I-field™ Programs Enable Operational Excellence in a Challenging Environment—Pushing the Limits of Large Data Transfer for Real-Time Monitoring and Surveillance Operations in the San Joaquin Valley

Abstract

Summary Chevron's San Joaquin Valley (SJV) Business Unit (BU) is a mature, heavy-oil, thermally enhanced asset consisting of large fields that have been producing for more than a century. To ensure continuing technology transformation, in 2003 SJV started its own i-field program, being among the first BUs to pursue Chevron's enterprisewide effort in building the Digital Oil Field of the Future. From its initiation, the program has been focusing on creating solutions to manage and optimize operations and enhance recovery. This paper showcases one of the most technologically advanced i-field heavy-oil solutions implemented in SJV thermal assets, involving a high-accuracy-tiltmeter program implemented by a partner service company to advance the understanding of diatomite operations and monitor the surface ground movement. In 2008, Chevron's SJV i-field team partnered with its Information Technology (IT) department to develop a state-of-the-art application called Integrated Diatomite Operations Tool (i-DOT). The product incorporated current field workflows for mapping the grid deformation with business data (well locations and status, steam volumes and dates) in relevant time. This was accomplished by establishing a live connection between Chevron and partner-service-company servers whereby terabytes of grid data would flow seamlessly into Chevron's SJV servers. Data-acquisition, data-processing, and data-storage efforts were accomplished through an integrated effort between IT, geographical information system (GIS), and PetroWeb development teams. Workflows were built through close collaboration between i-field engineers, petroleum engineers, earth scientists, IT professionals, and the operations group. The i-DOT solution has become the single point of operation monitoring and activity scheduling for multiple groups such as Operations, Asset Development, and the Drilling team. The benefits of implementing i-DOT solutions are significant and transformed our decision-making process in diatomite fields. This paper includes not only value creation but also lessons learned during development, deployment, and end-user acceptance.