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data sources to a given set of user groups/ and space requirements and gave the user reliability needed to decision makers located remotely. Sensor optimize production. networks embedded within the physical

When it needs o go

Routing trafc equipment confguration of a facility allow-

In the case of the rig in the Gulf of Mexico, it had a series of boats ing real-time 24/7 signal transfer between or helicopters coming in for docking or landing. The rig needed to an identifed set of units will have major from HERE contributions on the technical and safety monitor and have communications with them and the company didn’t want to reconfgure the network whenever one vehicle left integrity assurance processes. or joined the area.

Slip in efciency One way to create a better communications forum, they felt,

Average production effciency dropped in was to create a wireless network around the rig.

the past decade, while the performance “We created a ‘bubble’ around one of the largest oil rigs in the gap between industry leaders and other Gulf of Mexico,” Byles says. “They had fotillas of maintenance companies widened, from 22% in 2000 boats and all kinds of boats coming in and out, helicopters land- to 40% in 2012, according to a McKinsey ing. They couldn’t communicate with them very well as they & Co. report. were getting closer to the rig or leaving the rig.”

Benchmarking data also illustrates The rig operator deployed about fve portable wireless nodes the broad opportunity for improvement. on the oil rig, one on the top and one on each corner of the rig.

Best-in-class players do not incur higher These nodes were not fxed points, users could move them with- 1,000' costs to improve production effciency, out any changes in network confgurations.

and high performance does not link to “We created the ‘bubble’ around the rig and they put the nodes a specifc asset type or the maturity of on all the vehicles that had to communicate with the rig. When assets. Instead, companies with high they came within a mile or two they could communicate with the production effciency are often similar in rig just like they had run a wire to the boat, and on the boat they 2,000' their quality of operations, approach to could have WiFi or wired access to the rig,” Byles says. “And to way down THERE, eliminating equipment defects, equip- they could communicate to other vehicles with a node as well. ment choices, and planning and execu- All of a sudden you have a web of connections around the rig at a what’s in between tion of shutdowns, the report said. very high speed and not have to worry about a connection going 3,000'

Regardless of location, most oil and down as long as they were within the range.” gas producers face issues that complicate They can ensure no lost communication because the wire- is CRITICAL efforts to achieve sustained production- less nodes use multiple frequencies so they can direct the data effciency improvements. packet — whether it was voice, video or data in any direction.

Samson’s engineered ropes replace

The node is a multi-radio box with a motherboard and software.

Let’s face it, in large and complex 4,000' steel-wire in applications where “In that box, you have different radios running on different fre- offshore facilities, it is impossible to quencies. There could be a 900 MHz radio, 2.4 GHz radio, or a 5.8 install a fully featured physically wired wire just can’t get you there.

GHz radio or even a 4.9 GHz radio. What that provides is the abil- network to oversee what is going on 24/7. ity to mitigate interference and to take on different propagations,”

A wireless sensor network can help bring

WINCH LINES

Byles says. “You have all these different frequencies to work with, about real-time monitoring and automatic 5,000' as you move all these boats around there may be interference on control of vital applications.

HEAVY LIFT SLINGS the 900 so you might be able to pass data using the 2.4 or the 5.8.”

The oil industry wants private net- works where producers can get data off “(The rig) was able to provide a mobile network and there was

EXTENSION PENDANTS and on the oil rigs. no real confguration, no need to maintain any routing cable,

TOW LINES and no controller to worry about. Each node was a piece of the 6,000'

Wireless in action infrastructure. The more you put into the mesh, it became stron-

WORKING LINES

In the case of the Southeast Asia plat- ger and stronger. The data overhead continued to remain low, forms, the platform is a hub with 16 active sub one millisecond between mesh nodes and there was no limit wellheads as well as production headers to how many mesh nodes you could use,” Byles says. from four nearby platforms, with power

The oil industry is going through some tough times, and it 7,000' generation equipment to support the fve needs real-time answers to complex problems.

In the end, it always ends up being about platforms. If there is an issue on any of the communication. There feld in platforms, production losses could last for are solutions to those problems; whether it is a remote gas

Southeast Asia or routing traffc into and round a rig in the Gulf of days. As they say, time is money. 8,000'

As a result, the producer implemented

Mexico, wireless automation can provide answers. a mixture of wired and wireless devices during the retroft to optimize monitoring Gregory Hale is the editor and founder of and control of the platform while keeping Industrial Safety and Security Source power limited. (ISSSource.com) and is the contributing 9,000'

Wireless instruments now monitor Automation editor at Offshore Engineer.

wellhead status on all 16 wells of the hub, as well as gas receiving for all fve platforms, production headers, and the fuel skid. The plan minimized power ® 10,000'

SamsonRope.com

Dyneema is a registered trademark of Royal DSM N.V. Dyneema is DSM’s high-performance polyethylene product.

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