Integrated operations platform overcomes production challenges

Meeting production targets is a continuous challenge, and many components of a field operation have the capacity to significantly impact the economic success of an asset. Fast and easy access to reliable information – whether real-time or historical – is critical to enable engineers and management to make the right decisions at the right time to meet both operational and longer-term strategic objectives. This is the case whether onshore or offshore and in conventional or unconventional fields.

Avocet provides detailed visualization of wellbore configurations, and its data storage is date-effective so that changes can be tracked through time.

In most cases, production operations are becoming more complex, and with field automation, the volume of measurement data is growing exponentially. In addition, engineers are being tasked with managing an increasing number of wells. To work efficiently, engineers need to be presented, at the right place and time, with information tuned to their particular needs, whether for routine surveillance, extensive diagnostic analysis, or as the basis for intervention and treatment programs.

A wide range of automated systems has been developed in past years to support production management, such as downhole and surface measurement devices, data historians, and business performance and reporting processes. However, many of these systems are difficult to maintain and become obsolete. In addition, despite considerable and often costly efforts to integrate disparate software components, they often fail to communicate effectively across the whole operation.

To meet this challenge, Schlumberger released the Avocet integrated production operations software platform, which enables production managers and asset teams to see a clear and complete picture, understand production status and field events, identify the root causes of production shortfalls, and act effectively to close the gap between potential and actual performance.

The platform combines the functionality of a range of proven information management and operations management tools into one complete software solution. It combines well operations and production data management systems to deliver a clear, complete, and up-to-date picture of operations, from capturing and validating field data to production and equipment surveillance and tracking of specialized oilfield operations. The platform integrates with corporate datastores, accounting and fiscal modeling systems, and other applications. Significantly, the platform connects directly to petroleum engineering simulators and analytical applications to provide insight into the root causes of production shortfalls. By uniting data with models in a single environment, problems can be identified more quickly, downtime minimized, and production optimized.

Built-in flexibility

Every producing asset brings unique production chal- lenges, which can demand new or nonstandard solutions to address them. This software platform can capture all available measurements and workflows, which can be incorporated and tailored to meet the specific needs of dynamic field operations (e.g. new measurements or equipment types) and different types of users, such as engineers and asset managers.

Avocet provides detailed visualization of wellbore configurations, and its data storage is date-effective so that changes can be tracked through time.

Avocet has been developed using global industry standards to support audits, security, and regulatory compliance. The platform has been built on a modern Microsoft foundation and is open and extensible. Customized software extensions and tailored calculations can quickly be added to meet exact requirements. A Microsoft Silverlight interface allows full access to the platform on the web for fast data entry and validation, a common view for sharing information between the field and office locations, and faster identification and management of operational issues.

Integrated technology for the integrated asset

The integrated platform can collect all types of production operations information from subsurface, wellbore, wellhead, surface networks, and facilities. Example applications include comprehensive solutions to monitor and analyze multiphase meter measurements and monitoring and optimizing the performance of artificial lift operations. Other applications include detailed visualization of wellbore configurations and the tracking of wellbore workovers; authorizations for expenditure, including perforating and stimulation operations; and integrity parameters for mechanical surveillance.

Model-based flow assurance surveillance functionality helps users understand and predict problems such as scale precipitation and CO-induced corrosion. Tight integration with the PIPESIM steady-state multiphase flow simulator allows for design and diagnostic analysis of oil and gas production systems. These software tools model multi-phase flow from the reservoir to the wellhead and analyze flowline and surface facility performance.

Sharing architectural components enables OFM well and reservoir surveillance software projects to be set up with just a few mouse clicks within the platform. This capability provides advanced production surveillance views and powerful production forecasting tools to manage and improve oil and gas field performance throughout the entire life cycle. It allows all asset disciplines to view, relate, and analyze reservoir and production data with comprehensive workflow tools such as interactive base maps with production trends, bubble plots, diagnostic plots, decline curve analysis, and type curve analysis.

Tight integration with the OFM well and reservoir analysis software also delivers easy flow of data collected and verified by the Avocet platform into the Petrel E&P software platform for tasks like production history-matching and model validation from the ECLIPSE reservoir simulator.

Production computations & industry standards

Projects and data transfers in GIS-enabled OFM well and reservoir analysis software can be set up in just a few mouse clicks using the Avocet platform.

The integrated platform can perform full-stream and component-based allocation for a wide range of fluid and disposition types. API, ISO, and AGA standards are used for volume computation and temperature and pressure correction. Theoretical methods can be used for wellhead estimation and setting up allocation using network schematics.

Operations data are automatically loaded from SCADA systems, data historians, and other business systems using OLEDB, ODBC, CSV, and XML formats. The platform also supports the Energistics PRODML and WITSML standards for data transfers. NORSOK D-010 and other well integrity standards are supported for well design, planning, and the execution of safe well operations. All data captured and stored in the platform is date-effective and version-controlled to support the demands of audits and Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.

Information to act and add barrels

The integrated production operations software platform benefits a broad range of producing asset disciplines – field staff, production and reservoir engineers, production accountants, and administrators. Asset managers are able to view asset performance, monitor key performance indicators, and visualize relevant information that can affect production and impact performance. Production managers can visualize asset performance, including allocated production against plan for a full portfolio of assets in a consistent manner, in a single environment, regardless of asset type or where the assets are located. The platform includes the capability to use the classifications of downtime to provide the basis for the analysis of production shortfalls – root causes can be assigned, identified, and tracked for continuous performance improvement.

The platform provides easy access to robust tools and techniques for advanced data mining, artificial intelligence, and petroleum engineering analysis to detect anomalous behavior, estimate well performance, or provide data-driven candidate selection. Reports can be generated to meet operational, management, partner, and regulatory requirements.

By improving data quality, automating routine operations, integrating workflows, and uniting data and models in a common environment, the Avocet platform provides operators with many new opportunities to improve field performance and ultimately add barrels to consistently meet production targets.