A Real Time Chemical Monitoring Platform for Inventory and Usage

Abstract

Abstract Automation for chemical application usage and inventory on offshore platforms and other facilities requires proactive monitoring of surface equipment and application dosage. Non-productive time (NPT) can be the result of system failures or production equipment. Equipment failures or lack of chemical inventory can impact the fixed surface equipment on the rig floor that can also shut down drilling or production operations. Automation systems require real time data to be collated into knowledge to create actionable plans. Automation or management of the complex, software-dependent systems from multiple equipment vendors on the rig floor can therefore be a major proponent of productivity. Automation is beyond the pump sensor or on line monitoring, it is the combination of all sources of the data displayed together. The primary goal of the Real Time Chemical Monitoring System is to automate the chemical inventory and usage, such as dosage, during production in order to reduce equipment downtime and personnel-on-board (POB) requirements while increasing supply chain reliability, safety, regulatory compliance and environmental responsibility. This requires defining application or dosage levels that optimize chemical usage for costs and efficiencies, allowing early identification and intervention for pending lack of inventory and enabling supply chain management to react which takes into account multiple data point factors. The use of chemical inventory and usage monitoring has recently been proven on an offshore production platform and has reached a competent level of capability. The Real Time Chemical Monitoring System (CRTMS) applies best practices derived from numerous known case studies within the digital oilfield and to fixed surface equipment in order to reduce NPT. This solution brings together inventory and usage data from an automated field sensor and data capture network developed to be deployed for offshore operations. It utilizes unique data capture and management tools to monitor the equipment and give alerts when the usage is out of parameters. Results of the data collection are delivered in a web based secure visual dashboard from multiple aggregated data streams. A recent prototype installation utilizes data streams from a major offshore drilling platform with a collection of multiple offshore sensor units and an onshore operational performance center at a leading oilfield operator company to demonstrate the viability of this approach for both offshore and remote onshore operations. The success of this proof of concept demonstrates that disparate data from multiple equipment vendors can be gathered from remote locations, analyzed and distilled into actionable items, and displayed in order to support proactive decisions by a distributed pool of subject matter experts.