Management: Use of Real-Time Operations Growing Upstream

Abstract

If a brand new oil field product or service becomes widely used in less than a decade, that is fast. It is no secret that the petroleum industry is conservative when it comes to adopting new technology. With the increasing pressure to maintain supplies from existing fields, however, that is changing. Today, technologies that improve production and reduce risk are more important than ever. You can see this in the growing range of tools and services that employ "real time" capabilities. But what are the benefits to those who adopt these technologies, and is real-time capability alone the key to unlocking additional value for operators? The meaning of "real time" depends on its use. Aircraft controls, for example, are real-time systems that must process data and respond instantaneously with 100% accuracy. If we are referring instead to the credit card reader at a gas pump, the transaction is not instantaneous, but nearly so. Within the upstream oil business, wireline tools provide data almost instantly, and today there are drilling systems that feed back downhole information quickly. Drillers use them to guide the bit, adjusting for the fact that the data they are getting is actually several minutes old. Real-time capability can be defined as the use of digital technology to rapidly transfer field data to individuals or control centers, and the ability of humans or intelligent control devices to respond with equal speed to the data they receive. The benefit is that more efficient systems let operators direct valuable resources to other areas. Incremental Changes Adopting real-time capability is a process of incremental change. In an oil field, the beginning of that journey might be a simple feedback device that tells production operators what they need to know without having to visit their wells every day. At the other end of the spectrum might be an automated system that responds to changing field conditions and makes adjustments on its own. But full automation will not happen overnight. And there is no right or wrong place to be along the journey. An operator's requirements for automation might depend on several things: a desire to improve efficiency, the benefits of the investment, availability of the technology itself, and access to expertise and processes to implement change most effectively. There are three main reasons for deploying systems with real-time capability. The first is the growing shortage of skilled professionals in the industry, fueled in part by the coming retirement of a large portion of the workforce. Systems in which one can collaborate remotely or receive and share information quickly allow one person or team to monitor several locations at once, thereby improving efficiency.