik global teleport When the oil rig
facility, is a formidable combination moves out of its
that will allow us to deliver faster designated loca-
equipment installation, tailored and tion, users can
customized configurations, and com- receive a text mes-
plete around-the-clock service and sage or e-mail alert,
support for global and regional cus- and then see where the oilrig is on a sonnel onboard the rig do not need
tomers,” says Telenor. website. to do anything. It is possible to add
The system was developed and additional sensors to the system.
www.telenorsatellite.com
tested during the 2005 Gulf of
Mexico hurricane seasons. The per- www.deltawavecomm.com

September 2006 - digital energy journal 19

 Communications and Monitoring
ND Satcom VSAT system on 18 drilling /
construction vessels
German satellite communications
company ND Satcom has com-
pleted the installation of a global
C-band VSAT communications
system for an un-named
European oil company’s drilling
and construction fleet of 18 ves-
sels, in the Atlantic, Indian and
Pacific Oceans. It also installed
three 2-hub stations.
The satellite communications is
for exchanging operational informa-
tion (telephone calls, e-mails and
providing onboard personnel with a
private phone service.
The company wanted to install a
VSAT system because the communi-
cations cost would be cheaper than
the Inmarsat system it was using.
ND Satcom installed its SkyWan
VSAT system, using satellite service
from Telespazio of Italy, using MF-
TDMA DAMA enabling satellite
power / bandwidth to be shared
20 mbps over 75-250 miles by
Troposcatter
Radyne Corporation of Phoenix,
Arizona, has developed a 20
mpbs Ku band “Troposcatter”
communications system, which
communicates data over the hori-
zon in the Ku band radio range.
The radio data is sent up to the
troposphere and bounced back, so it
has a maximum range of 75 to 250
miles, longer than most line of sight
systems, where the sending terminal
has to be in a straight line with the
receiving terminal.
The company says that oil com-
panies operating offshore have
Implicit Monitoring
between different vessels of the fleet
according to their needs. It agreed a
guaranteed service quality. Vessels
can send 300 kbps data rates.
Data for the Atlantic and Indian
regions is routed through
Telespazio’s teleport in Fucino, Italy;
Pacific data is routed through an
Intelsat teleport in California, with a
leased line to Italy.
Onboard the vessels, it installed a
satellite modem for IP routing and
data switching.
The network is operated by
Telespazio of Italy, which also looks
after control, management and
maintenance of the network.
Telespazio has three satellites cover-
ing the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific
oceans.
Vessels can automatically move
from one satellite to another without
manual intervention.
www.ndsatcom.com
already expressed interest in using
the system for oil rig communica-
tions.
Interest has also been expressed
by the US Military and ‘friendly’
countries in the Middle East, RADN
says.
There are now three methods of
communicating Ku band data: up
and down via satellite, horizontally
(line of sight) and over the horizon.
The system is small enough to fit
in one vehicle.
www.radn.com/
SBSS cable installation project for
Papua
SB Submarine Systems (SBSS) has The project will take place in Q1
signed a contract for a cable 2007, and take about 28 days.
installation project for offshore “This award of this project for
engineering company Saipem, Tangguh is our fourth project in this
for power and remote communi- market sector,” says SBSS. “We look
cation on two gas production forward to further developing our
platforms off the coast of Bintuni presence in the Asian gas market.”
Bay,West Papua, in Indonesia. Meanwhile Derek Greenham,
commercial director at SBSS, has
The customer is BP and Partners’ moved to SBSS partner company
Tangguh LNG project. Global Marine, to work in its UK
BP will use the system to monitor headquarters. His replacement is
the platforms remotely and use plat- Dick Borwick, who has 25 year’s
form control technology. experience in the oil and gas indus-
SBSS was selected on the basis of try.
its cable installation and burial
methods, experience and service, www.sbss.com.cn
SBSS says.
Stratos microwave comms for 100
Apache platforms
Satellite and
microwave communi-
cations company
Stratos has signed a
deal with independ-
ent oil and gas com-
pany Apache to pro-
vide microwave com-
munications for over
100 oil and gas plat-
forms in the Gulf of
Mexico.
The contract is for
five years, with a total
value of around $19m. It
includes repairs to the
microwave system dam-
aged in hurricanes last
year, and an upgrade of
Apache’s entire Gulf of
Mexico telecom net-
work. There will be more
maintain business continuity after
bandwidth available and back-up
any disasters such as hurricanes.
systems.
Apache says it has been working
Stratos will provide satellite com-
with Stratos for several years.
munications services as back-up to
the microwave link, to be used to www.stratosglobal.com

secures $25m capital

Oil and gas remote monitoring
company Implicit Monitoring
Solutions has secured $25m
growth capital from venture capi-
talists B/K venture capital.
The money will be spent on
developing Implicit’s Intellisite range
of services, and building new sales
and marketing strategies.
The company wants to be the
world leader in remote asset moni-
toring services for the oil and gas
industry. It sells monitoring services
by monthly fee, so oil and gas com-
panies do not have to make large
initial investments in hardware, soft-
ware and communications infra-
structure.
The information can be used to
improve uptime of field equipment;
reduce field labour / transportation
costs; simplify production analysis;
share data with other systems; and
meet reporting requirements.
www.implicitmonitoring.com
Caprock support centre in Angola
Oil and gas satcom company
CapRock Communications has
opened a new support centre in
Luanda, Angola, staffed with
field technicians.
The company says that there has
been a ‘significant’ increase in
demand for satcoms from oil and
gas companies in West Africa, as well
as engineering and construction
companies.
CapRock provides oilfield serv-
ice companies operating in West
Africa with ‘turnkey’ communica-
tions solutions and systems inte-
gration services, including manag-
ing the necessary documentation,
certifications and approvals.
www.caprock.com

20 digital energy journal - September 2006


TII sets up rig remote monitoring
over Inmarsat
South Carolina company Telecom International Incorporated (TII) is installing remote monitoring services
on offshore oil rigs, which collect data such as pressure, temperature, vibration from the rig and send it
back to shore, in most cases with a dedicated Inmarsat terminal independent of the main satellite commu-
nications link.
II’s focus is on making sure staff can get
T
all of the information, from all of the
devices, all of the time, in real time,
rather than some of the data, some of
the time, and with a certain time delay.
The company is installing systems in 3 rigs off
Brazil; in 10 rigs between Trinidad, Tobago and
Venezuela; and 6 rigs on land in Turkmenistan. It is
also involved in another project to remotely moni-
tor oil barges in Iraq. Its contractors in most cases
are international oil service companies.
The Brazil and Trinidad projects send data back
to shore over a special Inmarsat MPDS satellite
communications device.
The Turkmenistan project is for a base rig and 6
exploratory rigs, with four of five staff onboard. For
this project, the monitoring data communications
will use an iDirect VSAT communications system,
also providing voice communications, e-mail and
internet access.
The Iraq project is to monitor flowmeters
onboard barges carrying oil from the Northern oil-
fields to the port of Basra, being implemented to
try to prevent oil thefts from the barges.
Currently 200,000 barrels of oil a week are
being stolen from the barges at some point along
their route.
TII will connect the flowmeters to an Inmarsat
satellite communications system, so a remote
team can be alerted if the flowmeters are removed
or if any oil is being unloaded at an unexpected
time.
Over the past 4 years, TII has installed systems
in about 200 locations onshore, particularly in East
Texas oilfields and Oklahoma, connecting ‘tens of
thousands of devices,’ sending data by cellular,
paging or microwave network. Now it is expand-
ing the business into offshore.
“Once you go offshore - the complexity and the
number of devices expand exponentially - and you
add the additional complexity of getting it thou-
sands of miles offshore into the company intranet
in real time,” says president Karl Faller.
Data being collected includes vibration, revolu-
tions per minute, flowrate, temperature of differ-
ent devices, intake pressure, surface pressure and
temperature, discharge pressure, output voltage,
output current, frequency, alarms. Data can be col-
lected from between 15 and 100 different devices
on the rig.
The systems can be set up to receive data only
on request (‘polling’) or get a reading say every ten
minutes.
So for example, if there is an alarm, personnel
can request information from all of the sensors so
they can investigate it.
digital energy journal - September 2006
Communications and Monitoring
“We have a data collector that is able to read or
communicate with every type of device regardless
of manufacturer, he says.
The data collector tags all data sent to shore, so
it is possible to work out which specific device the
data was generated from and what time the data
was generated.
The data packets are very small; for example, a
small temperature gauge spits out about 4 bytes
of information in a temperature reading.
Future plans are to incorporate digital photo-
graphs into the system, including infra-red and
thermographic photographs, even underwater
photographs. The photographs can be sent on
demand via Inmarsat, or there can be a continual
stream of data if it is over a higher bandwidth sys-
tem.
Data processing
All of the data processing is handled in TII’s data
centre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which can display the
data however needed, or be programmed to send
alerts if the data goes outside a certain range. “We
interpret it, characterise it, reformat it - and put it
in a usable format,” he says.
“We can feed directly onto the web or into a
customer’s data centre so they can put it on a cor-
porate intranet,” he says.
Mr Faller thinks that one of the most interest-
ing recent developments is how the data can be
made available to many different employees in dif-
ferent roles, all formatted to their specific needs,
using web hosted software.
“In the past, one or more of the things just
mentioned has been developed or accomplished,
Eg one group in operations would have access to
the data,” he says.
“What we’ve been able to do is take that data
and characterise or format it for a large number of
decision makers - or experts throughout the enter-
prise.”
“All this data can be organised to meet the
needs of every possible decision maker or expert.”
“It’s a fairly robust interrelational database -
that collects all the information you would want
from a device and organises it the way you want
it.”
“If you are upper management - you can see
about how much production.
That’s different to the needs of the engine
supervisor.”
“If you are on the operations side - you can do
predictive analysis - you can avoid potential prob-
lems that could interrupt production.”
“If you are doing routine maintenance it gives
September 2006 - digital energy journal
you a very good tool to make sure you are keeping
all these devices maintenance and on schedule.”
Staff can use the data to make sure everything
is running properly and maintenance tasks are
being properly carried out.
“We have created a very flexible software sys-
tem,” he says. “We have over 150 different screen
and report configurations - which pretty much
cover every aspect of production management.”
“If there’s a new device that’s invented today -
or a new approach to analysing data - we can react
quickly and make it.”
“We have a very robust software platform that
can take the data and make something useful out
of it,” says Mr Faller. “We’re approaching being a
plug and play company.”
Satcom
The Brazilian and Venezuelan projects use a special
Inmarsat terminal manufactured by Thrane and
Thrane, which provides packet data services (but
has no voice communications), designed as a
SCADA data terminal, at a small fraction of tradi-
tional satellite costs.
The terminal is about 10 inches square. “It’s a
really unobtrusive device as for finding a spot for it
on the rig,” he says.
Karl Faller, president of Telecom International,
says that by sending the data back through a com-
pletely separate channel to the main oil rig com-
munications channel (normally VSAT), is a way to
ensure that the monitoring data gets through
immediately, avoiding the data having to compete
with phone calls and e-mails.
“We could superimpose everything we’re doing
on the primary communications network, but we
get a really good reception by being able to offer
this as a standalone,” he says. “We’re not compet-
ing with voice service or a video conference. We
have total control.”
“In some cases we’re presenting information lit-
erally minutes or less than a minute after it has
occurred. The data is that fresh,” he says. “One com-
pany said they are getting data which previously
took 44 days to get.”
“To do it properly - its very time sensitive,” he
says. “We want the data, when we want the data,
in real time.”
“We want it every minute, we want it once an
hour, we do not want any interruptions - we don’t
want a low prioritising. We don’t want to be in
competition with the primary communications
system on the rig. We need to have the capability
of the real time two way interaction.”
www.telecominternationalinc.com
21
 Communications and Monitoring

Sakhalin remote rig monitoring -

no problems after a year
A remote monitoring system
installed on an unmanned rig
under construction in Sakhalin
800km offshore has had no prob-
lems apart from one
defective camera, reports Nera,
manufacturers of the satellite
communications terminal.
Piltun-Astokhskoye-B and Lunskoye Platform, under
construction in Sakhalin

uring the building phase, the rig can However for the offshore installation, the sat-

D
system, including data loggers and cameras, was
only be accessed by someone dan- com engineers from JSC Ream Division decided tested by Nera in Norway.
gling from a helicopter, and so it was that a more robust system was needed, due to The rig has data logging equipment supplied
absolutely critical that all monitoring possible vibration of the rig, possible damage due by ITAS of Norway.
components would be absolutely reliable. to steam condensation from heating elements There is a CR1000 measurement and control
The oil company is Sakhalin Energy Investment inside the radome, and the difficulty in replacing system by Campbell Scientific Services. It has a
Company, joint venture between Shell, Mitsui and any parts that broke. It chose the Inmarsat Fleet 55 2Mb memory, a 16 bit Hitachi microcontroller with
Diamond Gas Mitsubishi Corporation. The rig is terminal, designed for maritime use. 32 bit internal CPU, and temperature compensated
being built by Aker Kvaerner and Pharos Marine. Before doing the installation, engineers from clock. It has a battery to ensure that data and clock
The system is to remotely monitor two JSC Ream Division went through a special course time is maintained if there is a problem with the
unmanned offshore rigs under construction in of study to do installation work, and the whole power supply to the unit.
Sakhalin. Three rugged closed circuit cameras were used,
The system sends back data every 15 minutes, supplied by Hernis of Norway, which have their
including television pictures, fog monitoring, own wipers and windshield washer fluid. Images
power generator performance, fuel levels, fire con- “It is a complex array from the cameras are recorded and processed
trol system, doors on onboard containers and plat-
form lights.
of information and this is by a TeleObserver TO3100.
Other sensors were supplied by Pharos Marine.
The data is monitored by Aker Kvaerner`s con- the first time Nera has "It’s a complex array of information and this is
trol room in Oslo.
There are two rigs, Piltun-Astokhskoye-B (PA-B),
used Fleet F55 in such the first time Nera has used Fleet F55 in such con-
ditions," says Nera.
for offshore oil extraction and Lunskoye Platform conditions”.
(LUN-A) for gas. They are linked to the shore by www.nera.no
pipeline.
The longer term plan is to build fibre optic installing the satellite monitoring
cables to send data back to shore, but the satellite equipment onboard the rig
communications is being used while the rigs are
being built.
An Inmarsat Fleet 55 system, manufactured by
Nera and designed for use onboard deep sea mar-
itime vessels, is used for the satellite communica-
tions.
The first plan was to use Orbcomm for remote
monitoring, but this plan was shelved when the
project team discovered that Orbcomm was not
type approved for this type of installation and did
not have a license to be used in Russia.
Aase-Karin Ronningen from Nera reports that
the original plan was to use a Nera World
Communicator satellite terminal, designed for use
on land, but put inside a protective maritime sat-
com radome, with a small heater (eg a lightbulb)
inside to stop the system from freezing.
Nera has made a few installations like this at oil
and gas installations on land.

22 digital energy journal - September 2006

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 Automation
Roxar multiphase
meters to Vetco
Gray
Roxar has signed letters of intent
to supply subsea multiphase
meters and subsea wet gas
meters to engineering company
Vetco Gray, for use in two off-
shore African fields.
Ten subsea multiphase meters
will be supplied to a field offshore
Angola, and seven subsea wetgas
meters will be supplied to a field off-
shore South Africa.
The meters will continuously
Emerson to automate Nigerian FPSO for Total
Oil major Total has chosen
Emerson Process Management as
main automation contractor for
its Akpo Floating Production,
Storage and Offloading (FPSO)
vessel 200km off the coast of
Nigeria.
Emerson will digitally automate
the FPSO and set up a fast produc-
tion start-up system. It will also pro-
vide co-ordination and consistency
between contractors in Europe and
South Korea, and be involved in
installation, commissioning and
start-up in Nigeria.
As prime automation contractor,
Emerson’s responsibilities include
development, installation, configura-
tion, testing and commissioning of
the systems, controlling vessel top-
sides, hull, subsea and radar tank
gauging, also integrating the safety
system.
The automation system will
enable optimum process control,
asset management and information
Siemens Eur 35m contract to automate
semisub
A consortium led by Siemens has
won a Eur 35m contract to fit
automation, generator, power,
telecoms and dynamic position-
ing systems on a new semi sub-
mersible drilling platform, being
built at Yantai Raffles Shipyard,
China, for Offshore Rig Services
of Stavanger.
Wärtsilä Finland and Kongsberg
Maritime are also in the consortium.
The full list of items being sup-
plied includes diesel engine genera-
tor sets, propulsion, power distribu-
tion, transformers, drives and
motors, an uninterruptible power
24 digital energy journal - September 2006
measure the amount of oil, conden-
sate, gas and water at the well
Umbilical cable
heads.
Roxar says that the meters are
with 24 kilovolt
lightweight, designed for maximum
reliability, performance and flexibili-
power
ty. BP America has awarded cable
The meters have a removable company Nexans a NOK 98m
canister containing electronics, com- (USD 16m) contract to design and
puter processing and power, so this manufacture a 26km, 1700m
part can easily be replaced if neces- deep umbilical cable with a 24
sary by remote operated vehicle kilovolt power connection,
(ROV). believed to be the world´s first.
www.roxar.com The installation is part of a proj-
ect to retrofit two subsea wells in
Roxar multiphase meters - being used off- BP´s King Complex in the Gulf of
shore South Africa by Mexico with multiphase pumps.
Vetco Gray
The cable includes both high
voltage and low voltage electrical
power, fibre optical communications,
and chemical injection and lube oil
services.
The King Complex is tied back to
delivery to management personnel. the Marlin Tension Leg Platform,
Design (FEED), and has planned a
The automation architecture will 135km South East of New Orleans, in
phased delivery of the automation
be Emerson’s open standards 988m water depth.
equipment.
PlantWeb system, which includes It will be more efficient to trans-
The water depths are 1100 to
digital automation systems, intelli- port and install a combined power
1700 metres. The FPSO is 310m long
gent field devices and predictive and umbilical cable, rather than sep-
and 61m wide, with a storage capac-
maintenance software. arate umbilical and power cables.
ity of 2 million barrels of oil.
There will be a network of ‘intelli- Nexans says that the concept of
Start-up is planned for the third
gent’ sensors which deliver continu- integrating a power cable with a
quarter of 2008, with the gas and
ous process and health information subsea umbilical has proven very
condensate field coming on stream
to personnel operating the FPSO, challenging from both mechanical
in late 2008, with production expect-
with a predictive diagnostics system and electrical design aspects, ensur-
ed to quickly reach 225,000 barrels
to enable maintenance tasks to be ing that electrical interference
of oil per day.
made before they become critical between conductors and inductive
Emerson says it has already
(proactive maintenance). losses are minimised, also with the
worked with Total on a number of
Emerson will supply its DeltaV challenges of making a cable which
projects, particularly in West Africa.
digital automation system, its AMS can operate at 1700m depth.
“The project provides another
maintenance software, its Intelligent The cable is being manufactured
opportunity to draw from the experi-
Device Manager, its Rosemount pres- at Nexans´ plant in Halden, Norway,
ence of our European engineering
sure and temperature transmitters, with the fibre optic and low voltage
centres who have implemented
Saab Rosemount TankRadar tank cables being delivered by the
PlantWeb digital architecture in hun-
gauging transmitters, Fisher general Nexans factory in Rognan, in the
dreds of upstream projects, enabling
and severe service control valves, North of Norway. Delivery is sched-
improved safety, availability and
FIELDVUE digital valve controllers uled for the second half of 2006.
operational efficiency,” says Emerson.
and Bettis actuators.
Emerson collaborated with Total www.nexans.com
www.GoToEmerson.com
on the Front End Engineering and
supply (UPS), a dynamic three-
dimensional positioning system (DP
3), an integrated control and safety
system, the telecom system and aux-
iliary systems.
Project management and sys-
tems engineering is organised by
Siemens Norway; manufacturing of
the system is taking place in Norway,
Finland, Netherlands, China and vari-
ous other locations.
www.siemens.com/oil-gas
Siemens is providing automation for this new semi submersible

Weatherford – fibre optic sensing,
and life of well information
Weatherford has installed the first optical sensing ‘system’ for BP Norway, it is developing fibre optic sensing
systems with Statoil, and helped Chevron reduce well failure rates from 30 to 10 per cent. Weatherford has
also announced the installation of what it believes to be the first successful offshore permanent in-well
optical seismic system, on BP Norway´s G-24 injector well in the Valhall Field.
ptical seismic systems can provide
O
high resolution seismic images close
to the well bore, and be used to cali-
brate 4D surface seismic data.
They can listen passively for acoustic events (mini
explosions), leading to improved understanding of
fluid movement through the reservoir.
Weatherford has been working with BP Norway
for two years to design and build a system which
can be deployed in a well.
The system includes five 3-component optical
accelerometer stations and an optical pressure /
temperature gauge, installed inside the produc-
tion tubing, near the reservoir.
The system provides continuous seismic and
pressure / temperature data. It is interfaced with
the existing permanent ocean bottom cable sys-
tem for collecting seabed seismic data.
“Simultaneous collection of permanent seabed
and downhole seismic data represents a signifi-
cant milestone for the industry,” says Weatherford.
BP will use the system to see if there is a rela-
tionship between observations made in the well
and remote observations of production effects.
It will use this knowledge to help improve its
management of water injection and production,
by knowing more about what was happening
underground.
The system has accelerometers which monitor
active (artificially created) or passive seismic sig-
nals.
The seismic stations are carried down the well
on the production tubing, but have a special
clamping system which couples the sensor the
casing and decouples it from the tubing when it is
in the well.
Statoil project
Weatherford has signed a three year ‘technolo-
gy development co-operation agreement’ with
Statoil to develop fibre optic sensing and commu-
nication systems, part of Statoil’s Subsea Increased
Recovery (SIOR) initiative.
Weatherford will build a fibre optic communi-
cations network to deliver reservoir, wellbore and
subsea data to shore.
The two companies will develop downhole
optical sensing systems and a fibre optic commu-
nication system. Field testing is included in the
agreement. Statoil will do pilots on the Norwegian
continental shelf.
“The goal of the project is to develop smart
sensors and subsea communication infrastructure
to improve our overall reservoir and production
management,” says Statoil.
Weatherford has reached agreements with
FMC Kongsberg Subsea and Nexans Norway to
work on the communication system.
“This project allows Weatherford to increase its
optical sensing portfolio and integrate all of these
sensors into a new generation subsea communica-
tions architecture,” says Weatherford.
Over 100 optical sensors
Weatherford has installed over 100 optical
pressure / temperature sensors during 2005.
This compares to 60 in 2004, 30 in 2003, 40 in
2002, 18 in 2001 and under 10 for 1993 to 2000.
Of the 100 optical sensors installed in 2005, 60
were pressure / temperature, 11 flowmeters, 22
distributed temperature sensors, and 7 seismic
sensors.
It has also installed over 1 million feet of opti-
cal cable to support pressure / temperature
gauges, single phase / multiphase flowmeters, dis-
tributed temperature sensors and seismic sensors.
The pressure / temperature gauges can meas-
ure the stain on the glass associated with pressure
and temperature.
The flowmeters measure flow by monitoring
dynamic strain in a section of production tubing.
When combined with other sensors to work
out fluid density and speed of sound transmission,
it is possible to work out the flow of all three phas-
es (oil, water, gas).
On the distributed temperature system, the
whole fibre acts as a sensor, and can give a tem-
perature log for the whole length of the cable.
The seismic sensors are tiny, incredibly sensi-
tive accelerometers.
The optical sensors are more reliable, stable
and flexible than traditional sensors, the company
believes. They can work in temperatures of 175
degrees C and pressures of 137.9 MPa.
There are no moving parts and no downhole
electronic components to degrade or drift.
They can take a lot of vibration stress, including
from perforation guns nearby. The pressure read-
ings do not drift over time, as most conventional
pressure gauges do.
The complexity is on the surface, with a unit
which transmits light to the sensors, collects the
light and analyses the data.
They also provide flexibility. A typical cable will
have three fibres - one can be used for seismic
September 2006 - digital energy journal
Automation
monitoring, one can be measure temperature, one
can handle four pressure / temperature gauges, or
one flowmeter and two pressure / temperature
gauges.
The systems cost slightly more than standard
electrical systems, Weatherford says, but it believes
that the reliability and ability to add new capabili-
ties compensates for this.
The seismic sensors can be used to map frac-
tures and monitor fluid fronts.
Optical sensor case studies
One Weatherford customer, operating a long hori-
zontal well in West Africa, wanted to monitor pres-
sure and have a better understanding of the pro-
duction zone.
The production zone had a 1,000m section of
sand screen with a lateral half way along.
Weatherford installed four optical pressure /
temperature gauges, two on each side of the later-
al, to monitor reservoir pressure, with a distributed
temperature sensor across the whole horizontal
section to highlight sections with the greatest
flow.
Another customer, Statoil Veselfrikk, has a four
zone injection well in the North Sea, where water
and gas are injected alternately.
It has three combination pressure / tempera-
ture and flowmeter sensors with remote flow con-
trol valves at three of the zones.
By being able to control flow into each zone
separately, Statoil was able to avoid drilling anoth-
er injection well, saving over $10m.
The permanent optical sensors have also elimi-
nated expensive wireline interventions,
Weatherford says.
In a third example, in South West France, where
natural gas is stored underground, beneath a pop-
ulated area, Weatherford optical sensors have
been used for many years to monitor fluid levels.
Monitoring levels from the surface, using seis-
mic technology, would have been ‘expensive, dis-
ruptive and less accurate,’ Weatherford says.
Optimising production
Weatherford has helped ChevronTexaco reduce
annual well failure rates from 30 to 10 per cent on
its Cymric field in San Joachim Valley, by using its
‘Life of Well Information System’ software (LOWIS).
The Cymric field in San Joachim Valley has
1,000 sucker rod wells in the field, which are
described as ‘aging’.
Well failure rates rose from 15 per cent to 30
25
 Automation
per cent between 1995 and 1997, at which point
Chevron installed pump-off controllers and opti-
misation software at each well, bringing failure
rates down to 15 per cent.
In 2001, ChevronTexaco wanted to bring in a
new system incorporating automation, well sur-
veillance and historical well data, as part of its
efforts to standardise data and well management
across the company. It hoped that this would
reduce well service time and help evaluate / man-
age failures.
It was successful; by 2006, all seven fields of
San Joachim were live, and failure rates of the
Cymric field had dropped to 10 per cent a year,
meaning savings of $6m a year.
Chevron and Weatherford went about the proj-
ect by first establishing their vision, incorporation
well surveillance, failure analysis, work-plan servic-
es and scorecard reporting.
Project team
They put together a project team with enough
management backing and resources for the effort.
Before starting with the automation, they
mapped out Chevron’s business processes to stan-
dardise them across fields.
Then they mapped software functions in
LOWIS to the business processes, and built
detailed business flow diagrams.
Only after that did they start building the soft-
ware.
“Suppliers tend to walk in with a pat solution
and say ‘for X dollars we can automate this for
you,’” says Weatherford’s Mr Ormerod. “Then they
walk away, and a year later everyone has gone
back to their spreadsheets.”
Fibre optics at BT
and Alcatel
Speakers from BT and Alcatel, at
IQPC's Future Fields conference in
Amsterdam, talked about how
technology is developing for fibre
optic technologies
Robert Mainguy,
director business
development and
marketing, oil and
gas, with Alcatel,
talked about some
of the develop-
ments with data
communications
services in the oil
and gas industry.
"The communications infrastructure is at the
heart of this process," he said. "It takes data from
sensors in the field."
The common communications options are
VSAT, getting 1.2mbps over unlimited distance;
Microwave, with communications up to 80km at
speeds of over 155 mbps; WIMAX at distances up
to 15km with speeds up to 25 mbps; and fibre,
26 digital energy journal - September 2006
“Suppliers tend to walk in
with a pat solution and say
‘for X dollars we can auto-
mate this for you,’” says
Weatherford’s Mr
Ormerod. “Then they walk
away, and a year later
everyone has gone back to
their spreadsheets.”
Our approach is to say “We envision that this
system could save you (the client) this much on an
ongoing basis, and it will cost you this much on an
ongoing basis,” he says.
Once the automation system has been put in,
Weatherford uses it to find out ways it can
improve the business process, and then the
improved business process can be used to
improve the automation system.
Other ChevronTexaco fields in the Mid USA and
Gulf of Mexico are also using LOWIS.
Weatherford is providing production optimisa-
tion services to 100,000 wells in total, 10 per cent
of the wells in the world. There are 28,000 in North
America; 5,000 in South America; 2,000 in Africa /
Europe; 3,000 in the Middle East and 2,000 in the
Far East.
going over unlimited distance at data speeds of
tens of terabits per second. "They all have their
role," he said.
WIMAX might be used more in the oil and gas
industry, for communications between platforms
close to each other, or with nearby vessels. Alcatel
is installing a WIMAX system on a Floating
Production Storage and Operations (FPSO) unit for
Total in Nigeria.
For fibre optics, Mr Mainguy said that the bene-
fits were high reliability and independence of the
weather, but there can be problems if the cable is
not buried deep enough and hit by a ship.Mr
Mainguy recommended create a fibre optic ring,
so there's always another data routing option if
there's a break in the cable anywhere. "Its future
proof - there's no bandwidth limitation," he said.
Alcatel has put together a subsea monitoring
system off the West Coast of Canada using fibre
optic cables, and could do this for the oil and gas
industry, he said.
Matthew Owen,
head of oil and gas
industry marketing,
BT, talked about
how BT is develop-
ing fibre optic tech-
nology which could
be useful in the oil
and gas industry.
About people
Like many industry commentators, Laurence
Ormerod, vice president of solutions architecture
for Weatherford’s Production Optimization group,
thinks the challenges of installing optimisation
systems are more about people than technology.
“The real issues are about managing change,
managing people, documenting processes so you
know what you’re trying to do, and making sure
the data is reliable,” he says.
“You have to develop the business case, state
the benefits you think you’ll get and then quantify
and measure those benefits.”
LOWIS
LOWIS (Weatherford’s Life of Well Information
System) can be used for all different types of oil
wells, including sucker rod wells, waterflood,
plunger lift, submersible pump, gas lift and free
flowing wells.
It can be used to manage a number of well
intervention processes, including pump changes,
sand cleanouts and full offshore rig workovers.
LOWIS is appropriate for looking at optimisa-
tion over a week / month / year time period.
Also in Weatherford’s suite of software tools are
ReO for optimising pipelines, separators and
pumps for current operations; ReO Forecast, taking
a long term view of how the production network
should change as the field gets older, taking data
from subsurface models; I-DO (intelligent daily
operations software) for optimising daily opera-
tions taking data from down hole and surface well
control equipment.
The company likes to stress that it focuses on
putting the solution together, not selling pieces of
software.
"We spend quite a lot of money and time in
communication technology," he said. "We lead the
world in this."
Any pressure, temperature change or even
sound on a fibre optic cable changes the way light
passes through it, and so very sophisticated tools
can be developed.
With a fibre optic cable down a well, it is possi-
ble to measure temperatures every metre along
the well at 0.1 degrees accuracy.
This is a useful tool for pinpointing where oil is
entering the well, because it expands and cools as
it does so, increasing pressure and causing
changes to the temperature.
Fibre optic cables can be used as a security
tool, because if there is any interference (vibration)
near a fibre optic cable, the light pattern changes.
This listening capability could be used for
many things. For example, a fibre optic cable
around a pressure vessel could 'listen' for any sign
which could indicate a possible leak. It could also
'hear' a valve closing, proving a secondary reassur-
ance that the control system is working.
The fibre system could also immediately detect
sand production in a well, because the sand makes
a large amount of noise, which would affect the
light pattern through the cable.
Fibre optics are safe to use in hazardous envi-
ronments, small, unobtrusive and simple to install.
 Automation

Should we have more unmanned

platforms?
Invensys’ Michael Chmilewski and Stan DeVries believe that US oil and gas companies can learn from the
experiences of European ones, which are far more likely to opt for wells to operate unattended
by Michael Chmilewski and Stan DeVries, Invensys

he US Minerals Management Service

T (MMS) reports that only 819 of the

roughly 3,500 offshore platforms in the
U.S. Gulf of Mexico are normally unat-
tended. But these are in shallow water and most
are for gas production (easier to train for and oper-
ate remotely).
To date, there does not appear to be any major
or deepwater/ultra deepwater installation in the
Gulf of Mexico that is normally unattended.
Whenever a major storm threatens the 3500
offshore platforms in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the
focus for most is on de-mobilizing personnel and
shut-in production. The emphasis is on hurricane
evacuation not on continued operation.
However elsewhere in the world major energy
companies are set up to accomplish hurricane
evacuation without interrupting operations.
Energy companies operate world-scale, deepwater
installations as normally unattended, with a new
concept for remote operations known as ‘adaptive
span of control’.
They have already implemented the ability to
operate remotely during normal conditions, and
can extend this to operations before and after a
storm.
Remote operations aren’t a permanent transfer
to onshore. Remote operations needs full, adap-
tive span of control at multiple locations.
Technology today addresses traditional chal- Total can operate and support its deepwater North Sea gas platforms remotely if it wants to
lenges, with better use of wireless networked sen-
sors intelligent condition monitoring, and adaptive
infrastructure.
With system integrity and correct span of con- With the objective of improving health and These are examples of “best practices” in
trol, operating companies and their vendors can safety performance, they implemented an remote operations.
safely and frequently change where, when, how, approach that allows them to quickly and feasibly In general, the procedures, training, technology
and which people work to prevent or effectively adapt the span of control among three offshore and cultural requirements of normally attended
intervene in problems. and one onshore control centres, as well as ensure installations are less challenging than normally
Best practices in remote operations can help consistent and safe technical support from any- unattended ones.
operators achieve higher health and safety per- where. One important aspect of these implementa-
formance, higher production availability and This can be described as “operate from any- tions is the agility to adapt the span of control
reduced operations cost. where, support from anywhere, best practices among multiple control centres, so that opera-
Best practices require good management of everywhere”. tional control can be transferred across any num-
evolving the technology, procedures and culture They moved from normally attended to nor- ber of locations.
to continually achieve and accelerate perform- mally unattended as a normal approach.
ance. The result was a higher HSE benchmark, System health
Remote operations applications range from the increased production availability, reduced opera- The examples above depend upon a foundation of
occasional management of essential operations, tions costs and a new culture. enabling technology that delivered improvements
called ‘normally attended installations’, to full Personnel maintain a level of training and use in “system integrity” for safe remote operations
remote operations, called ‘Normally Unattended identical procedures for operations, SCADA and and enabled the operating companies to embrace
Installations’. safety systems engineering and maintenance. the process for “adaptive span of control”.
French energy leader Total, for example, which New personnel, whether employees or contrac- The foundation for the system integrity model
operates 21 deepwater offshore wet gas platforms tors, are trained before participating. This provides starts with the physical health of the remote oper-
in the Netherlands sector of the North Sea, pro- a higher level of operations performance that can ation.
duces a combined 680 Million standard cubic feet be duplicated in other fields. Standard SCADA and DCS hardware remain a key
per day (scfd) of gas.

September 2006 - digital energy journal 27

 Automation
part of the “system”, and the central place for alert-
ing and adapting to system integrity issues.
However, the components of any SCADA or
DCS must be hardened against all possible envi-
ronmental conditions (e.g., vibration, temperature,
humidity, EMI) and configured with the highest
availability (i.e., redundancy) in mind.
Another aspect of physical conditioning
requires a new approach to condition monitoring
technologies that can drive ‘early detection’.
Use of advanced technologies such as friction
sensors offer vast improvements over traditional
vibration sensors, enabling continuous monitoring
with measurable indication of condition anytime.
Adoption of Wireless Sensor Networking (WSN)
in the operation can also greatly increase process
awareness with more measurements at less cost
with the added benefit of deriving inferential
measurements from “soft sensors”.
Thus, remote operations can achieve improved
condition awareness with greater confidence in
equipment health & operations, and the freedom
to perform maintenance only when required,
instead of when routinely scheduled.
Robust infrastructures
Infrastructure robustness of remote operations
begins with ensuring the quality of everything
from power to telecommunications and opera-
tional data.
Adherence to best practices to ensure network
connections & the IT infrastructure, and rigorous
performance of on-line backups of all critical sys-
tems remains vitally important for continuity of
remote operations.
The employment of new wireless communica-
tion infrastructures brings an added dimension of
mobility to the platform, improving field engineer
productivity and efficiency via wireless diagnos-
tics, maintenance, data collection, monitoring and
alarming.
Likewise, the use of the new standards such as
PRODML, PRODuction xML, have begun to enable
the consistent integration of disparate systems
and production data that otherwise require manu-
al intervention. With such improvements &
advances within the Infrastructure, operators can
experience increased availability and better opera-
tional intelligence.
Security
As with all installations in the energy industry
today, the adoption of a strong security process
within the remote operation is mandatory to safe
operations.
Use of intrusion detection; encryption; and pre-
vention technologies to avoid computer viruses
and worms, unauthorized users, disgruntled
employees, denial of service attacks; remain essen-
tial to any remote operations.
Wärtsilä power contract
for largest mobile drilling
unit
Power system manafacturer Wärtsilä has won
a contract to deliver a total power system for
the largest mobile oil drilling unit ever built,
the MPF 1000 offshore drilling vessel, to be
completed and delivered from Spanish yard
Dragados Offshore in the fourth quarter of
2008.
28 digital energy journal - September 2006
Likewise, security policy must eliminate the use
of secondary threat vehicles such as ad hoc
servers, thumb drives, modems.
Operationally, the use of multi-vendor, multi-
owner systems must provide proper segregation
of information and controls to ensure that vendor,
partner and government security requirements are
met.
Security is first and foremost a business process
that technology can only enable. Intrinsic security
for the Remote Operations can only be achieved
through the right architecture & process.
Operational stability
Maintaining operational stability is important to
any remote operation, especially in the face of
stress conditions which limit availability of local
personnel.
Control systems on the platform must be
thoughtfully integrated and inter-locked to adapt
and manage potential failures using integrated
process information.
Added intelligence within control systems
designed to follow a “process park” methodology
can be used to isolate events instead of forcing a
complete shut-down.
Safety and critical control systems with
expanded input/output and logic working in tan-
dem with online models can also help minimize
shutdowns without any sacrifice of safe operation.
Change management
Essential to the integrity of any remote operations
is the discipline of change management across all
aspects of the control systems used to manage
production.
The actual technology utilized for the SCADA
and DCS systems must inherently govern and track
operation, configuration and maintenance activi-
ties.
To implement and maintain rigorous change
management, effective systems start today by
embracing object management technology at
their core, taking advantage of the inherent con-
trol of creation, replication and dissemination of
applications objects and workflows.
With such object management firmly in place,
more advanced control systems can deliver quick
and easy redeployment of objects for system opti-
mization and thus establish the highest confi-
dence level in the management and documenta-
tion of any changes made.
Vigilance
At the top of system integrity is the concept of
operational vigilance; the constant evaluation of
alert conditions that arise in normal operations
delivered via a highly effective notification service.
While it’s common for operating equipment to
deteriorate over time, the conditions that produce
equipment problems are often too complex and
The MPF 1000 has been described as the
largest and the most versatileoffshore drilling unit
ever built. It can combine floating production,
storage and offloading with drilling.
It is designed for simultaneous drilling and pro-
duction in deep waters and harsh environments
including ultra deep water.
The vessel is 290 meters long and has storage
capability of one million barrels of oil.
The contract, worth over EU 50 million,
involves detail design, products, systems and com-
missioning of the power plant, propulsion, electri-
Europeans getting ahead in unattended rigs - Stan de
Vries, director Upstream Solutions with simulation and
process equipment company Invensys
occur too slowly for teams to identify until it may
be too late.
It is vitally important therefore that only the
“right” people are notified at the “right” time –
which means continuous analysis and early predic-
tions of problems.
Depending upon the real threat level of an
event or predicted outage, different alerts will
require different persons to be notified.
Thus it is equally important that real alerts are
presented in the “right” context so as to avoid (a)
overloading a diminishing pool of remote and
mobile experts, and (b) exposing operational
problems to people who have no need to know.
Only by automating, governing, tracking and
segregating alerts and related remote support
functions from the sensor to the highest level
application, can Trustworthy Operations be fully
achieved.
Adaptive span of control
Full span of control requires safe and orderly
access to all alarms & equipment controls for a
given area.
This requires better assessment of operational
conditions, better management of alarms, and
better transfer of span of control and alarms.
Supervisors should be able to change assignments
among multiple operators and crews at any time.
Transferring span of control is never perma-
nent, and the greatest risk is during transfer. The
span of control must be adapted when equipment
is added, process changes, weather.
Transfer is among offshore centers and in both
directions between land and offshore. Large scale
transfers support “operational roll-back”: as bad
weather progresses towards outer platforms, off-
shore operations can be rolled back to those plat-
forms further away or outside the pending evacua-
tion area. The reverse procedure can also be
implemented reliably as off-shore operations are
gradually resumed.
cal and automation systems.
Delivery of the major components will be dur-
ing the first quarter of 2008.
Wärtsilä will deliver eight 16-cylinder Wärtsilä
32 diesel engines with a combined power output
of 58,880 kW, generators, medium voltage
switchgear, low voltage distribution boards, fre-
quency converters, safety and automation systems
(including emergency shut down, fire and gas,
power management, vessel automation), a dynam-
ic positioning system, thruster control and infor-
mation management systems.
 Automation

Invensys integrates control systems

Control systems giant Invensys has launched a new middleware software suite called InFusion, which
makes it easier to gather data from different control systems, display it so that people around the company
can see all the necessary information on one screen, and make decisions.
t can integrate with control systems, from

I
many different manufacturers including ABB,
Honeywell, Rockwell, Schneider, Emerson.
Communication is by TCP-IP. There are over
300 interfaces developed so far.
The middleware can connect to management
systems, such as supplier relationship management
/ customer relationship management / supply chain
management / enterprise resource planning
(finance, HR).
It will provide business performance measure-
ment, real time finance management, real time
business intelligence, business performance
improvement.
The middleware layers include planning, sched-
uling, yield management, operations management,
site support, alarm analysis, alert management, per-
formance management, system configuration, con-
dition monitoring / diagnostics, device diagnostics.
It should help detect and respond to unanticipated
problems.
The benefits are that management personnel
get much better information about how well the
plant is operating, and can easily and quickly make
adjustments as required.
Advanced software tools can be used to monitor
the health of equipment, and make predictions
about how long equipment will operate for before
failure, so maintenance and overhauls can be
planned at times they will cause least disruption to
operations, while minimising the risk of equipment
failure.
Invensys imagines a more sophisticated tool for
measuring how well equipment is going than the
current maximising equipment availability and
maximizing utilization. The best route is something
between these two.
Invensys will release the system in two phases –
the first will be to release a system “designed to sig-
nificantly reduce the cost of automation.” The sec-
ond is to release a set of performance services to
get more value from the plant.
There will be two components to the perform-
ance services – performance measurement / real
time accounting, and performance improvement
services.
The performance services will be conducted by
a team of professionals with 10 years plant engi-
neering experience and accounting MBAs.
The software tools are a result of 5 years of
development work, Invensys says.
systems inside out, as Invensys does, is allowing the
systems to integrate with the business manage-
ment systems.
Disparate control systems have been blamed for
many things. Operators cannot look at the whole
plant as one single entity, they have to manage
every part of it separately.
Individual systems sound alarms when some-
thing is going wrong; but when something goes
very badly wrong, the operator just hears a lot of
alarms and doesn’t know which ones to respond to
The way automation systems have been viewed,
Invensys believes, has gradually changed. From
1970s to 1990s, they were seen as equipment to
make plants work. From 1990, expectations
increased, with optimisation tools. Now the focus is
on optimising everything.
Middle layer
There are plenty of more benefits to this middle
layer.
The computer model can process the enormous
amounts of data generated by the systems.
For example, the large amounts of equipment
monitor data can be fed into a computer model,
which can estimate quite well if any components
are about to fail.
Invensys observes that the traditional ways of
working out how well plant is working, looking at
utilisation and equipment availability, is not neces-
sarily the best way to find out what companies real-
ly want to know, which is how much value they are
getting out of their equipment.
For example, it is not much use knowing if the
equipment is available 99 per cent of the time if you
don’t know how much of this time it is actually
being used for.
Conversely, it might be harmful to the equip-
ment to operate it 99 per cent of time, the risk of
unscheduled breakdown can be higher, than if you
give the equipment a few moments of rest or main-
tenance.
Some people focus on maximizing availability –
although this is not so much use of the equipment
is not utilized when it is available. But focusing on
maximizing utilization is not so helpful either
because there may ultimately be less equipment
breakdowns if the equipment is not driven into the
ground.
It can be useful in maintenance – eg analyse
equipment in real time, real time failure mode
analysis. It can help with fault finding.
A key component is the ‘asset dashboard,’ where
people all over the world can see all the information
they need in one place (see photograph).
Information being shown includes plant video
monitoring, business value portal, plant scorecard,
compressor availability analysis, operational per-
formance measures, KPI analysis, condition monitor-
ing and maintenance schedules.
Security
There are plenty of security concerns about the idea
of being able to adjust plant over the internet.
Security issues quickly arise with this kind of sys-
tem – because it becomes theoretically possible to
control dangerous plant systems over the internet.
Invensys employs security staff to analyse the
risks, and work out how to achieve security but
without losing any of the openness.
Invensys points out that in the US, 90 per cent of
systems have an online connection. In Europe its 15
per cent. Many plant managers say they don’t want
an online connection.

The problem
Connecting business systems with plant is some-
thing which has been desired for a long time, some-
thing which many oil and gas companies have been
slowly developing over the past few years.
Whilst trying to connect plant to business man- The InFusion Collaboration Wall can also be used to provide plant
agement systems is not new, what is probably new operators, maintenance technicians, engineers, and managers with a
shared view of process control, maintenance, performance, and busi-
is the depth to which Invensys is doing it, and the
ness application displays to encourage and facilitate creative collabo-
fact that a company which understands the control ration

September 2006 - digital energy journal 29

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