Achieving operational excellence

In the past, implementation, training, and reliability issues frequently required a large investment in both time and resources to bring new systems online. Today, customized solutions sharply reduce implementation time. And new low-power integrated control and safety solutions lead to lesser solar panel and battery costs and smaller footprints, which help operators trim their capital expenditures. For example, by integrating safety and control into a single controller, the footprint of a Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) installation is being reduced by 50%. In many cases, capital expenditures are nearly cut up by 10%.

Most operators today are understandably cautious about adopting new technology, and for good reason. They are looking to build a powerful and flexible platform for years or decades to come. Previous platforms incurred higher costs of production and high returns per barrel of oil. For example, without proper diagnostics and monitoring, a wellhead can quickly slip from a high-performing asset to one that may require extensive intervention or even the hugely expensive step of a full replacement. But advanced diagnostics can keep wellheads flourishing for 20 years or more and provide the critical real-time diagnostics for operators to intervene rapidly with enhanced oil recovery methods before it's too late.

Until recently, few reliable and comprehensive control systems and software solutions have been available. Solutions have been largely piecemeal - one system for monitoring and control, an additional system for fire and gas. The safety components have frequently suffered major limitations, such as the requirements of expensive and energy-sapping air conditioning units that can break down.

Over the long term, these older, disjointed solutions can actually increase costs. Dated methods are not well suited for the increasing number of operations in extreme environments, from the sweltering heat of Saudi Arabia to the sub-zero temperatures of the Arctic.

A broad range of new technologies are poised to address the challenges raised. These solutions provide early warning of potential problems and protect workers from hazardous conditions. For example, higher reliability, in addition to broader functionality in supporting technology, offers extraordinary control of wells remotely. The latest RTUs are designed to monitor, diagnose, and maintain assets in these tough regions. Reliability, safety, and efficiency work in concert.

Technologically advanced units require far fewer deployments of maintenance engineers to remote locations. For operations, this results in lower risk of small and large failures. In turn, this leads to a major reduction in the number of maintenance teams deployed. It can be extremely expensive to send two to three employees into a harsh environment for several hours to diagnose a problem, taking more than just a financial toll on the business.

On a macro level, there's a large shift at work in the oil and gas industry. This includes advancements in technology-free operators to integrate tacit knowledge into process-oriented solutions. Achieving operational excellence is more than addressing safety, environmental issues, and cutting costs. It is matching human capital with the proper technology to build workflow rules that create a system capable of handling everything from the routine to an escalating safety crisis.

Managers must sit down with experienced employees who have the valuable domain knowledge in order to integrate their expertise into industry processes. The rewards are large: routine tasks, such as consistent work processes and compliance, become more efficiently managed. But that's not all. Emergency response and troubleshooting can be fully integrated, helping operators anticipate and diffuse potential crisis situations.

Technology is a tool to make best practices common practices and to limit costly errors and delays. Plus, there's another upside that's not always immediately apparent. The longer you use these tools, the more advanced and efficient your operations become, as you shed redundant steps and make the operational leaps that form a competitive advantage.

Safety is and will continue to be a priority in the petroleum sector. The industry's increasingly rigorous and complex environmental and safety regulations are putting plenty of pressure on operators to upgrade performance quickly. Yet by helping to identify hazardous conditions, the right control and software solutions can reduce threats to people and the environment.

Anticipating quickly shifting conditions and minimizing the number of workers in the most hazardous locations, operators can take dramatic steps to reduce the human cost of accidents. Technology has proven in recent years to show short-term improvements, but the bottom line remains that it can lead to even longer-term operational excellence if implemented carefully and accurately.

About the author

Mayank Mehta serves as the global industry manager for oil and gas at GE Intelligent Platforms. He is an electronics and communications engineer with 29 years' experience in the field of automation and controls, optimization solutions, and security. Before joining GE Intelligent Platforms, he served 15 years at Emerson Process Management.