How to Analyse and Utilise Real-Time Data

In any industrial production and processing plant, real time data comes from measuring instrumentation distributed and located within the plant itself. These instruments are an integral part of the control systems that monitor and govern your operations, but in what way?

The need for this type of instrumentation and control, has varied greatly since oil and gas operations began more than a 100 years ago. Since the dawn of the oil and gas industry, instrumentation was only manual, then mechanical, electrical and now digital. Today, the advanced control systems that utilize high quality real-time data, can monitor, control, analyze and also make predictions.

In this blog article we will look at the need of instrumentation through history and its central place in today’s market, and beyond.

Instrumentation Data

 You can roughly divide instrumentation into two main categories,

1. Direct feed
2. Analyzer type

Direct feed: This is the most basic type of instrumentation. In these instruments, the output is exactly what it is read, like the temperature in a temperature sensor, or the pressure in a pressure gauge. The instrument reads the temperature and feeds this value directly into your control system. The same applies for the pressure, and for other similar type of simple sensors.

Analyzer instrument: More complex and represents today the state-of-the-art of instrumentation. Typically, this type of instrument reads one or more physical properties, and before transmitting any data, it analyzes the information through a dedicated CPU and software.

An example of this advanced instrument is the water cut meter. Independently from the measurement technology utilized, this instrument generates and emits an electromagnetic field into the fluid, and based on the reflection of the electromagnetic waves, the energy absorbed, or the frequency variation introduced by the fluid, it can analyze the water content of the fluid, then transmitting the corresponding real-time data to the control system.

History of Data Utilization

Advanced instrumentation also requires investments in network infrastructure, software, central control rooms and staffing for maintenance. This can increase CAPEX but is a crucial element in the operations of today and the industry could not survive without it.

It would surprise many to learn that a 100 years ago, if an oil well produced more than 20-40% nutural gas as its output, it was simply shut down.

Back then, and in the following decades, natural gas was considered just a by-product, like slop water, but more dangerous being combustive. Primitive instrumentation and approaches were not able to handle variations of fluids, making single-phase production the only way.

Today, that would be unthinkable. Natural gas is central to our energy security, infrastructure, and energy transition in all oil regions. Changing geological conditions of more mature fields and an industry set on maximizing output, multi-phase production is simply the only way. So how have optimizations been implemented before advanced instrumentation was as accessible as it is today?

It started with brute force. If pressure built up and temperature started fluctuating greatly, operators would scramble to shut down the plant, let it settle / equalize before starting it up again. Sometimes with an initial flushing to dissolve any obstruction in the pipes. It was inefficient, and with little focus on safety, but it was sufficient for the forecast production volume. Extraction was slow, and you had the time to shut things down before something got damaged. Downtime and loss of production were also not as costly as they would have been today.

Optimization

But it wasn’t optimal. The industry soon understood they had to increase their production volume, and for that they needed to know what was brought to the surface. But how do you know what is inside a steel pipe? You extract a sample and send it to analysis in a laboratory. This, combined with various simulations and logging data, was for a long time the foundation of production analysis and prognosis. However, laboratory testing is a slow process. Waiting 2-4 days for laboratory tests are becoming uneconomical and risky.

Furthermore, the fluids that are brought to the surface constantly change due to the natural formations they originate. You end up testing fluids that are no longer a part of the production system. Bends and turns in the path of the extracted and transporting samples cause turbulence and formation of emulsions, which introduce errors. It is like analyzing “out of context”, with best guesses and averages simulating the conditions they are under.

Suggested reading: Why is Oil Sampling Outdated?

Increasing production

In a car from 1920s going 20km/h, you could take your time to make corrections should an obstacle appear. But compare that to a sportscar of today, going 120-200 km/h, actions and interventions must happen much faster. Making that possible are advanced sensors and automation, like ABS brakes, active suspension, and line-assist, making you able to act in time and stay safe on the road.  

Same principles apply to modern high-volume production plants. Evolution of the technology is required to make more efficient use of the resources and time available.

Instrumentation and Real-Time Utilization Today 

Which brings us to today’s landscape of the industry. Sufficiently advanced technology is available, and finally, economically accessible, bringing optimization to the next level. Advanced instrumentation and utilization of real-time dynamic monitoring is such a technological leap, allowing the full power of automation. This dramatically reduces the risks of running the plant at full capacity. Since we cannot make the pipes out of glass, you need robust and reliable ways of seeing inside them.

For oil and gas production and processing, let’s list some of the major challenges of multi-phase flow that can only be resolved utilizing the high-quality data generated by advanced instrumentation, like the water cut meters:

• Dynamic change of content of oil, water, gas and solids.
• Dynamic change of pressure, temperature, density, viscosity, salinity.
• Fast pressure changes in specific operating conditions generate big temperature drops (due to the Joule-Thomson effect, especially in deepwater offshore applications, it is normal to have produced gas at the seabed with +100 degrees Celsius, that reaches the topside with a temperature of -50 degrees Celsius).
• Risk of hydrate formation
• Presence of laminar flow in pipes, that makes most the processing instrument inaccurate.
• Presence of liquid slugs or gas pockets, hard / impossible to predict.
• Unnecessary use (waste) of chemicals, like hydrate prevention agent (glycol), anti-scaling, emulsion breaker, anti-flocculant, etc.

Knowing exactly what is in your pipe, consistently and in real-time, is the only way to manage these challenges. It provides the operational optimization at the level the market demands. It reduces the shut-downs / loss of production, the OPEX, like consumption of chemicals, need of maintenance and labor, resulting in great positive environmental effects.  

Finally, the operation becomes safer and the risk of accidents, putting crew and assets at risk, are reduced immensely. With the increase of production volumes that we see today, omitting state of the art instrumentation is like putting a modern super car engine on a 1920s Ford Model T. It will probably go fast, for a little while, until the first little bump in the road where it veers off course, with potentially disastrous results.

Suggested reading: How Real-Time Monitoring Can Improve Your Digital Twin

Conclusion

 In operations conducted more than 100 years ago, throughput, efficiency, investments, and human / environmental safety concerns were very different than today. The need and availability of advanced instrumentation was basically zero. Like a two-meter rowboat doesn’t need a radar, an industrial plant in the late 1800 didn’t need advanced instrumentation.

But in today’s industry, real-time utilization of sensor data is crucial for an economic and safe operation. It can increase CAPEX, in the initial budget expenditure of your plant construction and design. However, it reduces your operational costs (OPEX), while bringing optimization into the 21st century. This allows you to safely maximize the potential throughput of your plant and have a ROI extremely fast.