The path to oilfield efficiency is digital

Operators have a singular vision for their business: Safely producing more barrels at a lower cost, despite increasingly challenging operating environments and constant fluctuations in economic cycles.

In response, the oil and gas industry has devised innovations across each phase of the well lifecycle—exploration, drilling, completion and production—to extract hydrocarbons efficiently and cost-effectively. For example, in the past, operators have leveraged innovations in exploration, drilling and completions to drill more wells faster and with greater accuracy, add more fracture stages per well, and pump more proppant per stage to boost production. However, this solution has plateaued in terms of efficiency and overall productivity. New, innovative completion designs—including intelligent completions—have helped to foster a production renaissance in the U.S., but unless a major step-change in technology occurs, the benefits yielded from these solutions have plateaued, as well.

With no major technology advances introduced since the advent of artificial lift, the production phase is the next frontier for realizing significant efficiency gains and cost reductions. Leading the way is the increasing adoption of technologies that incorporate components of Industry 4.0.

IMMENSE VALUE POTENTIAL

Before we discuss how we apply Industry 4.0 concepts in the oil field, we should first look at value. As we’ll discuss shortly, Weatherford has led the way in applying the concepts in a meaningful way. For example, a North American trial partner manages 600 rod-lifted wells with an average production rate of 50 bopd, each. This client—using existing controllers and adding Edge automation to select wells—is expected to increase revenue by $5.81 million in the first year, alone.

Fig. 1. Predictive failure analytics maximize uptime and lift efficiency, which deliver a significant impact on operator OPEX and CAPEX.

High-frequency data enable the client to reduce OPEX, Fig. 1. The Edge device will eliminate overpumping in each well, which will reduce equipment failure 6%, overall. By decreasing the annual workover rate, these expenses will be reduced $1.62 million after the first year of implementation.

Instantaneous alerts—by eliminating notification delays for out of balance, tagging, rod- and gear-box stress, and more—will reduce downtime by 6% with a projected year-end value of $540,000. Alerts are securely sent to any authorized device including laptops, tablets, and smart phones, allowing users to respond and take corrective action in real time. These instantaneous notifications minimize HSSE impacts, reduce downtime, and enhance personnel safety while ensuring ideal optimization and profitable peace-of-mind.

Significant value lies in autonomous control for the client. Selectively applied to target wells for which an Edge device can add substantial value—in this case 30% of the 600 total wells—autonomous control eliminates both underpumping and overpumping. This translates to a 2% increase in production, or 1 bopd. Annualized, this will bring $3.65 million in additional revenue. The technology is expected to deliver significant value beyond year one and on a recurring basis, but early data are too raw to accurately forecast at this time.

DIGITAL/CLOUD TECHNOLOGY DRIVING PRODUCTIVITY

The world is now in its fourth industrial revolution. During the first revolution in the nineteenth century, industries embraced water- and steam-powered mechanization for the production of commercial goods from large, centralized factories. 

In the second revolution—starting in the early part of the twentieth century—electric power enabled mass production and assembly-line creation of goods, such as automobiles. During the latter half of the twentieth century, the third revolution introduced computers, automation and robotics. Affordable semiconductors brought computers into our
home and eventually our pockets. All three of these previous revolutions maximized productivity and efficiency while reducing costs.

For decades, digitalization has increasingly served as a vehicle for achieving these goals, especially in oil and gas. However, the paradigm of Industry 4.0—the fourth revolution—has altered not just how we use digital technologies, but also how we think and operate on a larger scale. Industry 4.0 is about linking technologies, so they can better communicate with each other and make business or operational decisions without human involvement. 

While other technology-driven industries have already started their transformation journey, we in oil and gas have just started implementing Industry 4.0 technologies. Early results indicate that it has introduced efficiencies in accessibility and computing, and thus has allowed operators to better exploit their most valuable asset: their data.

Four components comprise Industry 4.0. First, the Internet of Things (IoT) links groups of physical devices so they can communicate, and to allow for remote monitoring and control. This increases access to data, broadens the scope of viewable data, and helps to drive systematic efficiencies.

Second, cloud computing—using a network of remote, Internet-hosted servers to store and manage data in a secure environment—enables users to access data from anywhere and on any desktop, tablet, or mobile device while reducing technology infrastructure and the associated installation, maintenance, and support costs. 

Companies can choose to use the public cloud or a private, internal cloud. This helps users to connect with data in a fast, direct and meaningful way, which is especially helpful for industries—such as oil and gas—that generate large volumes of data over several years.

Third, edge computing connects intelligent devices to current and historical data, so that autonomous decisions can be made where they matter most—at the wellsite. In the oil and gas industry, this means that lower-level, day-to-day decision-making can be transferred to autonomous computers, which frees personnel to focus on higher-priority projects and tasks while reducing overall staffing needs at remote wellsites.

Fourth, advanced analytics bring the concepts of IoT, cloud computing, and edge computing together to create an interconnected, intelligent ecosystem that enables operators to glean meaningful, actionable insight from data. Letting operators see entire enterprises by function, asset, well, or any other level from a single dashboard, analytics aids in the identification of anomalies and trends, along with opportunities to improve efficiencies, predict future performance, optimize production, and maximize profits.

Furthermore, instead of serving a purely mechanical function, analytics help oilfield equipment to act as intelligent machines that learn and teach themselves to enhance efficiency, predict failures, and manage assets by exception. This avoids error-prone human judgment and thus provides proactive well maintenance, rather than reactive well repairs.

Fig. 2. Industry 4.0 becomes Production 4.0, when its components are applied to the management of oil and gas production performance.

When the components behind Industry 4.0 are applied to the management of oil and gas production performance, we at Weatherford refer to it as Production 4.0, Fig. 2.

LEADING PRODUCTION 4.0 CONCEPTS–SOFTWARE

The backbone of Production 4.0 technology—which is delivering field-proven value to oil and gas operators worldwide—is the Weatherford ForeSite production-optimization and CygNet SCADA software, Fig. 3. To date, these platforms monitor and optimize 460,000 wells around the world daily, monitor 125,000 mi of oil and gas pipeline, and manage 30 billion data updates every day.

Fig. 3. Production 4.0 concepts and technology present a step-change in productivity and efficiency for the oilfield, enabling operators to narrow their focus to what matters most.

ForeSite software acts as a field-wide intelligence platform with the ultimate goal of optimizing the efficiency of production, maximizing production volume, increasing the run life of equipment, extending the life of assets, and making production as profitable and economically viable as possible.

Currently, the platform’s nodal-analysis engine is the only technology capable of monitoring all forms of artificial lift. The patented Everitt-Jennings algorithm provides load computations at multiple points along the rod string for reciprocating rod lift, and—in combination with the Gibbs method—is the only platform capable of computing the downhole dynamometer card in two different ways. In this fashion, asset performance is continuously monitored on a remote and automated basis.

The information is then displayed in an intuitive and visual interface—in either a map or dashboard mechanism—that allows for real-time performance analysis, the diagnosis of potential performance problems, the identification of opportunities for operational improvements, and more informed decision-making. Currently, the ForeSite software platform is the sole provider of enterprise-level optimization for all forms of artificial lift, naturally flowing wells, pipelines, and surface facilities around the world.

Using artificial intelligence combined with machine learning and physics-based models, the ForeSite platform helps you predict failure by lift component. This capability—currently available for rod lift and ESP (electric submersible pump)-lifted wells—enables operators to proactively dispatch maintenance crews when needed, to reduce downtime and associated production losses.

Operational realities can restrict the time and resources available to install and support on-site solutions. A low barrier to implementation makes cloud-based software platforms simple to install, maintain and use. The ForeSite software platform is a web-based system that is reliably hosted with Google Cloud or installed on premise. Users have complete ownership and control of their data, and can access data on the go, from anywhere.

Separation is provided between process controls and the business network. Fully compliant with security best practices, all data monitored through the software platform are stored on the cloud. 

Another major benefit is system elasticity. With cloud computing, users can create a production ecosystem that is both scalable and flexible. As enterprises expand in well count or asset base, cross geographical borders, or increase in complexity, cloud solutions let users easily capitalize on business opportunities without incurring additional costs.

PRODUCTION OPTIMIZATION AT THE EDGE

Pairing this software platform with Cloud computing, IoT-enabled communication, and next-generation automation delivers Production 4.0 at the wellsite, or “on the Edge.” This combination can acquire and store a stream of high-frequency data at the wellsite, offers secure communication in the form of IoT-based instant notifications, provides optimization models on the edge, and enables autonomous control. In other words, it incorporates all the components of Industry 4.0 into one product—ForeSite Edge.

Using technology on the Edge, operators can gather both historical-trend and real-time production data from instruments and sensors across the asset. With a capacity to access years of sub-second, real-time sensor data from the wellsite, Production 4.0 systems, in future, can then use a suite of comprehensive calculation and modeling engines—including physics-based well models—to optimize production. Users can even import models from third-party technologies.

These Edge systems also deliver instant, intelligent IoT-based data notifications. For example, operators can be alerted immediately when sensors detect variances in performance or trends, failures or imbalances in equipment, when slugging occurs in wells, or when operating parameters pass critical limits. Alerts can be sent to any device, upon which users can respond and take corrective action in real time.

Further, Edge platforms today can deliver predictive analytics at the wellsite by monitoring the performance of a reciprocating rod-lifted or ESP-lifted system. Edge systems can analyze artificial lift performance and predict when the systems will fail.

This IoT-based controller also makes daily operational decisions and autonomously optimizes production, using enterprise-wide data and the insight gleaned from modeling and analysis on the Edge. As an example, one common problem that the controller can help to resolve is managing idle time for rod pumps. The system dynamically manages idle time to eliminate the extreme scenarios of over-pumping, which causes equipment failure, or under-pumping, which leaves valuable hydrocarbons behind in the well.

The ForeSite Edge device integrates the autonomous controller, optimization software and IoT gateway. Alternately, the Edge device also can upgrade any legacy controller—meaning operators can enjoy the benefits that ForeSite Edge delivers without having to change their existing controller

The overarching advantage is that data collection and lower-level daily operational tasks that improve production outcomes are placed on autopilot.

BILLIONS OF DOLLARS CAN BE CLAIMED

The oil and gas industry is typically slow to adopt next-generation digital technologies in the upstream production space. But there are many compelling reasons for operators to harness the power of Production 4.0. Most importantly, these technologies offer the potential to improve oilfield productivity significantly—producing more barrels in a safer, less risky manner while reducing costs.

Digital technologies also will play a more varied role in the future of the oil and gas industry. With functionalities and capabilities that are in no way limited to the production phase, operators can leverage these technologies to improve R&D and manufacturing, for example. This is the way of the future, and it will help to drive meaningful results for operators.

For operators like the one above and other Weatherford partners worldwide, Edge technology presents a step-change in productivity and efficiency. If only a tiny fraction of the world’s rod-lift and gas-lifted wells benefitted from autonomous optimization, the industry, as a whole, could save billions in OPEX per year.