How Amoco Approached Automation in West Texas

Abstract

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussions may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines. Abstract Amoco's position in West Texas is rather unique in that we have a high concentration of wells in a relatively small geographical area. This situation caused us to take a different approach to automation from any other in the producing industry that we know of today. Amoco's operations in West Texas include four Area offices and about 5,000 producing and water injection wells which are prime producing and water injection wells which are prime candidates for computerized automation. The basis for our approach to automation in West Texas was developed from information learned from a pilot project in the Smyer Field in Hockley County, Texas. This pilot project was designed to test all applications which reasonably offered an opportunity to reduce labor or accelerate production. As a result of this pilot, we decided that future Amoco operated automation projects in West Texas would be based around the following concepts:Pumpoff Control of Beam Pumped WellsAutomatic Well TestingData GatheringAlarm Monitoring These basic concepts permitted developing modular standard software applicable to all West Texas projects. projects. Once the basic concept for automation in West Texas was established, it was then necessary to develop an optimum computer system for this large number of wells. Economics and other advantages dictated that a Master-Mini, two level, hierarchical computer system would be best. The plan established for automation in West Texas included running multi-conductor cable to each producing well for pumpoff control and monitoring various statuses. It soon became evident that with conventional telemetry equipment available at that time, cabling costs would approach $1,100 to $1,200 per well and would be prohibitive. The obvious way to reduce cabling costs was to increase the number of RTU's which would in turn reduce cabling costs. We finally interested one telemetry vendor in designing and developing a small RTU referred to as a Mini RTU. We believe this was the first telemetry gear actually designed primarily to meet the requirements of oilfield automation.