Put to work in the field

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Smart field? Digital oilfield technology can help make more of the world’s oil reserves. (Martin Bureau/AFP/Getty Images)

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Digital technology is already in the field. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The term ‘digital oilfield' is much banded about in the oil and gas industry, but often not entirely understood. In essence, there is no such thing as a ‘digital oilfield' in its current form because it is an amalgamation of several technologies - both new and old - which together contribute to the overall concept. And the concept itself is very much a work in progress because while fully digital oilfields will eventually become commonplace, they are still in the evolutionary phase.

So what does the term mean? Business advisor Deloittes, which consults with oil companies on digitising their activities, defines the digital oilfield as: "Nothing more than the evolution and convergence of a number of oil and gas drilling, exploration and digital control techniques coupled with standardised communication technologies." It says the concept "potentially extends from the use of 4-D seismic imaging through to data-to-desktop initiatives that take production data through to marketers and traders. This means, it can, potentially impact the entire oil and gas value chain with all the technical, process and human impacts that go with it."

And the incentive to digitise comes from cost benefits. Cambridge Energy Research Associates has estimated that going digital can shave up to 7% off operating costs and that using digital processes to increase and enhance oil recovery could add as much as 125 billion barrels to global reserves by 2013.

In essence, creating a digital oilfield means an increased use of IT to help exploration and production. Today ‘digital oilfield' has become an umbrella term that describes activities throughout the production chain and has tended to replace earlier terms such as: ‘smart fields', ‘e-fields' or ‘intelligent fields'.

How it works

So how does a digital oilfield work? One of the main features is the use of fibre-optic temperature and pressure sensors around the field (primarily underground), which are connected to monitoring stations on the surface. Data is then transmitted to the company's offices and fed into computerised optimisation models enabling engineers to see exactly, in real-time as well as in the form of a 3-D image, how oil is moving through the field. These underground sensors also act as an early-warning system alerting engineers to potential problems before they occur.

Digital technology is now available at every stage of oilfield processes from intelligent wells, including automated working systems, fibre-optic monitoring below ground, automatic data acquisition, reservoir modeling in real time, IT reservoir and well supervision systems that detect leaks and carry out automatic instant diagnosis of possible problems, and increased asset and risk assessment functions.

Examples of the digital oilfield are already in existence. Sometimes described as virtual oilfields they operate as a fully digitised facility, which requires very little or no human interaction at the well-head. This brings several benefits, as Cisco Systems, which offers virtual oilfield technology, points out: scaling of key resources and skills with specialised expertise able to be deployed anywhere in the world, combating the loss of expertise due to an ageing professional workforce; projects can be staffed based on competency, instead of physical location, improving performance and outcome; people can connect regardless of time, space, or organisational boundaries; asset usage increases due to increased field productivity; and smaller IOCs can establish an effective global presence.

Schlumberger, which now digitally enables every new service it offers, says the digital oilfield can substantially improve productivity. It has developed 4-D seismic solutions, which have moved processing to the seismic vessel to run concurrently with data acquisition. This has shortened delivery times and allowed direct input of 4-D results to field planning decisions.

Having these results so quickly has, Schlumberger claims, already saved millions of dollars through more timely decision-making. It says one of the main features of the digital oilfield is the increased use of drilling centres. It operates nine teleports around the world, including one in Aberdeen, which can monitor up to 28 concurrent drilling operations in the North Sea; a similar site exists in the Gulf of Mexico.

Schlumberger says its vision for the digital oilfield includes "a global managed network covering the entire oilfield operation, from the first mile to the last mile, connecting field operations with petro-technical professionals in the mobile office environment".

It also has an alliance with the UK's BT to provide collaboration through converged communications and IT services, supporting interactive drilling and production operations. This first mile wireless service provides the critical first link in the digital communication chain for operations not served through wired connectivity.

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