For efficient operation of any remote production asset, be it an oil platform or a subsea tie-in with wellhead and potentially some subsea processing, advanced control and monitoring functionality is getting more and more important as the oil companies moves to more remote locations, deeper waters and more complex reservoirs. In addition, the pursuit of reduced operational expenditures drives the trends towards more of the operational support and monitoring being done from a centralized, onshore support facility using an Integrated Operations approach. These developments lead to new challenges for the design and delivery of control and monitoring systems
Sophisticated monitoring and control applications for wells and pipelines have been available from several vendors for some time. However, these applications have generally been stand-alone expert applications connected to a single subsystem, for example, a slug control solution for pipelines located in the plant control system or a virtual flow metering system for wells located in the subsea (control) system. The usage and benefit of these systems have therefore been limited. This paper outlines how monitoring and control applications for gathering networks should be structured in an integrated operations framework, and which benefits this will give for operators.
Structuring of the different applications ensures that data from monitoring applications are easily available for a large group of users while ensuring that closed-loop control applications retains the robustness and security that is required. Furthermore, recent developments of the applications itself, partially made possible by the modern integrated operations system topology with increased data availability, provides additional functionality not only for expert users, but for generalists as well. Finally, synergies between different monitoring and control applications can give additional value to the users.
See more of this Group/Topical: 1st International Conference on Upstream Engineering and Flow Assurance