Process automation offers the Middle East the opportunity to become a pioneer in HSSE standards whilst simultaneously improving its bottom line.
The oil and gas industry is among the most dangerous environments in which to earn your living. Whether you are braving the challenging conditions of a deep water rig or working in the harsh desert environment of the Middle East’s onshore concessions, the safety challenges facing workers in the Middle East’s oil and gas sector are huge.
As the era of easy oil comes to an end, E & P firms are being pushed into more and more challenging environments in order to find new oil and gas deposits to fuel growing global demand. With huge sour oil and gas reserves in the UAE, the country can look forward to a secure supply of gas for the foreseeable future, as both the Shah and Bab fields come online.
However, the extremely sour nature of the gas means that cutting edge technology is required to reduce the risk to the country’s oil and gas workers.
Process automation offers operators the chance to remove their workers from potentially life threatening situations. Instead of sending technicians into hazardous environments, automated plants allow workers to carry out a wide range of operations from the safety of a remote control room.
Whether it be at a sour gas field, or a more conventional oil reservoir, this has to be a major advantage for the Middle East’s oil and gas sector.
Digital oilfields also offer operators the chance to streamline their operations and boost their bottom lines.
Total is a key investor in the Middle East’s oil and gas sector and is one of the most technologically ambitious firms in the industry.
As more challenging oil plays in the region is spurring demand for higher degrees of technical expertise, the Middle East’s National Oil Companies (NOCs) will increasingly look to their International Oil Company (IOC) partners to deliver the technical expertise required to bolster their production levels and improve worker safety.
Total has been operating in the UAE in partnership with Adnoc since 1974 at its Abu Al Bhukoosh field. The project is hailed as a pioneering example of how NOCs and IOCs can work together to maximise production levels at relatively mature fields. The field also boasts an impressive HSE record, as Total is quick to point out.
“Adopting technology has brought about a number of health and safety improvements since I started in the industry 30 years ago, and we can see the benefits today. At Total Abu Al Bhukoosh, for example, we marked 1,000 days without a single LTI last November, and automation has played an important role,” says Bernard Sanseau, drilling manager, Total Abu Al Bukhoosh.
“Automation brings additional layers of safety for the crew and the people on the rig floor. Years ago, drilling personnel would stand for up to 12 hours on the rig floor. Now it’s possible to work remotely from a ‘cyber chair’, so it’s a completely different way of looking at things,” he adds.
Process automation brings a number of key challenges to oil and gas operators in the Middle East. It is not enough to merely purchase an automation software and expect to see results. Engineers and technicians must be properly trained to maximise the technology’s usefulness.
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“It’s like with modern cars, there are a lot of devices that make things easier, but you still have the human element and you have to be focused. In our business that demands a high level of training and professionalism at all times.
Automation can also involve a variety of equipment working in one place at the same time, so you need to carry out additional verification procedures to ensure the different units can work together without interference,” he says.
While the implementation of process automation can dramatically reduce the risk of worker injury, it can also involve a trade off with the speed of the operation.
Automation often makes things faster, but in certain instances can take longer than manual processes.
“Using tripping times as an example, 30 years ago, we might do 1,000 metres per hour in a casing. Today, even the best rigs, using specific drill pipes, achieve a maximum of 700 metres per hour, and the average is around 500 metres. Automation, therefore, demands greater efficiency and time management discipline on the part of the drilling units to optimise productivity,” explains Total’s Sanseau.
“Automation does allow you to prepare an operation while you’re carrying out another one, but that is generally better suited to deepwater rigs with dual derrick units. In this region, it’s mainly jack-ups and mono-derricks where you have to do one operation after another,” he adds.
Despite this trade-off in speed, operators in the region are recognising the benefits of prioritising worker safety. The cost of repairing damage caused by human error can run into multiple millions of dollars, and process automation offers the region’s key players the opportunity to cut down that cost.
Investment is key to achieving high standards of HSE, and process automation is no exception to this rule. The Middle East will need to continue its investment in process automation if it is to cement its growing reputation as a region of HSE proficiency. NOCs will need to be brave and continue their financial support, despite tumbling oil prices.
Some analysts believe that the region’s current attitude to turnkey contracts could be restricting the implementation of new technologies which could dramatically improve HSE in the region, as Jens Winkleman of Endress + Hauser explains.
“Very often you talk about lump sum turnkey contracts in this region. The contractor sees only his contract and he is not interested in anything further. Usually he has an 18 month contract and he doesn’t care what happens after that time,” he says.
Winkleman is concerned that the Middle East’s culture of EPC driven contracts is undermining the region’s push towards HSE excellence.
“The end user, of course, has the long term view. The end user has to think about both CAPEX and OPEX. A contractor sees only the CAPEX and doesn’t care whether the device they are using lasts longer and spare parts concepts are better, or whether maintenance is better,” he explains.
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The challenge for the Middle East’s oil and gas sector is to demand automation systems which will help to reduce a projects Opex, despite the fact that it requires significant investment at the Capex phase.
“A typical EPC contractor will have done these type of jobs before and the easiest thing for them to do is to copy and paste those resources into a new project. The question is how do you then bring in a new technology into the market? Wireless communication or digital field buses for example.
It’s quite difficult to get this new tech into the market because the contractor will just buy what’s written in the specification and nothing more. He will not pay anything extra for an extra option – for something better for the end user, he adds.
This is a key challenge for the oil and gas industry in the coming years. If falling oil prices precipitate a lack of investment in process automation technology by EPC contractors, then HSE standards in the region will begin to dwindle, compromising worker safety and profitability alike.
“You end up with a situation where these NOCs don’t get the best equipment they could get for their operations, for their safety, for the reliability, to reduce downtimes and to last longer.
It is not only Endress + Hauser, there are also other players who have quality products, but because of this concept [of EPC driven turnkey contracts] the end user often does not get the best equipment. He gets something which only just fulfils the purpose and the specification but it could be better,” he says.
If the region can heed this warning, the Middle East could start to establish itself as a global centre of excellence for HSE. The move towards digital oilfields and fully automated facilities will help to support this.
“As the era of easy-to-access and low-cost oil and gas production ends, the strategic importance of the offshore industry is only becoming more pronounced. Producers seek to maximise yield from existing fields and tackle heavier oil in more unconventional situations,” says Asfar Zaidi, principal consultant for Huawei, Enterprise, Middle East.
As the region’s operators look to tackle more challenging geographical plays, digital oilfield technologies are essential to enable them to capture and organise the incredible amount of data being collected from offshore operations.
“Improved technology is also making oil exploration and refinement more profitable and eLTE is playing an increasingly important role in oil and gas recovery. The acquisition of real-time or on-time data from oil wells and field operations can also help in optimising oil production.
“In addition, the processing of information through big data analytics software solutions is crucially important to help offer more accurate predictive technologies that will drive efficiencies in oil drilling,” he adds.
Process automation offers oil and gas firms the opportunity to remove their workers from an increasing number of hazardous working environments. In doing so, they also have the opportunity to improve their bottom lines and production levels if the industry can hold its nerve and continue to invest during the current period of low oil prices.
