American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2021 - 43

SpecialReport: Production Monitoring
Integrating With SCADA
In some cases, smaller producers are
acquiring fields already equipped with
legacy supervisory control and data acquisition
systems composed of various
hardware and software configurations.
This situation may present small operators
with a couple challenges. The first is
simply changing work habits to take full
advantage of the capabilities, even if at a
limited level, initially. The next challenge
is analyzing the communication architecture
in place, and then sourcing a
cloud bank to collect the data.
The good news deals with the flexibility
and low entry cost of cloud-based solutions.
Only four years ago, an operator
would need to buy additional server capacity
and purchase software packages
simply to gain access to the data. Advancements
in digital technology are rapidly
changing the game, and allowing
operators to cost-effectively leverage legacy
SCADA networks and infuse them
with new IoT capabilities.
However, smaller independents with
limited resources often confront issues
with how quickly the rich datasets from
IoT devices can overwhelm their operations.
There are plenty of meta data
groups available to assist producers, but
scaling to the entity size is challenging.
Majors, of course, are in their own realm,
while mid-range producers are finding
right size meta data organizations to solve
this aspect of IoT. That leaves smaller
producers the option of using other tools
at their disposal.
The silver lining to this challenge is
that all that information is collected in a
database. The data is there for analysis
as needed and many standard database
query and sorting tools can be very effective
in post-analysis for optimizating
well and reservoir management.
Building Datasets On The Fly
One very effective type of dataset
originates in well notifications that can
be set up on specific monitored data
points. Although these typically only alert
field personnel in the event of alarmlevel
occurrences, they also can be set at
levels indicating suboptimal performance.
These notifications can be sent to a
specific email address that will build a
conditions database on the fly as new
data is generated. Working with an IoT
provider, producers can implement tools
to collect notification information in a
more specific dataset for easier retrieval,
analysis and manipulation.
An example of this capability was a
saltwater disposal system set up with a
pump that ran all the time and a second
backup pump that would kick in when
the capacity of the first pump was exceeded.
The injection pressure of the first
pump was much lower than when the
second pump would kick in. Setting
nonalert notifications at these two set
points make it possible to build a database.
Using very ordinary tools, time spans
between the two operational pressures
are calculated and the run time for each
situation is determined. In this way. the
operator easily can identify how long the
second pump runs each month. A few
adjustments may reduce the second pump's
run time with associated electricity savings
boosting the bottom line.
The power of knowing is invaluable.
This is one real-world illustration of how
IoT-enabled monitoring devices and communication
solutions deliver demonstrable
operational and economic value, but there
are many other applications and situations.
The data collected can provide crucial
insights on well and equipment behavior
that reveal a very different story than
what the operator may presume. Sometimes,
a " that never happens " scenario
actually may prove to be a case in which
" it was always happening, but we simply
never knew it before. "
A case in point was a gas injection
well. Pressure balancing is critical in these
types of wells. A pumper visited the well
early every morning and the tubing pressure
consistently measured around 1,000 psi.
The pumper did his job and accurately
recorded pressure data at every visit. However,
until the well operator installed IoT
monitoring technology, no one knew that
a " that never happens " situation occurred
every afternoon, long after the pumper
had left the site, when the gas processing
plant's routine caused line pressures to
drop to 300 psi.
The collected data quickly revealed
and documented the pressure data pattern,
along with the time required to build
tubing pressure back to 1,000 psi. The
engineer in Denver now understood why
projected production volumes were not
being met and knew how to better design
gas injection.
IoT-based tools are delivering powerful, yet affordable solutions for oil and gas production
surveillance and automation. Among the most exciting new developments are video capabilities
that assist when only eyes-on can provide answers. As part of an integrated production
monitoring system, video has a variety of potential applications on the well site
and tank battery.
AUGUST 2021 43

American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2021

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