Page 34: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Sep/Oct 2019)

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FEATURE Lif e Extension

Digitization as Life Extension

BY WILLIAM STOICHEVSKI perators are on digitization journeys linked to life extension projects that aim to make the most of old- er infrastructure. Proposed tiebacks at ConocoPhil-

O lips’ Tor II and on Aker BP’s Ivar Aasen projects look set to reveal a special bene? t to “freeing data”, for opera- tor and supply chain. Digitization has altered the way these operators see themselves, their operations and life extension.

Newly contextualized big data builds on earlier automation and digital documentation drives to cut manhours. Still, some warn, “Careful when you digitize.”

Digitization has strong support in Norway, where arti? cial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing go-to Google is in the market for a large forest lot to house a vast data farm. Local math minds critical of the AI-run Facebook chatbots that ran amok and created their own language are nevertheless in favor of Google’s build-up in tech-it-or-leave-it Norway.

AI — algorithms, cloud-based machine learning and com- puter vision — is being cheered on here, especially offshore.

Modernizing older infrastructure with tagged and networked sensors topsides and subsea is part of the requirement when digitizing for life extension. Yet, reining in and displaying in new ways the information from those tags hasn’t until now been a top priority. “It’s not like they’re looking around and saying, “Where can we do life extension.” If you can extend the life of equipment, I mean it’s like increasing the life of your dishwasher,” a Norwe- gian analyst who studies oil companies all day con? des, before 4,000 “analytics practitioners” and “hundreds of proprietary adding that the big value offshore has hitherto been in mega- applications”. projects, and only lately has “quick payback” been a thing. With help from class DNV GL and wireless suppliers, the

Digitization offers easier management of these new re- supermajor has long been automating and then digitizing its serves — witness the modern data room — but improving operations in the North Sea off Norway. ConocoPhillips now overall operations (beyond drill tech) by digitizing has been awaits royal assent for a life extension project (Tor II) at the an elusive quick ? x. The sum of automated but not-so-man- ultimate life extension project, Greater Eko? sk. Among the agement-friendly legacy equipment and commendable human company’s most recent digitizing efforts was installing sup- behavior has hitherto been the only path to improved opera- plier qualifying app, EPIM JQS, early in 2019. tions: ditto “life extension”.

TOR II

In the decade since DNV GL ? rst guided a ConocoPhillips

DIGITAL JOURNEYS

Enter the digital twin — enabled by AI and machine-learn- digital-archiving effort, the class ? ag bearer has intensi? ed its ing — and made possible by a company commitment to “the digitizing push and now has the ability to check for errors and cloud”. An operator and the supply chain can now build their con? ict in all the sensors and coding running an oil platform, own apps and employ the new management software to zero- rig or subsea template. in on physical ? xes with a pin-prick examination of the twin. DNV GL’s evolving Veracity Data Fabric platform builds

Before this ability, there was ConocoPhillips, with its on that ability and is populated by the managerial tools pro- 34 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM