Most oil and gas operators can reduce their work’s mantra down to a simple quest for excellence: To safely produce more barrels for fewer dollars. For decades, this pursuit has driven technological advances, including fracturing in completions and significant efficiency gains in drilling. However, each of these disciplines has essentially plateaued and further advancement is expected to be incremental at best. Production, however, holds the last remaining frontier for true efficiency gains.
Industry 4.0 is the innovation revolution across all industries. For our own, it now presents a massive opportunity to elevate oilfield production performance to new standards of efficiency, control, and recovery. Early results indicate that operators who harness the power of Production 4.0 capitalize on an easy-to-reach and plentiful resource—their own data.
Building Production 4.0
This concept leverages the next industrial superpower—big data—to empower an organization with operations-level decision making with minimal human involvement. Building Production 4.0 requires four elements, including the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing, edge computing, and advanced data analytics.
IoT comprises digitally connected physical devices that add systematic support and efficiencies through empirical data and remote controls. Cloud computing allows these devices to network through Internet-hosted servers that store and manage data while reducing infrastructure and complexity. Edge computing connects intelligent devices to current and historical data so that autonomous decisions can be made where they matter most—at the wellsite. Advanced analytics brings the concepts of IoT, cloud computing, and edge computing together to create an interconnected, intelligent ecosystem that helps oilfield equipment to act as intelligent machines that learn and teach themselves.
Armed with powerful advanced analytics, intelligent ecosystems can glean meaningful, actionable insight from a pristine data source. Personnel no longer have the burden of managing lower-level transactions. Analytics help identify trends and anomalies, which provides opportunities for enhanced efficiency and higher performance. For the oilfield industry, data analytics enables intelligent production machines to improve themselves on the fly. These self-governing systems also predict equipment failures for just-in-time maintenance and allow operators to manage their entire asset by exception.
Software: The Backbone of Production 4.0 Technology
A key building block is an IoT platform, which is evolved from a traditional SCADA system. These are data workhorses that bring all the data streams from every part of an oil and gas operation into a single and unified platform.
Production-optimization software then uses this data to act as a field-wide intelligence system to optimize artificial-lift and surface-facility efficiency. Leveraging this data empowers operators to not only increase equipment run life, but also maximize production while making it as profitable and economically viable as possible. These systems continuously monitor asset performance, give operators remote control over component-level assets, and enable more informed production decisions.
The final link for the software side is accessing these two platforms on the cloud. With cloud computing, users can create an elastic production ecosystem that is both scalable and flexible—a major advantage to operators. Cloud solutions let users easily capitalize on business opportunities while reducing their requirement for an IT infrastructure and dedicated personnel, which is ideal as enterprises expand in well count or asset base, cross geographical borders, or increase in complexity. Hosted securely on a Cloud system, the production-optimization platform can collect, compile, and disseminate operational data to those who need it and when.
Optimization on the Edge
The ultimate expression of Production 4.0 is next-generation automation. When paired with IoT-enabled equipment, edge computing launches data analytics into action. This powerful combination acquires, stores, and streams high-frequency data, delivers instant IoT-based notifications, operates optimization models on the edge, and enables autonomous control of the artificial-lift system.
When integrated with an existing controller or as built-in automation, this technology at the Edge gathers and analyzes historical-trends and real-time production data. Production 4.0 systems have the capacity to employ years of sub-second, real-time sensor data from the wellsite then use a suite of comprehensive calculation and modeling engines—including physics-based well models—to optimize production. Users can also import models from third-party technologies for even more flexibility and scale.
Edge systems deliver instant, intelligent IoT notifications—giving operators immediate notice when wells need human intervention. Without a second of delay, an edge system alerts operators to failures, slugging, and equipment imbalances. It also signals when operating parameters pass critical limits. Predictive analytics can also send alerts before a lift system fails. These instantaneous notifications enable immediate corrective action and minimize HSSE impacts, reduce downtime, and enhance personnel safety.
The built-in production-optimization platform leverages machine learning to autonomously manage the ideal lift setting in real time. Onboard advanced analytics can also predict when and why artificial-lift equipment will fail. As a result, operators can proactively dispatch maintenance crews to reduce downtime and associated production losses.
A real-world application is managing the idle-time settings on a reciprocating rod-lift well. Currently managed by an experienced guess that is set, at best, once a month, Edge systems allow second-by-second management to eliminate over-pumping, which causes equipment failure, and under-pumping, which leaves valuable hydrocarbons in the well. For gas-lift wells, the technology autonomously manages injection gas to optimize the use of limited assets. The result is a perfectly filled rod pump, or optimal injection rate, every time without fail and without human intervention.
Looking Forward
Intelligent, autonomous-production capabilities hold the next breakthrough for oilfield operators worldwide. Project stakeholders can plan for this new age by supporting their assets and production technologies with a standardized and robust production-optimization framework. This essential foundation is invaluable to transitioning between the era of conventional legacy systems and the next level of production efficiency.
The age of data analytics and predictive-failure management present a game-changing potential for driving significantly more production and operational efficiency in a safer, more cost-effective manner. But the advantages to implementing Production 4.0 technologies extend far beyond advancing oilfield operations. The transition to these newer technologies will help operators fill gaps in the workforce, especially after the industry has experienced a series of economic downturns. The opportunity before us is to discover new talent and create a workforce that strikes the right balance between technical and technological brainpower. Although traditional oil and gas disciplines such as engineering will remain critically important, the industry also needs expertise in digital operations, software engineering, and data science.
While Production 4.0 technologies and optimization intelligence will drive the next phase of oilfield efficiency, these capabilities are not limited to the production phase. The next plateaus of operational efficiencies are not only limitless across the life of a well, but easily within reach today.
