Siemens and Emerson Process Management share their insights on DOF implementation.
These days, it’s not just oil and gas that gushes through the region’s reservoirs. The era of real-time data means operators must capture and refine a torrent of terabytes as well as tonnes of oil and gas that gush from the Middle East’s fields. Drawing operational and business intelligence from the morass is no mean feat.
Ali Vezvaei, Executive Vice President & General Manager at Siemens, and Andrew Dennant, Marketing Director at Emerson Process Management, share their insights on DOF in the Middle East.
How do you contribute to DOF implementation, and how has your company’s approach changed?
AV: Siemens has been a pioneer since the early days of the DOF concept, working closely with operating companies to help meet their objectives.
Operating companies capitalizing on heavy investments in application and/or simulation engines in order to understand the dynamics of the subsurface world, moved slowly towards acquiring real time data (so-called digital fields) to help understand the actual behavior of the reservoir injection and production.
The ability to acquire real-time data exposed large gaps in the early understanding of reservoir behavior, which drove operating companies to invest more on reliable acquisition of real time data, providing data outside operator stations to reservoir and production engineers.
This drove the organization towards closed loop collaboration between the online and offline worlds.
AD: Emerson can help with many aspects of Digital Oil Field implementation. We offer reservoir modelling software and services, which can model complex reservoirs more accurately in less time. This allows the drillers to not only get to first oil faster, but also to get to the most productive zones in the reservoirs.
What successful DOF implementations in the region have you been a part? What DOF markets do you see emerging in the near future?
AV: Siemens has been part of several large regional DOF projects, providing multiple solutions from instrumentation and control, all the way up to GIS-based real-time data surveillance solutions.
DOF programs have significantly changed the way companies looked at their fields by looking not just at the reservoir, but regarding each well as an asset and seeing the associated CAPEX and OPEX.
Production and reservoir engineers had never been so ‘in tune’ with these assets, and the ability to feel the pulse of the asset has made them more aware of the supporting assets as well. This includes looking at the critical equipment such as PDHMS, ESP, pumps, compressors and turbines as key aspects in ensuring high well production rates.
Predictive analysis – not only of the reservoir but also the health of critical equipment – will become an important element of DOF programs.
DOF is the integral framework for optimizing production, either maximizing recovery or producing to a specific schedule.
The challenge is seamless integration of the subsurface – as well as the surface equipment – in order to get all necessary information in real time, compare it with reservoir simulations and take appropriate actions through closed-loop systems or manual intervention.
Therefore, all components of the production chain at the field are linked through a WAN network and are, to a large extent, intelligent.
AD: No two Digital Oil Field implementations are the same, and Emerson has many business units, each of which brings expertise to different parts of a Digital Oil Field project. Emerson has been involved in projects in the UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq.
We see a growth in demand for the Digital Oil Field across the Middle East as assets age and it becomes more difficult to extract oil. All of the GCC countries, plus Iraq, are actively engaged in implementing Digital Oil Fields.
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At what stage of a DOF project would you get involved? How do you ensure you combine with other providers in the DOF chain effectively?
AV: The earlier, the better! By engaging the customer in the concept phase, all the way through realization, Siemens ensures the highest benefit for the customer.
There are a lot of critical elements which require very early interaction, especially with the suppliers of the subsurface systems and the reservoir engineers. Siemens can provide a couple of important surface components – like wellhead production units, water reinjection systems etc – which perfectly fit into the DOF concept.
AD: Emerson can get involved at almost any stage for the scope that we offer. Our areas of expertise are related to modelling, measurement and control, and safety, as well as the tools and expertise that support analysis of the data from the devices that we provide. Emerson has always prided itself on adhering to open standards, so interoperability is not an issue for us.
To what extent are the “standards wars” over wireless holding DOF deployments back?
AV: Of course wireless technology is an important enabler for DOF, but it is not a show-stopper. We have successfully implemented DOF in the past using FOC or radio technology.
AD: We are delighted with the adoption of the WirelessHART standard in the oil fields in the Middle East. Emerson has provided instruments for thousands of production and injection wells. WirelessHART’s self-organising mesh network means that it is a perfect choice for instrumenting wells that can be up to a kilometre apart.
What have been the most exciting developments in DOF this year?
AV: DOF as concept has expanded greatly of late. Operating companies are now able to see the real time information around their assets, and are investing in each aspect of their operation from highly optimized subsurface models and critical equipment availability, to energy optimization and process safety.
Some key programs Siemens is currently working on with operators include resolving issues around data quality which, considering the extreme environment of these fields, is a huge challenge. Siemens is working with several IOCs and NOCs globally in defining and extending the rules engine of its XHQ platform (pictured on page 30), which validates all data before reaching decision makers and consuming applications, avoiding incorrect reporting.
In addition, trending and predictive analysis around critical equipment and their diagnoses and Root Cause Failure Analysis have been recent key discussion subjects.
AD: The most exciting development is the way that DOF has come from being a great idea to a reality that is being actively pursued and implemented by all of the oil majors here. We’re looking forward to more knowledge-sharing, and hearing about more success stories, at IDOC in Oman in September; real news from real practitioners.
How would you characterise the attitude of Gulf NOCs to DOF, and DOF investment?
AV: Gulf NOCs have clearly understood and realized the benefits of DOF, and how the technology would help improve their production operations. For greenfields it’s almost a default standard to be DOF enabled from the start.
For brownfields there is still a question regarding CAPEX, OPEX and ROI, but implementation of successful EOR programs may drive investment to make them DOF enabled as well.
AD: In every country I visit in the GCC I meet with forward-thinking managers who are investing in the DOF concept because they, and their leaders, understand that these technologies are what will sustain and increase production rates from aging reservoirs.
