Optimising production without a The case for ‘integrated...

February / March 2016 Issue 59

Integrated Operations in Malaysia - reducing the cost of decision making

Optimising production without asimulatorThe case for ‘integrated engineering’IM on Engie’s Gjøa platformPutting data science into perspectiveReducing the effect of ‘unplannedsituations’

Official publication of Finding Petroleum

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My main thought on reading the Sunday papers this morning (17th January

2016) was ‘the Cassandras are at it again’.

Either the fossil fuel industry has almost no future because of CO2 emis-

sions, or because of Iran the oil price is going to drop even further; or for a

scintillating read see “The drip-drip of oil explorer casualties is only just

beginning” courtesy of the Sunday Telegraph. (* link below).

And yes, we are going through Hard Times.

Some smaller oil and gas companies have indeed already hit the wall, Arkex has gone into ad-

ministration, Dolphin Geophysical AS has filed for bankruptcy (although the UK arm Dolphin

Geophysical Ltd continues to operate as normal).

If I count the number of service companies asking us for free tickets at our Finding Petroleum

events, a few more are going to go the same way!

But let’s stop for a minute. Yes, it’s true that some 15 per cent of North Sea workers have lost

their jobs and of course this is a tragedy for them and they have my sympathy.But it does mean

that 85 per cent have not.

So let’s take a negative view and admit that there are going to be more job losses in 2016. But….

I venture that two-thirds of folk working in our industry will remain and want to continue doing

so.

What then should these ‘survivors’ be thinking about?

I suggest that the most important lesson of our industry’s regular hiring then firing cycles is that

any company’s priorities and an individual’s are rarely aligned. And that therefore any individual

needs to take responsibility for managing their own career, for building their own Career Devel-

opment Plan, including a set of short, medium and long term goals.

There are several components to such a Plan; I want to consider just two here:

Firstly when you consider typical projects and work process where you work, what are the skills

deployed from the beginning to the end of such a project?

For example, consider a regional play review that starts with regional geology and regional seis-

mic data and concludes with a decision to make an applications for licences.

Or consider a reservoir management study that begins with an existing reservoir description and

historic dynamic data and concludes with a decision to recommend an infill well program. What

are the various skills involved throughout the process?

Secondly, to what extent do you have some or all of these skills in sufficient depth? And if there

are gaps, what are you going to do about it?

Because the stronger your skills alignment to what your company does and needs, the greater

your value to the company, and the more you are in the ‘driving seat’ for your career (as sup-

posed to some HR person!).

So seek out projects that develop your skills and get some training where you can.

At Finding Petroleum / Digital Energy Journal, we are playing our part, doing our bit (“here for

deeper knowledge and wider opportunities!”), committed to keeping our colleagues up-to-date,

even through the current Hard Times cycle our industry is experiencing.

*Sunday Telegraph article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/12103405/The-drip-drip-of-oil-explorer-casualties-is-only-just-beginning.html

1February / March 2016 - digital energy journal www.d-e-j.com

Hard Timesby David Bamford

Issue 59 February / March 2016

Subscriptions: £250 for personal subscription, £795 for corporate subscription.

E-mail: [email protected]

Printed by Printo, spol. s r.o., 708 00 Ostrava-Poruba, CzechRepublic. www.printo.cz

Front cover art by Alex McKenzie, artist, Digital Energy Journal

Future Energy Publishing Ltd39-41 North Road, London, N7 9DP, UKwww.d-e-j.com Tel +44 (0)208 150 5292Fax +44 (0)207 251 9179

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ProductionWai [email protected]

Digital Energy Journal shares expertise about how toget more value from digital technology in the upstreamoil and gas industry David Bamford is a consultant with Petromall Ltd

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3February / March 2016 - digital energy journal

Leaders

Optimising production without simulatorsStart-up company Solution Seeker has an aim to make it possible to optimise production without using complex productionsimulators which, the company says, often get left on the shelf after they have been purchased

Oil and gas companies have been using com-

plex production simulators for many years,

which model all of the flows in the wells and

topside equipment, and can be used to calcu-

late the optimum settings of the valves, and

support ‘what-if’ studies, for example try to

work out what the effect on the whole system

will be if you open a choke valve slightly.

The problem with production simulators is

that they are often too difficult to use, said

Vidar Gunnarud, CEO of Solution Seeker.

He was speaking at the Finding Petroleum

Stavanger forum on December 3, “Trans-

forming Offshore Operations with Data”.

To use a production simulator, “you need ex-

pertise about the field, expertise about the

simulator, which is a complex piece of soft-

ware, and on top of that you have the optimi-

sation algorithms,” he said.

It is powerful software, but the downside is

that “it is just really tricky. Many places it is

used less and less and just put on the shelf, I

think that's common,” he said.

Without a production simulator, all produc-

tion engineers have to work on is the produc-

tion data itself – looking at the production

flowrates and temperatures, and fiddling with

the settings to try to get an improvement in

flow.

This is not an ideal situation either. “Some-

times it is trivial to work out the best settings,

sometimes it is not,” Mr Gunnerud said.

The reservoir is continually changing, and the

surface equipment may be changing, for ex-

ample if sections of plant are being main-

tained.

“One way of operating the field may be opti-

mal one week, the next a bit different. It

makes the sweet spot for operating the field

move around.”

Solution Seeker aims to take the latest aca-

demic thinking in cybernetics (communica-

tion and control theory) to work out ways that

the data generated downhole can be directly

used to understand and improve flow.

As an example (explained in more detail

below), its algorithms can get an understand-

ing of the flow from an individual well,

where flow is commingled with others, and

the only flowmeter is downstream of the co-

mingling.

Solution Seeker commercialises technology

developed from academic research work at

the Integrated Operations Center in Trond-

heim, an organisation sponsored by The Re-

search Council of Norway, Norwegian

University of Science and Tchnology

(NTNU), research organisation SINTEF and

the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE).

Optimising production

Production engineers do not have many op-

tions to improve production – most com-

monly they can adjust the ‘choke’ (a valve

located at the well head to adjust the flow of

fluids from a well), or they can adjust gas lift

parameters (the amount of gas being pumped

into a well to help bring up the fluids), or the

power of a downhole electrical submersible

pump (ESP).

The input data is information about the wells

(flow rates, temperatures and pressures,

choke position, gas lift rate).

Sometimes you don’t have flow rates from in-

dividual wells, because flow from a number

of wells is co-mingled, and the flowmeter is

further downstream.

Production engineers study the data and see if

they can spot any trends. Then they look for

ways to tweak valves and pumps to see if pro-

duction can be improved by 1-2 per cent, to

get a better balancing of production system

constraints.

Simplifying optimisation

Solution Seeker’s approach is to find ways

production engineers can work directly with

well data to do optimisations, without having

to use a complex production simulator.

The computer software automatically gener-

ates data driven models for different types of

fields, and these are improved continuously.

The data driven models are generated from

analysis of historical production data, which

is usually stored in data ‘historians’ such as

OSISoft’s “PI”.

It uses advanced data processing techniques

developed by cybernetics to clean noise out

of the data, and spot patterns in it.

The data processing techniques can also com-

press the data to about 0.1 per cent of its orig-

inal size, taking the most useful elements out

of it, and this data file is then much easier to

work with.

Instead of calculating the optimised settings,

it helps you understand the direction, which is

“much simpler”, he said.

The software can propose production experi-

ment which will generate useful data. It all

helps to improve the ‘information content’ in

the data, so it can help people make decisions.

The virtual well test

One particularly useful process, summarised

above, is for an oil company which has a

number of wells with the flow commingled

together, and it is only able to directly meas-

ure the flow downstream of the co-mingling,

in other words it doesn’t know what the flow

from the individual wells is.

Solution Seeker’s method is to close and open

the choke valve slightly (by 1-2 per cent),

over a time cycle (open and close) of 6-8

hours, with the test carried out over 20-24

hours. This is basically putting a sine wave

signal into one of the production streams.

This will lead to a small change in commin-

gled production flow.

Using mathematical techniques based around

the Fourier Transform (which can convert

fixed parameters into wave data and vice

versa), and analysing the commingled flow

rate, the software can make a good estimate

of the flow from the individual well.

Further information is on a YouTube video at

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgwcH4d2cgo

Read our full report from our Stavangerconference at www.bit.ly/TOOStavDec15

Making it easier to opti-mise production with asimulator - Vidar Gun-narud, CEO of SolutionSeeker

Increased production through better utilization of production

system bottlenecks. ProductionCompass: A new decision support tool for your production engineer

Solution Seeker presents a novel concept aimed at extracting this untapped potential. An annual

production increase of 1-2 % can sum up to more than USD 60 mill (500 million NOK) for a

single large asset. A recent study on actual production data from a typical field in Norway

showed that one single recommendation from ProductionCompass would have resulted in

additional production worth USD 15 000 (120 000 NOK) per day.

OPTIMIZE your daily production

The oil industry has come a long way in establishing efficient production routines. However, there is still a great

potential to squeeze out more barrels by making fine-tuned production decisions on a daily basis.

“SIMPLIFY &

AUTOMATE”

The innovation lies in better utilization of historical and real-time production data through advanced analytics, data

learning techniques and a smart simplification of the production optimization problem. This enables a higher

degree of tailor made automation and better decision support for your expert personnel, ensuring continuous and

sustainable use of the technology, available to a broader user base.

MORE INFORMATION in your data

It is a well-established fact that gathering information

about your production system can be very costly, e.g.

performing shutdown well tests or installing expensive

multiphase meters. Updated and accurate information

is a prerequisite for rate allocation and being able to

perform daily production optimization.

Solution Seeker has developed a neat set of concepts

and tools that aim to reduce the cost of gathering

information about your production without the need

to invest in any new and expensive hardware, made

possible through the application of “big data” and

machine learning techniques.

Acknowledge the UNCERTAINTY

How wells respond to operational change is inherently

uncertain. Solution Seeker acknowledges this

uncertainty, and is developing innovative ways to

calculate and represent this uncertainty in the

recommendations to better assist decision makers in

oil producing assets.

Preliminary tests of ProductionCompass have already

shown how uncertainty gives the information another

dimension, and ultimately helps oil companies to

save money, e.g. by cutting shutdown test lengths or

better utilizing test separator capacity.

As with everyone else in the oil and gas in-

dustry, the low oil price has brought upon

challenging times to PETRONAS.

“We must improve by changing the way we

work, to remain competitive and relevant in

the current market place” said Ghaffar

Dawam, head of integrated operations with

PETRONAS Operational Excellence Divi-

sion, speaking at Digital Energy Journal's

conference in Kuala Lumpur on October 6,

2015, "Doing More with Engineering Data".

“Operational Excellence is a central impera-

tive to drive through fundamental improve-

ments in the way operations function, striking

down costs through efficiency and simplify-

ing the way we do business; exemplifying a

world-class working culture and integration

across business and support functions,” he

said.

“As we head into prolonged tough times, op-

erational excellence is key to the organization

to address these set of challenges.”

The PETRONAS IO Centre was developed

with the objective of promoting collaborative

working environment to enable integration of

multi-disciplinary and cross-functional ex-

pertise from various domains to deliver im-

proved production performance through

quicker, transparent and more informed deci-

sion-making.

The centre provides complete collaboration

facilities and advanced networking visualiza-

tion equipment supported by latest technol-

ogy and systems, promoting the most

effective way of collaboration across business

value streams through learn, share and act to-

gether.

There are four fundamental themes driving

corporate aspirations for the PETRONAS IO

Centre, he said: advantage, integration, col-

laboration and continuous improvement.

PETRONAS IO Centre employs an enter-

prise-wide standardized operating model that

embodies upstream Operational Excellence

themes, and also serves as a catalyst for

change.

Advantage

“We develop advantage in our decision-mak-

ing by understanding how the people,

process, and technology pieces fit together,”

Mr Ghaffar said.

“As example in the business workflow for

Opportunity Management system, we com-

plete from registration of the opportunity to

realizing the gain.”

“The important thing to note here is the map-

ping out of processes and technologies. This

gives us a view of how these are interrelated

across the workflow.”

“Opportunity Identification is an example of

where applying LEAN principles has enabled

bringing together people, process and tech-

nology as well as unlocking business value to

optimize execution. The approach to perform-

ance management and common metrics se-

cures business adoption and standard

terminology across business units in how the

company manages its business.”

Measuring business performance and looking

for opportunities to improve is a key advan-

tage to operations, he said. Providing a com-

mon set of metrics for measuring business

performance also enables an enhanced ability

to secure opportunities, improve process and

ways of working.

Business Transformation is like turning a

ship: the people at the front can see the

change but the people at the back may not no-

tice for a while, he said.

The goal is therefore to instil common ways

of working and practices into the corporate

culture to make this a reality.

Integration

This subject area is looked at differently than

just standard IT integration, it is multi-dimen-

sional covering the five elements of Integra-

tion Opportunities; Business and Operational;

Cross functional value; Integrated teams,

leadership and effort; Enterprise wide process

workflows, he said.

Operational linkages are the key to bring

these elements into alignment, he said. Un-

derstanding how disciplines and domains are

interrelated in the upstream value chain pres-

ents opportunities for integration.

Collaboration

A shared common understanding and aware-

ness introduces many opportunities for col-

laboration within the context of an approach

driven by standardization.

The first point of awareness in the

PETRONAS IO Centre is the information

provided on the screens, which is a new op-

portunity within the organization for cross-

functional teams.

Using these information sources we were able

to demonstrate opportunities for collaboration

and encourage different departments to en-

gage into a new approach of working against

a common objective linked to shared business

metrics.

Continuous Improvement

“Continuous improvement in our case is

striving to move our decision-making activi-

ties earlier in the month, leveraging informa-

tion availability and technology to become

proactive rather than reactive,” he said.

“By decreasing the timeframe to influence

change, operations can leverage the capability

to move from a reactive position to proactive

ways of working.”

Moving to a proactive position allows im-

proved team utilization and a shift of effort

more evenly across the months.

A small increase of activity earlier in the

month will significantly decrease the ‘fire-

fighting’ activities at the end of the

month.


Leaders

A new integrated operations centre at PETRONASPETRONAS has recently launched the Integrated Operations (IO) Centre at PETRONAS, Kuala Lumpur in conjunction withthe Operational Excellence conference. It should help manage the cost of decision making in the current difficult economicmarket. Encik Ghaffar Dawam, head of Integrated Operations with PETRONAS Operational Excellence conference, sharedon the latest news.

Read our full report from our KualaLumpur conference at ww.bit.ly/KL15day2

The themes ofPETRONAS IO are advan-tage, integration, collabo-ration and continuousimprovement - GhaffarDawam, head of inte-grated operations withPETRONAS

6 digital energy journal - February / March 2016

Leaders

The case for ‘Integrated Engineering’Better ‘integrated engineering’ in greenfield projects could lead to big improvements in efficiency and safety, said ColinWilliams from IBM

Better ‘integrated engineering’ for greenfield

projects could help produce assets which are

much easier to operate and manage, and keep

in compliance with regulations, said Colin

Williams from IBM.

He was speaking at Digital Energy Journal's



Companies are putting a lot of effort in ‘inte-

grated operations’ but not so much in ‘inte-

grated engineering operations’, he said.

A greenfield project development starts with

an oil company communicating its require-

ments to an engineering, procurement and

construction company.

The work starts simply, but the need for ‘inte-

grated engineering’ starts to arise when any

changes need to be made. They need to be

carefully tracked, including the ‘ripple effect’

of everything they impact, he said. A more

structured communication between operators

and EPCs would help.

The end result of most new build processes is

that “We have fragmented pieces of data

defining what needs to be built. We create an

asset specification and say we will go to dif-

ferent suppliers for different parts of it. Then

we find that different parts don’t interoper-

ate,” he said.

Documents in boxes

When a newly built item is ‘handed over’ to

the operator, the usual way to do it is supply

an enormous volume of documents in boxes.

These documents, along with the e-mails and

documents created while the asset was being

built, contain the information which the oper-

ator must use to make sure the asset is com-

pliant with changing regulation for the next

60 or so years it is in operation.

“I’ve asked asset owners, where are your

technical requirements for this asset? They

take me to a little room, there’s boxes of doc-

uments. What happens if there’s a change?

How do I find out what I need to do to me

compliant?”

Systems engineering

The ‘integrated engineering’ approach, which

is sometimes known as ‘systems engineering’,

means you take a system wide view of what

needs to be designed and how it should be op-

erated.

From this system wide view, you can create

design specifications and other types of attrib-

utes, and a model of data and information

which is needed.

“So when you come to inspection, commis-

sioning, shipyards, it actually works as one,

not as many different parts,” he said.

Each new requirement can be confirmed with

an inspection. “It keeps us compliant through

the lifecycle of the asset,” he said.

When you sign something off, you can say

with confidence, it met the requirements for

the development, and conformed to industry

standards, he said.

“We can make sure the asset we’re going to

develop is aligned to industry standards. The

various modules, including topside, subsea,

moorings and wells, all work together prop-

erly.

Oil and gas engineers are starting to study

systems engineering in university, he said. “It

will become a core competence within indus-

try for years to come.”

“A fragmented design, standing on its own,

will not work in an integrated picture,” he

said. That's why systems engineering is so im-

portant.”

“It’s not just about the tools, it’s about the

mindset of the individuals within the organi-

sation to drive the transforming to make

major improvements, the will to succeed,” he

said.

Digital view

A systems engineering approach will lead to

you having an accurate ‘digital view’ of how

the asset is specified, designed, built and

maintained, he said.

If you want to do modifications, you can use

this ‘digital view’ to do an ‘impact analysis’ to

work out what might be affected, he said.

If you want to make a change to a platform,

for example increasing operating pressure

from 15,000 psi to 20,000 psi, you need to un-

derstand what the change is and what compo-

nents I need to change,” he said.

If there are changes to legislation, you can use

the data to work out if the asset will be com-

pliant to new rules.

If you have the data in a database rather than

on documents, this can be done in a few sec-

onds, rather than taking months, he said.

You can also use this data to review any

changes in the design. “Operators can keep

control of what is being built, and help EPCs

keep control of their costs. There is one single

truth of data. Everybody can discuss and

make approvals.”

Re-using data

The industry could be much better at building

knowledge. “How many times in this industry

do we start from scratch when we build a new

platform? A lot,” he said.

“80 per cent of current engineering assets can

be re-used again in a structured manner.”

“Being able to re-use engineering design over

and over again, and standardise the way we

build things, will mean a huge impact on the

cost. We don't have to re-engineer again, we

don't have to think again. The quality

will be a lot better. Re-use is a major

component of operational efficiency.”

Read our full report from our KualaLumpur conferencehttp://www.bit.ly/KL15day2

Explaining integrated engineering - Colin Williams, IBM


Subsurface

Putting data science into perspectiveTo add value, data science needs to be used together with domain expertise, said Philip Lesslar of PETRONAS, illustratinghis point with a case study using data science to analyse data on fossils, in order to better understand the subsurface

There is a lot of hype about data science at

the moment, but it is something which scien-

tists and oil and gas companies have been

doing for many years, said Philip Lesslar,

Principal Consultant, Regulatory Compliance

and Technical Assurance, Technical Data at

PETRONAS.

He was speaking at Digital Energy Journal’s


2015, “Doing More with Subsurface, Produc-

tion and Drilling Data”.

“The idea of data science is not new, just the

way it is being packaged.”

A common myth is that data science can re-

place the need for human expertise and struc-

tured data management, he said. “I want to

put that myth at rest,” he said.

To illustrate this point, Mr Lesslar presented a

case study of an oil company project from

1987, to create a consistent and objective way

of better working with data about fossils

found in well cuttings. The task required both

high level knowledge of fossils, and high

level knowledge of data science.

Oil and gas companies are working with an

increasing range of data types, and the vol-

ume of data and the resolution of data is in-

creasing.

“There is a school of thought that you can just

throw analytics at this data,” he said. “The

answer is yes and no, we have to tread very

carefully.”

“Some people think we can replace all data

managers just with data scientists. Data sci-

ence is a subset of data management, not the

other way around,” he said.

Commercial hydrocarbons are getting hard to

find. We have been saying that for many

years, and it is still getting harder, he said.

To make better decisions, the business needs

timely access to better data, and it needs to do

faster analysis of data earlier in the value

chain, he said.

Better data can also create connections which

trigger new ideas and concepts, he said.

Data science is “still an emerging field,” he

said. “It is not well defined as an academic

subject. The interest in data science has risen

as a result of ‘big data’”, he said.

The topic ‘data science’ can include a range

of subjects, including data visualisation, ma-

chine learning, mathematics, statistics and do-

main expertise. Of these, statistics and

mathematics are particularly important, he

said.

Statistical techniques aim to help make sense

out of diverse data, such as regression analy-

sis.

Mathematics can include mathematical meth-

ods to help you make decisions in the face of

uncertainty.

Visualisation is about communicating infor-

mation clearly and effectively, and also mak-

ing information easier to work with, for

example showing patterns visually.

Fossil distribution

Mr Lesslar presented a case study of a project

from 1987 to use data about the distribution

of fossils to try to better understand the sub-

surface.

The study focussed on fossils of foraminifera,

which are single celled marine organisms,

which can be both floaters (planktonic) and

bottom dwellers (benthonic). They are usu-

ally about 400 microns in size, and there are

many different types of them.

Previously interpretations on ‘forams’ were

done by humans, and was therefore subjec-

tive and not always consistent and compara-

ble.

The study aimed to develop a "quantitative

reference matrix" of foraminifera occurrences

for paleo environmental classification.

In other words (roughly speaking) it would be

a means of identifying depositional paleo

environments of samples from analysing the

foraminifera in them, based on other samples

which had a similar mix of foraminifera.

Because the number of species are so large, it

is very hard to do with human interpretation.

But the computer analysis can calculate clus-

ters - groups of foraminifera which are more

likely to be present in certain formations.

Benthonic foraminifera are sensitive to envi-

ronmental conditions, or in other words their

presence or absence will reflect the “paleo en-

vironment”, ie the condition that piece of

rock has been in, over geological time.

Mr Lesslar did an analysis of rock samples

from 250 wells in Malaysian waters and the

South China Sea. This included 100 samples

from each well, and finding between 20 and

250 different species in each sample, average

of 120.

This multiplies to about 3m species occur-

rences altogether.

The data was analysed using cluster analysis,

which is “one of the more important tech-

niques in the whole array of what data scien-

tists do,” he said.

Cluster analysis enables us to visualise ‘n-di-

mensional’ data using a ‘dendogram’ or tree

diagram. The clustering looks at ‘measures of

proximity’, how close one group of samples

is to another group.

From a geological point of view, rock sam-

ples with a similar mix of foraminifera proba-

bly have a similar history in how they were

formed.

The larger the data set is, the more sure you

can be about the patterns.

“That's the power of doing cluster analysis,”

he said.

“You end up being able to make probabilistic

calculations, saying that for a certain paleo-

environment, the probability of a certain

species being present is x.”

“The idea of data sci-ence is not new, just theway it is being pack-aged” - Philip Lesslar,principal consultant,Regulatory Complianceand Technical Assur-ance, Technical Data,PETRONAS


Subsurface

Paradigm App Exchange - free exchange ofpetrophysical and well log analysis toolsSubsurface software company Paradigm has launched ‘App Exchange’, an online service for free exchange of specialpetrophysical or well log analysis tools or ‘apps’ developed by users

Subsurface software company Paradigm has

developed ‘App Exchange’, a new online

service at app.pdgm.com, where you can up-

load and download your own tools which

can do something special with Paradigm’s

software.

The service is initially developed for Para-

digm’s “Geolog”, but will be extended to

other Paradigm products depending on the

level of interest, because most of Paradigm’s

software offers some level of customisation

potential.

For example, the App Exchange has some

user driven apps to quality control and repair

certain types of logs, tools to predict perme-

ability using ‘genetic algorithms’ and tools

to calculate the brittleness of rocks based on

elastic properties or their mineralogical com-

position.

There are tools to calculate a bed boundary

flag and eliminate incorrect data, and a tool

to calculate porosity saturation, “handling

problems that can occur in an interpreta-

tion due to variable grain density of the

reservoir.”

Most of the tools are better ways to under-

stand well logs. Three are also tools to

analyse core photographs.

Other apps include tools to share ‘Ternary

Diagrams’ which are used to show the phase

behaviour of a mixture of 3 substances (such

as gas, oil and air), which can then be corre-

lated with rock behaviour.

Or it could be used to share knowledge

about what happens at ‘bed boundaries’ in a

subsurface model, where one type of rock

changes to another one. Having a clear

knowledge of bed boundaries could be use-

ful in trying to establish the top of reservoirs.

Most of the people who build these tools

would consider themselves more “petro-

physicists than ‘programmers”, says Urvish

Vashi, technology marketing executive, Par-

adigm.

To build the tools needs some knowledge of

scripting (how to put a sequence of instruc-

tions together).

Data analysed in Geolog can then be brought

into Paradigms’ “SKUA-GoCad” subsurface

modelling software, where it can be brought

together with other well and seismic data.

Sharing apps

The service grew out of Paradigm’s user

group meetings, where it was common to see

customers opening their laptops and showing

other users the apps they have written, Mr

Vashi says.

The system is on a no-fee basis, on the basis

that it benefits everybody if tools and knowl-

edge are more widely shared. “We are evalu-

ating how viable this sort of approach can

be.”

“We have given the power of customisation

to customers. “We want to expose the bene-

fits to more of our customers,” he says.

“Our earliest feedback from users is very

positive, we hope the library will become

unmanageably large,” he says.

The business model of openly sharing soft-

ware is something arguably very new to the

oil and gas industry, although of course soft-

ware programmers have been sharing their

work freely for decades as ‘open source’.

Many companies including Google and

Facebook are also making use of open

source methods, Mr Vashi says.

Software can be kept proprietary if it gives

you a competitive advantage, but otherwise

you can take advantage of the network ef-

fect, he says.

“Every time there's an occurrence you calcu-

late the positive probabilityOf it being present

or absent,” he said.

The final “identification matrix” covered 411

different species and 13 depositional environ-

ments with a probability for each (ie a proba-

bility of species no 200 being in environment

no 7).

By assimilating and statistically organising

the total set of sample data, the software can

then generate a ‘probabilistic matrix’, ie say

that a certain environment would have a cer-

tain probability of certain species being pres-

ent.

“A probabilistic computer assisted interpreta-

tion system that would remove the inconsis-

tency associated with human interpretation

was developed.”

So for a new well, if you can take samples

and see what ‘forams’ are in it, the computer

can tell you which formations that well is

likely to have been drilled through.

This could all help the seismic interpreters in

understanding what they are looking at.

Read our full report from our KualaLumpur conference atwww.bit.ly/KL15day1

Quaestions at Digital Energy Journal’s Kuala Lumpur conference “Doing more with Subsurface, Production and DrillingData


Subsurface

How big data can help reduce costsEd Evans of New Digital Business, explains how big data can help reduce costs and increase finding success in E&PBy Ed Evans, co-founder and managing director, New Digital Business

Like you I have been wondering how big

data can help us to reduce costs or increase

finding success in E&P.

Where might the big data story provide ben-

efits to the exploration managers newly con-

strained by tighter economics or the asset

manager who now needs to run the plant and

keep pumping for another 5 years?

These are the systems that make our busi-

ness unique and serve to differentiate one oil

company from its competitors.

I have found that there are tools and tech-

niques which can bring success.

But to be successful we have to apply the

tools, test the results and repeat, working

with the business and the IT experts.

No surprise there really.

The other 'same old, same old' is that the

better organised our data, the more repeat-

able our processes and the more engaged the

team, then the more success we will be able

to count.

If we have well understood challenges, then

big data provides a rapidly evolving set of

tools and techniques which can be consid-

ered for larger scale challenges.

But the solution has to start with the busi-

ness problem not the technology.

Different elements

Big Data is a catch all that resolves into dif-

ferent elements - the "big data" itself, analyt-

ics, storage management (e.g. Hadoop),

cloud, and 'internet of things'.

Big data normally means accumulation of

gigabytes, terabytes and petabytes of trans-

action data, identification data or status data

which is being collected by the enterprise.

Big Data is characterised by the overall ac-

cumulated volume, the velocity at which this

accumulation grows and the variation in

structured and unstructured, data types, for-

mats and values.

Analytics is the process of going through

data in order to find insights through associ-

ations. Are there associations we haven't dis-

covered? The data is analysed and presented

visually, by spreadsheet or by a software ap-

plication.

There are analytics tools and techniques al-

ready in use in our business. You can argue

that a whole range of technical and model-

ling tools are doing this.

Hadoop is a data storage management appli-

cation designed for very large and growing

transactional data sets. It has built in redun-

dancy (failsafe), can use multiple platforms

and self manages the physical and logical

data organisation.

If the big data guy knocking on your door is

just selling Hadoop implementations (and I

suspect this is where most of the compe-

tency lies) then he should talk to IT.

Cloud just means taking your data offsite

and having it stored by someone else. It fits

into the big data story because your vendor

will offer you ever-expanding cloud storage

for your growing data volumes. You will

have faced the same dilemma with family

photos whenever someone gets an iPad for

Christmas – store locally or put in the cloud.

My family is split on the issue.

IOT (Internet of Things) is about connect-

ing and collecting data from objects. This

could be a package being delivered to a re-

mote site or a downhole completion which

can monitor temperate and pressure. More

objects will have tags and will be sending or

recording data to be collected and examined.

New data streams, different data types and

growing quickly.

Gathering and modelling data

Many operations and activities in oil and gas

are concerned with modelling data and col-

lecting big data sets from the field.

Many oil and gas technical specialists are

experts at analysing data and making con-

nections, for example how porosity affects

fluid movement under different conditions

or how a country's political stability affects

economic risk.

As an industry we are pretty good at under-

standing what data we need to collect and

how, in collecting that data, we will better

understand the risk profile for the operation.

There have been big strides in real time data

feeds, automated metering and analysis. But

you won’t find an experienced technician

who wouldn’t say that things could be im-

proved.

If I were in charge of any of a whole range

of E&P operations, my antennae would be

twitching to hear about tools to help with

better production forecasts.

Or tools to help with offshore platform and

machine maintenance at reduced costs but

with more reliability. Tools to help avoid

trouble time while drilling, or manage the in-

tegrity of 20,000 wells across the world,

M&A data screening, field development op-

timisation and so on.

Very little success

There are very few case studies in (techni-

cal) oil and gas showing success that would

be defined as a big data success.

I have been looking. There are many exam-

ples of analytics, technical data management

and getting to grips of data flows in decision

making which apply the same thinking.

If we were to develop a production opera-

tions centre today there is no doubt we

would evaluate tools and techniques which

have been developed under this banner.

The continued development of technical

systems and data handling has always been

exploited in a kind of a bumpy way by E&P.

The technology doesn’t drive the need to

change but the business need does.

The industry already uses 'bigdata' to help experts do theirwork - make production fore-casts, improve machinery reli-ability, avoid trouble whiledrilling, writes Ed Evans ofNew Digital Business

Production operations


Engie Norway (previously GDF Suez E&P

Norge) has been using Siemens’ “COMOS”

plant engineering software on the Gjøa pro-

duction platform, for all daily operations, for

the past 5 years.

“Basically, we're happy,” said Tor Ove

Holsen, leader document and information

management with Engie, speaking at the

Finding Petroleum Stavanger forum on De-

cember 3, “Transforming Offshore Opera-

tions with Data”.

Mr Holsen was asked if there have been any

difficulties with the software. “Yes we have,”

he replied, “but you kind of forget when

everybody turns out happy in the end.”

The heavier users are the ‘technical organisa-

tion’, such as maintenance and engineering

staff. The system is also used by operations

staff – onshore and offshore.

The software is used for managing lifecycle

data (the ‘Technical Data Library’), and plan-

ning maintenance. The platform is only five

years old, so there isn’t much new engineer-

ing and project development going on.

As leader of document and Information Man-

agement for Gjøa, Mr Holsen’s role is

‘owner’ of the Technical Data Library part of

COMOS.

The company is using software version 9.2

and is testing version 10.0 at the moment.

COMOS is used both onshore and offshore,

with a common database.

It helps that Gjøa is located close enough to

shore to run a communications cable out to it,

as well as an electrical cable. “[Communica-

tions] speed is OK, it is do-able,” he said.

Because the platform is very young, not many

modifications are required. But the company

would probably have implemented the soft-

ware in a similar way if there was big modifi-

cation work going on, he said.

Users work on it via normal desktop comput-

ers in an office environment, not in a collabo-

ration centre.

Background

Statoil managed the development of the plat-

form and field, between 2006 and 2010, pro-

viding Engie (then called GDF Suez) with all

of the information provided as ‘non intelli-

gent’ documents rather than data which can

be easily integrated and indexed, Mr Ove

Holsen said.

Engie loaded Statoil’s data into the Siemens

COMOS software. Work to implement the

software started in early 2009, going live in

2010.

The initial work involved redrawing over 600

piping and instrumentation diagrams, pro-

vided by Statoil as flat pdf files, into data

files, he said.

The same task had to be done for over 5,000

instrumentation loop diagrams.

Once the diagrams have been described as

data, the system can generate a Piping and In-

strumentation Diagram (P+ID) whenever it is

required, similar to the way electronic map

software can create a map from a live data-

base.

The main benefit of COMOS is that it offers

‘intelligence’, in that it can provide more

value from the documents by being able to

connect them together and understand the re-

lationships between them.

“To use COMOS you need to use the

‘COMOS intelligence’. If you don't, I don't

see any special reason for using COMOS,” he

said.

It is possible to set up a system like COMOS

for a plant which is already in operation, but

it is still a major task, which can be difficult,

he said.

New functionalityEngie built some new software functionality

for COMOS.

This included a ‘red line’ mark-up system to

show changes – for example, if a door is

changed so it opens outwards rather than in-

wards.

Also a ‘safety critical document’ workflow

ensuring safety critical documents are han-

dled quicker than others.

Master Data Library

The core function is as a ‘master data library’

storing the company’s master record about the

plant, which everybody can access.

The system contains 130,000 tags (lists of in-

formation about specific pieces of equip-

ment).

The master database can be updated directly

by the company’s modification contractor and

instrumentation contractor. “For us, it’s a ne-

cessity they work [on the software] directly,”

he said.

Uploading new data to the library is a task

which needs to be handled very carefully.

“You have to know everything you need to

know before you start, and you never do.”

It is very important to track how information

is being uploaded and where it goes, he said.

“If you fail, you have a huge clean-up prob-

lem.”

Maintenance

COMOS is used to plan, organise and keep

track of maintenance work on the platform.

All work orders are managed through

COMOS, including inspections, modifica-

tions to work orders. The software generates

70,000 work orders every year for mainte-

nance.

It integrates with company’s SAP human re-

sources system for creating new users, and in-

tegrates with SAP for materials management.

Gjøa IM “basically happy” with Siemens COMOSEngie (formerly GDF Suez E&P Norge) has been using Siemens’ “COMOS” software on its Gjøa platform for the last 5 years.The verdict from information manager Tor Ove Holsen is “basically we’re happy”


Running COMOSplant engineeringsoftware on the Gjøaplatform: Tor OveHolsen, leader docu-ment and informationmanagement, Engie



Siemens’ COMOS - everyone uses the same dataOne of the most useful aspects of Siemens’ “COMOS” plant information software is that it makes it easy to use the samepiece of data for different purposes, explained Thomas AnderssonSiemens’ plant information software

“COMOS” is built around a single database

where all data related to the same asset in the

plant forms a unit – an object. The same ob-

ject is then used through the whole lifecycle,

across disciplines and work processes to

manage data and documents.

All this data can be used in many different

ways by engineering, operations and mainte-

nance staff, said Thomas Andersson, pre-

sales engineer, COMOS, speaking at the

Finding Petroleum forum in Stavanger on

December 3, “Transforming Offshore Opera-

tions with Data”.

You could have a ‘traditional’ multi database

set up of information systems, where search-

ing for information will result in duplicates,

various unchangeable formats and even con-

tradicting information. In other words poor

data quality and availability for the end user.

Or you could have a more sophisticated sys-

tem where the object is the same regardless

if you look at it in the 3D model, in a docu-

ment or in the hierarchical data view. Users

can then find the object, for example a

pump, in the 3D model, and bring up data

about it. Examples of such data can be com-

missioning status, modification in parallel

projects or operational as work permits or

running hours.

Navigating from the pump to its representa-

tion of a Piping and Instrumentation Dia-

gram (P+ID) is done via a simple mouse

click. The same navigation technique is used

to follow the pumps relation to other plant

data. For example navigation can be made to

the pump on the system control diagram

(SCD), the single line representation of the

power supply, to the spare parts or to the risk

assessment.

There is still a need for manage documents

in a data-centric plant information system,

such as the configuration file for a frequency

converter, manuals, photos, etc. These docu-

ments are naturally stored with the object

keeping all data tied to the object and avail-

able at the fingertips of the user.

Maintenance management

The maintenance management system in

COMOS utilises the

same objects in the

same database adding

on additional infor-

mation into the ob-

ject.

Maintenance planners

can define a mainte-

nance strategy for

each component, for

example whether it

should have condition

monitoring, and

whether it should be

‘run to failure’ or re-

placed according to a

regular schedule.

You can make an assessment of the likeli-

hood of failure and consequence for different

items, which could be used to generate a risk

priority index, how critical a failure would

be. All data used in the assessment is avail-

able and stored on the object thus adding

more data to the same object as used in engi-

neering.

The software can automatically generate

‘work packages’, lists of work which need to

be done by a certain person or in a certain

week, with all of the relevant information

taken from the databases, he said.

It contains information about what kind of

material you need, what equipment, whether

you need to reserve certain equipment or

certain specially qualified people to do the

work.

If you need to do a risk assessment as part of

planning a maintenance task, the data is

readily available from the objects and check-

lists such as safe job analysis or base posi-

tion lists.

When having all data in a maintainable for-

mat, it is then very easy to drill down and

work with the data, twisting it into a context

that 'is relevant for the current user.”

Built in tools for data management such as a

query tool, report designer and status man-

agement ensures efficient management of

data for both retrieval and update. Status can

for example visualised with colour-coding

showing the status in the hierarchical struc-

ture, on 2D drawings and in the 3D model.

In one example, for a shutdown on a piece of

equipment, you can select the item on a 2D

diagram, and generate data about the stan-

dard operating procedure for the work, and

then compile and practise the procedure in

the training simulator.

Value

Value for users is that data is available at

their fingertips regardless of source and as

objects are modified the old documents are

modified, migrated or replaced creating even

more value for future use.

You can have a hybrid solution with some of

your data in different formats at the same

time, new and old together. “That is the case

for most installations,” he said.

Building it

When implementing a new plant information

system, it is good to start with a ‘base’ creat-

ing the fundamental data model, and then

implement and release small functionalities

at a time on top of that, such as a commis-

sioning system, P&ID, datasheets.

“Our strategy is not to go all in in those full

big bang implementations, especially since

our systems supports stepwise configuration

and is only using a single database.” he said.

“Having an open configurable platform as

COMOS gives our customers a foundation

to make data work.”

How do you like to see pump information – on a piping and instrumentation diagram (cen-tre) or on a 3D model (right?) Probably, both views are useful

Get the most from your investments in people and data. Timely, trusted, granular and integrated data on an open platform transforms the way oil and gas operators manage their resources.

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teradata.com/oilandgas

In a customer survey, oil and gas operators

say that the most important activities in pro-

duction operations are process safety man-

agement, maintenance, reliability,

modifications, said Jens Olav Nordanger,

sales manager of Intergraph.

“If you want to be good at this you need to

have good quality and trustworthy informa-

tion,” he said.

One research company established that hav-

ing poor data costs a company the equivalent

of 1.5 per cent of annual sales, Mr Nordanger

said.

These costs could be further segmented into

operational delays, reduction in availability,

modification projects more expensive, more

expensive maintenance costs, plus an impact

on safety.

“It is something that has an impact to our day

to day business,” he said.

“A lot of companies have a vision where you

have a trusted source of data that you can re-

use, all linked together,”

But in most plants today, “a lot of the docu-

mentation is not up to date, and scattered

around different sources,” he said.

SmartPlant Fusion

Intergraph produces the “SmartPlant Fusion”

software, which is designed to help compa-

nies integrate all of their existing ‘old’ data

and documents.

There are tools to compare different versions

of documents to help you work out which one

is the ‘master’.

Once you’ve identified a ‘master’, it will

search the document to find the objects men-

tioned (pumps for example) and then link to

other documents which mention the same

item.

Once everything is indexed you can see

where your gaps and inconsistencies are. You

can have a single point of access.

Doing more with data

The technology can be used together with

laser scan data.

By combing structured data with laser scan

data, you can see the tag numbers of individ-

ual components shown up together with a

laser scanned image of them, and then click

to bring up the relevant documents.

This could be part of a workflow, such as

choosing an item to do maintenance on,

clicking on it, and generating a work order

and maintenance instructions.

Integration with mobile

For field work, Intergraph has created a mo-

bile tool which can be used to report observa-

tions. Observations can be photographed or

written down and entered into the system.

The same system can be used for carrying

and displaying documents related to the task

you are doing. You can ‘drag and drop’ rele-

vant documents onto the mobile device, and

then view them offline when you go out to

the field.

New data can be uploaded when you get back

to the office.

As an example, imagine a field worker find-

ing a leaking valve, then creating a report on

his handheld computer.

He can use a laser scan image of the plant to

identify to his supervisor which valve it is,

and register if the leak is low medium or

high, or add photos if necessary.

The supervisor can tell the maintenance de-

partment that they have a problem with a

valve with a specific tag number, and a plan

can be put into place to fix it.

The supervisor can check the piping and in-

strumentation diagram to see if any of the

piping needs to be isolated before the valve is

repaired and how that should be done.

When a maintenance technician goes to re-

pair the valve, it is easier for him to find the

right valve. When you reach the valve, you

can see the notes by the previous field worker

about what was wrong.

You can mark the problem on a live piping

and instrumentation diagram.

You can see if the line is high pressure, or if

there is any other critical information to

check.

Safety

The software can be used as a basis for so-

phisticated safety management systems.

For example, Intergraph integrates with soft-

ware from Netherlands based eVision Indus-

try Software.

The eVision software can be used to help en-

sure safety when a maintenance task is being

done.

It can pull the permit to work from the com-

pany’s work management system (such as

SAP), and pull relevant data from Intergraph

software, for example the 3D scans, the pip-

ing and instrumentation diagrams, and the

data sheets associated with the valve.

It visualises where the work will take place

on the plant.

You can see if anything is happening nearby

which might add to the risk such as hot work.

There is a step by step ‘wizard’ which will

work out if a new risk assessment is applica-

ble or not.

If the task requires isolation (cutting off flow

of fluids to and from the valve), you can

make an ‘isolation plan’ to do this using the

piping and instrumentation diagram.

You can work out which valves you need to

turn to isolate the leaky valve. You can see all

the isolation points on a 3D model of the

plant.



Intergraph - how plant information can help with safetyThe most important processes in offshore operations are process safety management, maintenance, ensuring reliability, anddoing modifications. Better plant information software can help with all of these, Intergraph says


Showing how better plant information can help manageprocess safety and reliability - Jens Olav Nordanger, salesmanager of Intergraph, and Kasem Challiou - Global Al-liance Manager of eVision Industry Software



Reducing the effect of ‘unplanned situations’Oil and gas companies would really like to use what they have to get more out of current investments. How do we get there?Eldor’s Bjarne Andrè Asheim has some ideas

A pathway to increase production is to re-

duce effects from “unplanned situations” by

using real time data, new modelling and rule

based technology to help operators handle

abnormal situations with limited effect, said

Eldor’s Bjarne Andrè Asheim, speaking at

the Finding Petroleum Stavanger forum on

December 3, “Transforming Offshore Oper-

ations with Data”.

“We need to provide more value to opera-

tions from the data we already have, which

means that we need innovative technology to

preprocess raw data, so that we can deliver

data that gives real time decision support to

operators of these highly complex engi-

neered systems”, he said.

“The overall goal is to deal with all the up-

sets upfront as early as possible.”

Business case

The business argument is that better abnor-

mal situation management could lead to an

increase in production of 5 per cent.

Studies of “abnormal situations” on plants

have shown that they can lead to losses of

between 3 and 10 per cent of total produc-

tion every year, according to the ‘Abnormal

Situation Management Consortium

(ASMC)”, with members including

Chevron, BP, Total, ConocoPhillips, Exxon-

Mobil, Shell and Sasol.

“ASMC studies have also shown that 50 per

cent of unplanned situations are due to lack

of situation awareness, for the control room

operator and for the team around the control

room operator,” he said. “They also say 90

per cent can be preventable.”

Things tend to happen that affect production

and in many cases it´s very difficult for op-

erations to understand complexity of the sit-

uation fast enough to avoid losses, he said.

Software modellingThere have been many advances in software

modelling which can really help.

Software modelling can help to find out the

root causes, not just recognise symptoms, as

alarms do.

For example, “if you have a high pressure on

a tank, the high pressure is not the root, it’s a

symptom of something else. The operator

has to think, what is causing this high pres-

sure, and what should I do.”

Better software will also guide the operator

to the right answer, rather than tell her what

it is.

“We want to show the operator what is the

consequence of what is happening, what will

happen next.”

Compared to, for example, the automobile

industry we´re far behind in preprocessing

data with advanced sensor technology to ad-

vise operators, Mr Asheim said.

Functional modelling

The best method for understanding complex

systems is to use ‘functional modelling’,

which basically breaks the engineered sys-

tem down into functions.

For example, your living room light is a

fairly simple function. If there is no light,

you should be able to find a switch. If the

switch doesn’t turn it on, probably the fuse

is broken.

“We think in functions as human beings.”

“That's also how the operator is thinking

when he is trying to find the reason behind

this high pressure. He is also thinking in

functions. He's not trying to follow the

P&ID,” Mr Asheim said.

So a useful software tool would “model the

means, ends and the goals of functions, we

put these functions together,” he said.

By understanding the functional models,

“we can check the root cause, consequences,

and create a dynamic counteraction plan for

all situations.”

Visual interface

Eldor has also been experimenting hard at

developing more useful ways the informa-

tion can be visualized on screen.

“We have been looking into how informa-

tion can be displayed in a way where we use

the advantages of the human brain” he said.

“We are looking into using symbols instead

of text.”

“Most likely we need more than one user

interface because people are different.

“I've seen that many times, an operator has

one set of screens, there is a shift change,

and the new operator changes nearly all the

displays and are working in a different way.

It is amazing to see,” he said.

You might expect that since both operators

are doing the same task with the same data,

they would want the information to be dis-

played in the same way, but this is not the

case.

Eldor

Eldor is a small engineering company estab-

lished in 2006, focused on the oil and gas

idustry, based in Forus, Stavanger. It em-

ploys around 40 engineers.

The main focus is on telecom, control and

safety systems, industrial IT systems, and

onshore operation center including control

rooms.

The company is currently looking for oil

companies interested in forming a ‘joint in-

dustry project’ to develop software for opti-

mal real time decision support.

You can download Bjarne André’s slides at http://www.findingpetroleum.com/event/6ca14.aspx

A plan for better 'ab-normal situationmanagement' -Bjarne AndréAsheim, managingdirector, Eldor

Delegates at our Stavanger conference "TransformingOffshore Operations with Data"



Engineering software company AVEVA has

put together a new solution ‘AVEVA En-

gage’, designed to help capital project and op-

erations staff make better decisions.

AVEVA Engage brings together many com-

ponents – super large 3D screens with fast

computer processing; 3D models of the off-

shore platform which you can view from any

angle; functionality to bring up any informa-

tion the company has about any item in the

platform by clicking on it; and a database

which is kept continually up to date, or ‘digi-

tal asset’.

So what you see on the screen could also be

described as a “3D information management

repository”.

The 3D model on the screen is ‘driven’ by

AVEVA’s comprehensive engineering data-

base, AVEVA NET.

You can select any tagged object, and then

bring up all of the information about it which

is in the customer’s ‘digital asset’, including

vendor data sheets, maintenance history, work

permits, purchasing information, schematics

and design drawings.

It can be used by anyone who works with off-

shore platforms and equipment, including de-

signers, maintenance technicians and offshore

staff, says Rick Standish, vice president of so-

lution strategy with engineering data com-

pany AVEVA.

The aim is to provide a comprehensive tool to

support decision making, for design review,

modifications, maintenance and operations of

offshore platforms, Mr Standish says.

The system could be used in control rooms

providing quick and relevant information dur-

ing critical operational periods, outages and

emergency response scenarios.

The core philosophy behind all of these prod-

ucts is enabling customers to do more with

the information that they have, and building

and continually maintaining a ‘digital asset’ –

a digital version of the physical asset, with

unified, trusted information, Mr Standish

says.

It is currently common for offshore operators

to have separate systems for visualisation,

document management and data manage-

ment. Now they can be all brought together,

he says.

AVEVA, uses 84 inch size Microsoft Surface

Hub screens in the demonstration, at 4K reso-

lution.

“Using Surface Hub, Engage can provide

photo realistic views of the 3D model,” he

says.

You can view an A0 (84.1 x 118.9cm) sized

engineering drawing without having to zoom

in. You can use Microsoft OneNote’s digital

note taking app together with the software,

and write on drawings with digital pens.

Having a large screen means it is easier for

many people to collaborate on key decision

processes.

You can view the asset in different modes,

such as design view (maximum clarity) or ‘in

context’ (linking to asset documentation and

data on the view of the asset at hand).

The screen has iPad-like touch functionality,

so you can swipe it to look at the model from

different dimensions, and walk through it like

on a computer game. You can select a piece

of equipment and bring up its data.

Laser scan

Recent developments in laser scanning tech-

nology make it much easier to put together up

to date comprehensive plant models, Mr Stan-

dish says.

By automating the data capture process, it has

been possible to capture the 3D condition of

the asset for 80 per cent less cost compared to

traditional survey methods, he said.

Now, some EPCs and owner operators won’t

carry out a brownfield modification project,

no matter how small, unless it has been laser

scanned.

AVEVA has developed patented technology

known as Hyperbubble. With Hyperbubble

you can stitch together the data from multiple

laser scan ‘bubbles’, so you can ‘walk

through’ the plant and look at any item in any

direction.

"Our aim has been to improve visualisation.

We want to present the data to the user in the

optimum format based on the use case.

Whether for reviews, design and engineering

or collaboration tasks," he says.

"Users like the idea of being able to follow a

line from a to b. It is great for working in con-

gested environments."

"We can switch between hyperbubble, bub-

bleview and point cloud, rendering data at 20

frames per second."

There is also technology to automatically

connect the laser scanned model with the

computer drawn model.

AVEVA Engage - can this help offshore decisions?AVEVA has put together new large screen technology, fast graphics processing, and engineering data management to createAVEVA ‘Engage’, a decision making tool for efficient project execution and cost reduction in operations.

It might look like a photograph of a platform, but it’s actually a 3D information management repository

Developing a largescreen tool to help off-shore decision making- Rick Standish, vicepresident of solutionstrategy, AVEVA

Engineering Information as it should be

Doing more for less, faster

Datum360 provides SaaS (software as a service)for projects, operations and decommissioning

Collect, measure, report and share engineering

information during all stages of projects,

operations and handover

Manage and share your engineering information

requirements

Teesside Aberdeen Houston Kuala Lumpur

www.datum360.com T: +44 3333 441 882 E: [email protected]

@Datum360

Datum 360 - creating a structure for engineering dataWe often hear about the problem of engineers keeping information on their own hard drives because they don't trust otherpeople's data or the corporate engineering data. The solution might be to make corporate data more trustworthy. LinWhitworth of Datum360 explained how to do it



We often hear that many engineers spend 70

per cent of their time verifying or ‘sanitising’

information before they can start work on it,

said Lin Whitworth, Director Client Services

with Datum360.

He was speaking at Digital Energy Journal's



For this reason, many engineers also prefer

to build their personal information stores

which they personally trust, rather than work

with data stored on corporate information

stores, he said.

They keep data on their personal computer’s

hard drive, and aim to update it when the

physical asset is changed.

This means that the company does not have

a good company-wide database of what is

going on which everybody can use.

So if you want to improve the company’s en-

gineering data system, one important step is

to improve people’s trust in it.

Gaining trust in engineering data is one of

the most important cultural steps, he said.

Engineering handover standard

The work to gain good engineering data for

an asset in operations starts with the specifi-

cation which the oil company gives to its

EPC (engineering, procurement and con-

struction) company, and its vendors, specify-

ing what data is required for a new asset.

This can be called the “Engineering Han-

dover Standard” (EHS), or a ‘class library’.

There is often misunderstanding between the

project staff (in charge of developing the

new equipment) and operations staff (who

will run it), which leads to a poor EHS, Mr

Whitworth said.

For example, project staff may not believe

that operations know what information they

need, or are able to specify what they need.

Operations staff may not believe that the

project staff will listen to them, and see will

creating good data as an additional burden,

so they just plan to take whatever they are

given and try to work with it.

It would be better if both operations and

project staff could both agree on the same

engineering handover standard, and there

would be dedicated information management

staff to help define it and maintain it, he said.

Mr Whitworth’s company, Datum360, pro-

duces a software as a service (SAAS) solu-

tion called PIM360 which can be used to

build the engineering handover standard

(EHS). This can be given to suppliers so they

know what data the company needs.

The PIM360 is web hosted, so you can easily

make it accessible to anyone who needs to

see it without worrying about corporate fire-

walls, and you can apply ‘management of

change’ to the engineering data when you

need to change it.

The PIM360 service is offered as a subscrip-

tion, which you can subscribe to on a

monthly basis.

Engineering data warehouse(PIM360)

As PIM360 is auto configured by the EHS

it can report compliance and completeness

without any further configuration.

By reporting the gap between delivered data

and the EHS an organisation can decide to

take action in order to avoid delays to start-

up.

Once you have an organised engineering

data warehouse, it is easy to see if any new

data you add is complete, and any new

equipment you add is compliant with regula-

tions.

You can have a structured process for updat-

ing the master information via change func-

tionality in PIM360, thus creating a "for life"

audit trail.

How operations data should be stored can be

“an enormous cultural discussion,” Mr Whit-

worth said.

Data maintenance

Once the asset is in operation, the next chal-

lenge is how the engineering data should be

maintained or updated, every time there is a

change. Otherwise, the quality will gradually

degrade.

A typical challenge could be when you

change one pump for a slightly different one.

There needs to be a way of specifying the

proposed change and showing that as pub-

lished information once the change has been

implemented. There also needs to be an audit

trail showing who made the change and who

approved it.

This audit trail supports the provenance of

the engineering data. Mr. Whitworth believes

that as PIM360 allows engineers to find data

and documents very quickly and presents the

provenance of that data to an engineer, that

over time engineers stop maintaining their

silos and start using the engineering data

warehouse.

Helping make corpo-rate data more trust-worthy - Lin Whitworthof Datum360

Delegates at our Kuala Lumpur conference "Doing more with Engineering Data"

www.siemens.com/comos

COMOS Walkinside 3D visualization training software for offshore production installations

COMOS Walkinside helps create a realistic, engineer-ing-grade virtual environment for operators of off-shore oil and gas production facilities, from topside to subsea systems.

COMOS Walkinside’s Immersive Training Simulator (ITS) enables customized, scenario-driven, 3D workflow simulations for HSE training, emergency drills and SOP rehearsals.

Business Benefits:

• Faster ‘First Oil’

• Reduce ‘Lost Time Incidents’ during Operations

• Reduce Field Operator Travel costs to construction yard

• Rehearse maintenance intervention while still onshore

• Improved safety through training in the as-built envi-ronment

Optimising production without a The case for ‘integrated...

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