Real-time data from sensors provides us with the opportunity to make decisions about production optimisation on the spot, without having to wait for weeks or months to gather and process information. Photo: StatoilHydro
With oil and gas production the backbone of the Norwegian economy, and our production accounting for 80 per cent of the nation’s production, we're seeking increase average oil recovery rates significantly beyond the current world average of 35 percent. To achieve it, we sought to incorporate new technologies and new ways of working into our production processes in order to transform, streamline and improve them.
We believe that Integrated Operations are a big part of the answer. It’s a new process framework that links advanced real-time sensing capabilities in the field to powerful, collaborative and analytical resources accessible across the enterprise. Together with other initiatives, the solution will contribute to our efforts to increase the recovery rate of our existing oil and gas fields, thereby adding tens of billions of dollars in oil revenues, and extending the lifespan of our existing oil and gas fields.
To achieve it, we teamed up with leading industry players IBM, ABB, Aker Kværner and SKF to identify the methods, technology and work processes needed to integrate our operations. The widespread use of advanced information and communication technology was only part of the equation to reach the estimated potential. The implementation of new work processes based on real-time access to data, in addition to organizational changes where people offshore and onshore become one team with a common goal and shared situational awareness are the most important.
For StatoilHydro, having to operate with independent “islands” of corporate knowledge has been more than just a metaphor, since our offshore platforms have long operated independently of one another. This means that even though a group of platforms may be gathering subsurface data on the same underlying oil or gas field, they nonetheless have been unable to combine their information into a more comprehensive view of the field. To bridge this gap, new integrated software solutions have been developed, based on a linkage of key oil and gas information standards to create a flexible information integration and interoperability framework.
When implemented, this allows us to aggregate our collective knowledge across rigs and fields, creating a foundation for more informed decisions, optimized processes and — ultimately — higher production efficiency. The software solution enables data to be exchanged between different and often incompatible systems — a crucial factor enabling the flow of information through the company’s IT systems, regardless of format, and making it accessible where it’s needed most.
Decision-making in four dimensions
We are also starting to implement “smart” field management practices. Using data from wireless sensors, which monitor subsurface conditions (such as the pressure and temperature at different points in the field, as well as the movement of gas or oil deposits within the field), the solution provides our engineers with the information they need to know when, where and how much to pump. By combining information from all of our production facilities, we will gain a much more comprehensive view of the state of our oil fields, vastly improving our ability to optimize our extraction activities.
When the ability to visualize subsurface conditions in three dimensions was first introduced, it represented a major innovation in oil production. Our vision of smart field management pushes that notion even further by adding a fourth dimension — time. Getting data feeds from our sensors in real time gave us the means to make decisions for production optimization on the spot, without having to wait weeks or months to gather and synthesize information. This can make a crucial difference in maximizing a field’s production yield.
We expect the IO projects to identify ways to increase our overall production by 5 percent — an enormous margin in the realm of offshore oil and gas drilling. What’s more, by enabling the proactive maintenance of our facilities, we expect to reduce our operating and maintenance costs by 30 percent. By moving from a scheduled maintenance process campaign to a proactive and preventative maintenance model, we expects a drastic reduction in shutdowns and the effects they produce—such as expediting costs and long delays. The model will also help us to optimize turnarounds and shutdowns across all assets.
Why it matters
Norway’s economic reliance on petroleum production and our major role in the industry provided an incentive for us to “rewrite the rules” on production efficiency. As the fields of the Norwegian continental shelf become increasingly mature, we are seeking to reverse a declining trend and actually achieve increases in production. The production improvements offered by Integrated Operations will yield tens of billions of dollars for the Norwegian economy in the years to come.
