Page 52: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Aug/Sep 2016)

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PRODUCTION

Getting smarter he opportunities around imple-

Could we on the verge of embracing the menting intelligent energy (IE)

T technologies are quite vast and industry 2.0 era? Intelligent energy, or the the potential just as signi? cant for the oil digital oil? eld, is set to be discussed in and gas industry.

Be it automation in the drilling sector

Aberdeen next month. We take a dip into or unmanned facilities remotely oper- the debate. ated by an integrated operations organi- zation or better use of data analytics to improve production and maintenance ef? ciencies, many are keen to extoll the possible virtues of so-called smart systems or the digital oil? eld.

But it seems like it has been so for quite some time. Could we ? nally be on the verge of embracing the oil? eld 4.0 era (or even 2.0?), forced by low oil prices and a need to do things different?

Some certainly think so, even in the mature North Sea basin. “The cur- rent low oil price environment makes re-de? ning how we work, establishing new roles and centralizing analysis and decision-making even more imperative,” says Mark Edgerton, an asset manager for Chevron for the North Sea Alba asset.

The bene? ts of adopting intelligent energy tools include real-time produc- tion optimization, improving the ef- ? ciency of reser-

Mark Edgerton voir surveillance and management, through integrating real-time data with advanced engineer- ing technologies,

Edgerton says.

Advanced statisti- cal algorithms help

Helen Gilman enhance under- standing of major equipment perfor- mance, improving reliability, run times and production ef? ciency. Data ana- lytics is also increasing the ef? ciency and effectiveness of maintenance and integrity management.

In its simplest form, IE can help streamline work through repeatable

Images from iStock.

August 2016 | OE oedigital.com 54 054_OE0816_Production1_SPE IE.indd 54 7/25/16 11:06 AM