New Standard Streamlines Software Integration

The move toward automation on offshore facilities has allowed drilling and production systems to work more efficiently. Today, standard operations can be carried out much more quickly than ever before, and sensor systems deliver increasingly more real-time data. Intelligent operations (IO) puts information in the hands of decision-makers in real time, expediting the speed with which decisions can be made and, in the end, increasing drilling and production operations. In short, IO has delivered efficiencies that were only dreamed about decades ago.

Along with efficiencies, however, software systems also present challenges.

For software suppliers and system integrators – typically builders and shipyards – the large number of systems present on today’s offshore facilities poses an enormous challenge. While hardware components are designed and developed with the idea in mind that they have to fit together at some point to form a system, software follows no such protocol, which means when the time comes for the individual software programs to communicate, thepath for communication normally is anything but smooth.

Making communication possible takes a great deal of time. Unfortunately, time is money, and the longer operations are delayed, the more costly the integration process becomes.

Paving The Way

According to Charles McHardy, director of operations for North America in the Gulf of Mexico region for DNV, the more critical software becomes, the greater the challenge of integration.

This chart shows a typical distribution of activities throughout the phases of software development and commissioning. (Images courtesy of DNV)

“If you look at the digital oil field, the trend continues to be toward more dependence on information technology and software,” he said. This has become a concern because while the industry becomes more dependent on these systems, the systems themselves are becoming more complex and more critical to operations.

That observation was the impetus behind DNV’s initiative to create an Integrated Software Dependent Systems (ISDS) notation that provides a common framework for carrying out software integration. Quite simply, the ISDS notation focuses on how to set up and run a project in which software integration is critical and how to develop quality assurance processes that will last throughout the lifetime of the vessel on which the systems are installed.

David Card, technical director for software and systems reliability at DNV, explained that a lot of the problems that arise during commissioning center around getting the systems to communicate with one other. “If you establish up front an interface specification and require vendors conform to it, you can avoid a lot of those problems,” he said.

Applying the class notation helps owners and operators find a balance between the opportunities and the cost of automation and to manage the risk related to poor quality, incorrect functionality, and unsafe behavior. The ISDS does not impose a new quality system, Card explained. It ensures integration activities are planned, executed, and managed according to best practices.

By streamlining the integration process, this guidance improves project economics by reducing the time needed to integrate systems and commission an offshore facility, minimizing downtime and expediting initial production.

Short-Circuiting Miscommunication

The ISDS identifies certain practices or processes that must be in place. “The ISDS doesn’t tell you how to design or integrate a system,” Card explained, “but it tells you, for example, that you must have an interface definition, that there has to be a place where you write down what all of the interfaces are, and that you manage these things so everybody can see the guidelines and everybody can conform.”

An integration plan is required. Although this seems as if it should go without saying, Card said, what has happened in the past is that testing often has not been carried out in a prescribed order, and that has led to problems.

Sometimes during commissioning, systems are being tested by different vendors at the same time, and the tests are not compatible. For instance, Card said, tests for the emergency shut-down system and the drilling system have been conducted at the same time. Though it is obvious that these tests cannot be carried out simultaneously, the fact is that if testing is not planned, it is easy for conflicting tests to overlap.

“Someone has to think about the order in which software integration testing should be done instead of allowing everybody to show up in the yard and carry out these tests in any order,” Card said. Software often arrives late – after the hardware has been delivered and installed – so the order of testing may not be the same as the order of installation.

Preparing For Change

By and large, drilling contractors have given the ISDS notation a warm reception. “We came out with the class notation toward the end of last year,” McHardy said. “It’s been very, very well received, so much so that we have at least a couple of the major drilling contractors saying all new-builds going forward will have this notation for all of the complex control systems.”

An “independent verifier” is an organization mandated to independently verify that the system is developed according to the expected rules, standards, processes, and quality.

The reason for this, McHardy said, is that rig owners are used to a class regime where class notations ensure that what is delivered from the yard meets their needs and has the functionality and reliability required. This eliminates issues in the operational phase.

“The rig owners we talked to saw the ISDS class notation – or the potential for such notation – as fulfilling a similar role for them,” McHardy said. “They were particularly keen to see not just the recommended practice but something practical, a class notation they could use.”

With drilling contractors embracing the ISDS, there is a need for training, and that training has to be accomplished soon so yards are able to comply with the demands of their customers. “We’ve been working on the yards as well as with workshops toward the main yards in Korea like HHI, DSME, and Samsung,” McHardy said. The goal is to have the yards ready and able to work to contractors’ requirements.

According to Card, Petrobras was one of the early movers, asking DNV to conduct an ISDS notation workshop for company personnel and the company’s suppliers of automated systems. “One of the feedback items that we got from that workshop was that they really liked the idea that the roles were defined because it clarifies the expectation of who is supposed to do what,” Card said. “The suppliers are supposed to do certain things, the integrator is supposed to do certain things, and the owner is supposed to do certain things. With the roles clearly defined, you don’t get into the situation of finger pointing and, ‘Why didn’t you do that? I thought you were going to do that.’”

One of the most powerful things about the notation, McHardy said, is that in identifying roles and responsibilities, it will help eliminate unnecessary downtime. The ISDS notation lets software suppliers know the requirements early enough in their design and development process and in their testing and verification of the software so problems can be avoided in the hookup and commissioning phase.

“It’s not just a case of running into issues when the rig goes out to drill and suddenly things are not doing what they should be doing,” McHardy said. “It’s actually in the commissioning as well. It doesn’t matter if you’re delayed 20 days during commissioning or 20 days on your first well. It’s still 20 days at a cost of US $600,000 a day in lost time and production.”