To be able to operate safely and sustainably in remote and hazardous areas, major Norwegian stakeholders are now joining forces to develop a digital platform which manages the risks and optimisation of next generation integrated operations. The project is a unique collaboration between the IT, defence, oil and gas industries.
It is widely acknowledged that human and organisational aspects pose great challenges to operators which are implementing integrated operations (IO), but there are also massive technological challenges to be solved. Some are related to information quality and to the poor integration capabilities of both software and business processes.
Based on this reality, a new joint industry project, ‘IO in the High North’ with DNV as project manager, aims to facilitate the implementation of next generation integrated operations, by developing a common digital platform.
“Integrated operations are a key element in the future of the oil and gas industry. New technology and new work processes will lead to safer, faster and better decisions. The result is a potential for considerable value creation and the opportunity to enter new, prospective areas,” says Thore Langeland, manager of Integrated Operations at the Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF).
Complexity in remote and harsh areas
Oil and gas operations in the high north are likely to entail the remote and distributed control of assets – leading to heavy demands on the communication links and information flow. Connecting and integrating business processes and information sources across organisational boundaries add to the complexity. Further, operations in the high north require a lot of attention to be paid to environmental aspects, as the tolerance for environmental hazards in such vulnerable areas must be as close to zero as possible.
In order to meet all the requirements and at the same time maintain profitable operations, the industry has to create new field development and operation concepts that include heavily instrumented facilities. There must also be put a significant focus on the transfer of real time data between fields and operation centres located elsewhere, and on automated key work processes. Hence, a prerequisite for this development is a robust digital infrastructure and a platform for effective and efficient information exchange, which is the project’s main task.
A four-year horizon for major stakeholders
During the coming four years, the participants in the ‘IO in the High North’ project plan to go from conceptualisation to industrial implementation. During this period the project will both benefit from and contribute to the extensive integrated operations development on the Norwegian continental shelf. The ‘IO in the High North’ project consortium includes operators, service providers and software vendors. In addition, the Norwegian Defence is working with the project to resolve common infrastructure and communication challenges.
The project is supported by the Norwegian Oil Industry Association (OLF), the Business Association of Norwegian knowledge- and technology-based enterprises (Abelia), and the Norwegian Defence and Security Industries Association (FSi). The total budget of MNOK 90 will be financed by the partners and the Research Council of Norway.
“Collaboration between different industries is important to meet the challenges of the future. ’IO in the High North‘ shows how the Norwegian knowledge industry is taking a leading role in the global oil and gas industry,” says Heidi Brovold, who is responsible for IO at DNV.
Background
The new joint industry project ‘IO in the High North’, which consists of Norwegian major stakeholders and has DNV as project manager, aims to facilitate the implementation of next generation integrated operations. The project will produce new technology for a digital infrastructure in addition to an information extraction and retrieval platform. Risk measures relating to safety, security and availability will be the main key words.
The project’s focus will be on improved solutions for a number of pilots:
- A semi-autonomous control system for unmanned drilling rigs
- Production regularity and security in the Arctic regions
- Sub-ice operations
Digital infrastructure
Operations become more complex in difficult environments and with increasingly automated processes. The digital infrastructure and information platform will therefore consist of several elements that will be demonstrated in the pilots:
- Risk management measures that will reduce the likelihood of a production shutdown or HSSE incidents due to unreliable information or infrastructures. These include relevant standards and practices relating to the design and implementation of the digital infrastructure and information platform for Integrated Operations.
- Information integration to support the interpretation of sensor data, information validation and web services. The project will extend and improve the quality of the ISO 15926 based oil and gas ontology and develop an information validation methodology.
- Information transfer - the connection of professional services to network nodes by investigating networks and developing a platform for web services and information validation that supports automatic monitoring, simulation and optimisation.
- Real-time information exchange between sensors, activators and nodes in a high capacity network by developing autonomous sensor-near software. The project will produce new knowledge and technology for sensor-based, robust control systems.
Date: 2008-08-26