Shrinking workforces, tighter project schedules, challenging field and plant environments – monitoring the Middle East’s oil and gas operations was never going to be easy.
Instrumentation and control experts share their views on where technology can provide the answers an industry is crying out for.
In the time-critical applications of the oil and gas industry, having the right set of tools to monitor everything from downhole temperature and pressure conditions on the oil field through to personnel tracking devices and software, can mean the difference between not only profit and loss but life and death.
In the current operating climate where the hydrocarbons industry is under ever-stricter environmental regulations; running a leaner workforce and working to demanding project guidelines, Middle Eastern operators in particular are increasingly looking to their instrumentation and control vendors to not only provide the hardware, but also lend their expertise and advice.
“Training is an important topic in the multi-cultural environment of the Middle East,” says Jens Winkelmann, head of sales in the Middle East for industrial measurement and automation equipment manufacturer, Endress + Hauser.
“Project documentation as well is of growing importance. Complex process plants need to run after the average expat engineer leaves the Middle East after 4-5 years. Nowadays solutions of electronic documentation handling support the know-how transfer, reduce downtimes and increase plant safety.”
Winkelmann is proud of Endress + Hauser’s ability to integrate in major control systems due to its adherence to working on open standards.
“When choosing Endress + Hauser, you will get a supplier who has a clear focus on the instrumentation packages and the engineering and project handling,” he says. “The described openess of the instrumentation to communicate with different systems becomes more and more important.
Intelligent field instrumentation provide additional process information and diagnosis,” he adds.
Endress + Hauser grew its market share in the Middle East in 2010 by 30% due to strong performances in providing metering solutions and tank gauging systems.
The Swiss-based company has been supplying oil and gas operators in the North Sea with radiometric measurements for the last 20 years. The company’s latest offering based on the same technology is a density profiling system.
The system is based on standard components, but individually engineered and customised for each application to secure the best possible process information, says Winkelmann.
“Customers are more interested in having automation vendors act as technology partners and as trusted advisors rather than what has been seen in the Middle East market in the past decade, where automation vendors were treated more as integrators of the control system,” observes Honeywell’s solutions consultant for the Middle East, Feroz Qureshi.
Some of Honeywell’s major Middle Eastern customers include the likes of Saudi Aramco, the UAE’s Borouge, ADNOC ZADCO and Kuwait’s KNPC who, he says have been leading the way with such buying behavior.
Honeywell’s Integrated Main Automation Contractor (I-MAC) approach which focuses on the business objectives of the client through automation at the process, operational and business segments of a plant, is particularly sought-after by regional end-users looking for integrated control systems providers.
Managing complexity
Due to a shrinking workforce in the oil and gas industry, operators are having to do more with less which demands a lot in terms of expertise from the existing personnel. Instrumentation providers are having to adjust their own technological offerings to adapt to this.
“We see that our customers need to do more with smaller workforces and understand that to be able to do this we need to help them to overcome complexity.
We have therefore redesigned many of our interfaces from the ground up to be more ‘human-centered’,” explains Andrew Dennant, Marketing director for the Middle East and Africa for Emerson Process Management.
“In the old days engineers designed equipment in ways that did not always promote ease-of-use. We looked at the most common tasks that our customers need to perform and made sure that shortcuts to these were the first things that were seen when a device faceplate was opened.
We have redesigned our standard graphics to ensure that colour and animation are used sparingly and with the purpose of focusing the user onto the most important thing that is happening on that screen,” Dennant tells Oil & Gas Middle East.
“The biggest challenge we see is that project timelines and budgets are being compressed while complexity and scale increase,” he admits.
To help address these issues simultaneously Emerson has created a concept called electronic marshalling.
The terminals in field marshalling cabinets are replaced by devices of approximately the same size as a terminal, and each of these devices holds a CHARacterizing Module, or CHARM. Each CHARM is essentially a single channel I/O (input/output) card.
There is a redundant bus that connects all of the CHARMs to the controllers. This design means that I/O cards, I/O cabinets, cross-patch wiring and marshalling cabinets are no longer needed.
“That is a minor saving compared with the schedule savings,” observes Dennant.
The challenges of tight project turnaround times coupled with the tougher exploration and production conditions present instrumentation providers such as Emerson and Endress + Hauser with opportunities.
Not to be outdone, Honeywell is making the most of such a climate as the worldwide demand for oil and gas continues to propel its provisions in the field.
“The Middle East has been one of the most challenging markets for Honeywell,” explains Qureshi.
“There are immense opportunities in the region riding on the oil and gas demand from the rest of the world. With a company like Honeywell and the kind of solution portfolio we carry there seems to be an opportunity with every customer requirement, be it field instrumentation, control systems, advanced solution or even items like burners and flares.”
“Dealing with ever changing and challenging requirements has been quite stimulating.”
He says that although the region’s historical aversion or at least its sluggishness in introducing new technology has added to the challenge, this is now becoming a moot point.
“There has always been a mixed reaction for new technologies from Middle East based customers. Some of the customers have been adventurous to go out and adopt and implement new technologies but also seen is behavior where some of the Middle East based oil and gas companies have been very cautious with implementation of new technologies,” he says.
He says that the same trend has been observed with new technologies like wireless and remote connectivity adding that the company is seeing more acceptance from Middle East customers towards new technologies, and that “there seems to be a definite change of tide towards implementation and acceptance in lieu of improvement of operation efficiencies and effective business growth.”
Future trends
Some of the big areas of movement for instrumentation, control and automation service providers covered previously by Oil & Gas Middle East, have been in the virtualisation and wireless arena – the largest wireless measurement systems in the world are said to be installed in oil fields in the Middle East.
Honeywell’s latest release of its Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS), Experion R400 allows various plant subsystems to improve overall safety, reliability, efficiency and sustainability through its virtualisation aspect.
“The R400 enhancement gives process operators greater visibility into how their processes are affecting the overall plant and allows them to make better-informed decisions in the control room.
The virtualisation enhancement can greatly reduce the number of PCs needed at plants, simplify management and ensure software continues functioning properly,” says Qureshi.
“Amongst the prominent customers in the region is a major GTL installation, a major petrochemical company and an upcoming gas development field which have taken advantages from the different integrated solution offerings from Honeywell,” he explains.
Honeywell’s OneWireless Network provides a multi-standard wireless network that can be tailored to offer the wireless coverage needed for industrial applications, from a simple wireless field instrument network to a completely integrated plant wide multi-application wireless network layout.
“The trends we see in the industry today are that wireless, for both measurement and control, will become ubiquitous. There are oil and gas producers who have already standardised on interoperable IEC 62591 (WirelessHART) to such an extent that they can add wireless devices at will, but must document their justification if they wish to use wired devices offshore,” predicts Emerson’s Dennant who is based in Dubai.
“We see more that measurements will be made downhole, and that data from downhole measurements during drilling will be incorporated into the subsurface modeling such that the model can be optimised in real time and the drilling can therefore be optimised.
“We see more intelligence in devices everywhere, with diagnostics extending deep into the process. And above all the idea of the digital oilfield will become a more complete reality – the data will not just be available everywhere, but it will have context and validity and will enable better decision-making.”
In other areas of instrumentation and control hardware development, Endress + Hauser’s Winkelmann says that more “exotic” materials are being demanded by customers such as super duplex Monel in addition to a higher demand for high capacity flow meters to meet high pressure and temperature requirements of the industry.
Going forward, Winkelmann cautions that regional end-users should take the long view when considering the maintenance costs related to their instrumentation and control needs.
“There is much more CAPEX orientation and very little OPEX [in the Middle East] compared to other regions such as Europe or America.
Giving the complete project into the hands of EPCs the end-users get products that fulfill the project requirement, but are often not the best choice for the lifetime operation of their plants.
These plants are often in areas difficult to reach, therefore it is even more important to look at lifetime costs when it comes to instrumentation and control,” he observes.
Honeywell OneWireless Transmitter
OneWireless wireless transmitters enable customers to obtain data from remote and hazardous measurement locations, while maximising uptime and data security.
Honeywell’s OneWireless Gauge Reader non-invasively clips to the front face of existing gauges to enable remote monitoring of gauge readings. Installation takes minutes and does not require removing old gauges, breaking pressure seals, performing leak checks, running wires or interrupting the underlying process.
Adapters are available to fit most size and type of manual gauges for pressure, temperature, vacuum and other measurements.
The OneWireless Gauge Reader is said to dramatically reduce the cost, time and disruption necessary to automate gauge monitoring and integrates seamlessly with Honeywell’s OneWireless architecture for scalability and compatibility with future wireless standards.
Wireless personal gas sensor
One of Honeywell’s OneWireless applications which stands out is the wireless Personal Gas Sensor which is a Single Gas Wireless (SGW) platform that enables users to remain OSHA compliant with their personal monitoring requirement while providing the additional functionality that provides real-time location and communication information which is critical in emergency situations.
The ability to analyse historical gas readings in relation to specific locations is becoming a significant advantage in the identification and elimination of process failure mechanisms.
Location Manager software provides managers the ability to keep track of their employees during emergency and can provide an invaluable tool for developing emergency response plans for employees not reporting in to mustering points.
