New Methods of Tackling Old Problems: Removing profitability barriers with automation technology.

• Author: Simonelli, Isaac Stone
• Position: OIL & GAS

Following the crash of oil prices in 2014, companies industrywide started looking for ways to increase their performance through digital transformation--if they weren't doing so already. Many companies have found the answer in automation technology.

"New small- to mid-cap operators are more proactive in their usage of new technology and their desire to try new ways of tackling the [Arctic] region's challenges," explains Chris Amstutz, vice president of oil and gas industry programs for Emerson Automation Solutions. "The more entrenched players are also adopting new technologies, but they're forced to deal with aging facilities and infrastructure and the cost structures associated with older assets." These barriers to the profitability of adopting newer technology are further increased for those operating in the Arctic due to harsh conditions and the remoteness of the fields.

IoT in Oil & Gas

"According to US Geological Survey estimates, the Arctic may hold 90 billion barrels of undiscovered oil reserves," Amstutz says. "As production in the easier-to-access areas declines, companies are exploring new, more challenging sites for E&P [exploration and production] activity. To reduce operating risks, many of them are turning to the industrial Internet of Things [IoT] and digitization to deal with the demands of operating in difficult environments like the Arctic."

IoT is the connection of "things" with an on/off switch to the internet and each other. This includes everything from wearable tech and smart devices to coffee pots, refrigerators, or door bells, as well as devices and technology being used in oilfields. Analyst firm Gartner predicts that there will be more than 26 billion IoT devices by 2020.

In the oil and gas industry, IoT platforms are designed to connect remotely, eliminating the need for workers to be onsite for standard monitoring purposes. This technology marks an evolution in the automation sector, as it moves from a dialed-in focus on supplying hardware and aftermarket services to providing software tools to wrangle with vast amounts of data to help make important decisions about what's happening in processing plants and on rigs.

"Cloud-based remote asset monitoring gets resources where it's safer and easier to work," Amstutz says. "For example, monitoring of inner and outer annulus pressure on wells with wireless pressure gauges is being used to eliminate manual readings and keep personnel out of harsh environments and out of danger from potential energy release."

Other examples of such technology at work are remote testing facilities installed on trailers for onsite testing of systems and machinery, as well as remote surveillance of well and field performance, which proponents of the technology say leads to greater certainty of the producing assets and the ability to quickly detect and mitigate issues.

When such cloud-based analytics are coupled with mobile predictive maintenance tools, it's possible to identify and...