OGFG – March Technical Talk – The Digital Oilfield, Process Visualisation and Automated Surveillance – Getting Value From Your Data

The Digital Oilfield, Process Visualisation and Automated Surveillance – Getting Value From Your Data. by Henry Gordon-Wright

The oil and gas industry has led the world in the development and utilisation of “big data”.  Beginning with seismic data in the 1960s, the industry now generates and processes petabytes of data every day.  Whilst dealing with terabytes of seismic data is now commonplace, the industry is only just beginning to realise the value that can be generated by fully exploiting the hundreds of simulations and tens of thousands of sensors that make up a large modern field development.

In this presentation, we will look at the benefits and barriers to both developing and maximising the value of the digital oilfield. We’ll look at some examples of how process dashboards and visualisation have helped operators to understand their process on a more intuitive level and how leveraging the data in process historians can improve process efficiency, minimise downtime and reduce maintenance interventions.  Finally, we’ll look at how integrating process data with simulation packages can allow operators to quickly evaluate operational scenarios for process optimisation, forward planning and debottlenecking.

About Henry Gordon-Wright

After graduating with a Masters in Aerospace Engineering Henry briefly worked as an analyst in the financial services industry before joining Frazer-Nash engineering consultancy.  Whilst at Frazer-Nash Henry worked on a wide range of projects covering marine hydrodynamics, advanced CFD modelling, human injury and blast simulation and root cause analysis for the nuclear, defence, marine, and oil and gas industries.  Henry also represented the company on the MoD Weapons Effects Modelling working group and the Energy Institute Subsea AVIFF (Avoidance of Vibration Induced Fatigue Failure) working group.  After moving to Perth to join Xodus Group in 2013, Henry’s work has focussed on flow assurance and process engineering for operators in Perth and the Middle East.