American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2016 - 60

SpecialReport: Artificial Lift Technology
Redesigning Pad Operations
The early well pad automation design was extremely limited for both new and legacy pads. In some cases, the data included only gas rate measurements. All surveillance data (pressures,
temperatures, and vessel/tank levels) were collected manually by
operations technicians during daily inspections, limiting the usefulness of the data and exposing technicians to unnecessary risk.
The operations and engineering teams attributed a portion of unfavorable well performance and downtime to limited use of surveillance data. Additionally, pad shutdowns could not be triggered
remotely for emergencies such as flash flooding or vandalism.
Remedial work was required to bring the legacy pads up to
BHP Billiton's standards for safety, integrity, reliability and surveillance. In addition to installing advanced automation, the sites
also required modifying the pneumatic safety system and piping
to commingle tank batteries, and installing additional electrical
grounding, temperature safety element loops, and liquid allocation metering.
BHP Billiton's Eagle Ford production unit also faced challenges
with telecommunications. A remote Wi-Fi service was installed on
each pad prior to operations to connect drilling and completions teams
to the Internet as well as to BHP Billiton's business voice, video
and data networks. However, this service was disabled following
completion, leaving well pads with no Internet connectivity.
After production startup, point-to-multipoint radios were used
to transmit the limited data collected from each pad site. In this
configuration, bandwidth restrictions created an excessive length
of time between data polling periods.
The operations team identified several HS&E and productivity challenges resulting from the limited data available from
the pads. Technicians spent up to four hours each day driving
on remote roads to perform daily inspections. Regulatory inspections also demanded regular visits to pads to meet compliance requirements. In addition to manual data collection and
keyed data entry, operations technicians spent additional hours
on site for higher-rate wells that needed more frequent tank level monitoring.
Once on location, technicians spent large amounts of time in
safety-sensitive areas performing manual data collection tasks.
Moreover, operations technicians and administrative staff spent
one to two hours a day capturing non-automated process values
and entering them into a historian database.
Guiding Principles
The team developed a set of guiding principles to drive program design and implementation, with an eye on tangible results
FIGURE 1

that included:
* Improving productivity by 25 percent by allowing each technician to operate more wells;
* Reducing road miles by 25 percent per technician by eliminating daily site visits to collect data;
* Reducing downtime by 10 percent of unscheduled facility breakdowns and well loading by fully adopting remote surveillance practices;
* Leveraging existing applications in BHP Billiton's IT portfolio to avoid having to develop new software;
* Using off-the-shelf components to limit custom builds, costs,
and supply cycle times; and
* Leveraging downtime during implementation by "hiding
behind" other non-IWPP downtime to perform tasks such as installing tubing or upgrading facilities.
The team determined during the selection phase that the IWPP
would require a holistic implementation approach supported by
a cross-functional project team. Each of the five "layers" shown
in Figure 1 was identified as critical for a comprehensive program.
Without this complete view, solutions were likely to be partial
or suboptimal.
Work streams were established to support the IWPP framework (Figures 2A and 2B). The automation and piping work
streams implemented data collection and well control. The IT
and telecommunications work stream delivered the video cameras and radio infrastructure to move the collected data off well
pads, while the surveillance center work stream provided the tools
and infrastructure to manage and view collected data. The applications and business processes work streams managed the required changes to the existing application tool set, established
standardized processes and procedures, and defined roles and responsibilities.
FIGURE 2A
Project Work Streams
Data Collection & Well Control
Automation & Piping

Highest
Investment

IT Infrastructure
IT & Telecommunications
Applications Tool Set
IM Applications

People & Collaboration
Surveillance Center

Data Collection & Well Control

Design, procurement, construction and implementation of the surveillance center
building
Project Management

FIGURE 2B
Project Work Stream Identification
Program Framework

Well Pad

People & Collaboration

60 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

Infrastructure

Program framework defined project work streams

Application Tool Set

Process Standardization

Surveillance Center

Data
Flow

Automation

Surveillance
Center

People & Collaboration

Application Tool Set

Infrastructure

Process Standardization
People & Collaboration

IT & Telecoms

Business Processes
Highest
Return

Surveillance
Center

Data Collection & Well Control

IT Infrastructure
Application Tool Set

Data
Flow

Current-state process assessment and future process and role design

Intelligent Well Pad Framework
Highest
Investment

Well Pad

Design procurement, installation and commissioning of a mesh radio network and
cameras
Optimization of the current application tool set and screen and report development

Process Standardization
Business Processes
Highest
Return

Design, procurement, installation and commissioning of all automation solutions
and services, tank control philosophy and commingling design

Data Collection & Well Control

Piping Modifications

Applications & Processes
American Oil and Gas Reporter - June 2016

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