Remote - Spring 2015 - (Page 14)

Feature Article Wireless Well Pad Retrofit Jim Gardner, Regional Vice President OleumTech, Inc. Automation has been a standard in the oil and gas industry for many years. Just in the past 10 years alone, wireless automation has taken over a very large percentage of all new installations. Many companies consider automation as a part of the check list for any new wells that are drilled. However, retrofitting older wells has been a slower evolution, but with the advances in wireless technology, the economic case for retrofitting has caused some operators to see it as a viable business decision. As with any business decision, multiple factors have to be considered. Those who have chosen to retrofit older wells with wireless automation typically site these eight reasons as their main justification. 1. Reduced downtime 2. Increased safety at production locations 3. Reduction in lightning damage 4. Reduced maintenance costs 5. Additional flexibility 6. Ease in troubleshooting 7. Ability to install without interrupting production operations 8. Regulatory compliance and Emergency shutdown capability Safety Safety is always a primary concern in oil and gas operations. One of the most common areas for injury is slip and fall accidents on production locations. Another major concern is exposure to hazardous environments and hazardous gases. Automation of tank gauging and other process variables such as casing pressure, tubing pressure and flow volumes can reduce the number of trips to production locations. And even when personnel are on location, process variables like tank level can be read through a HMI LCD Display from a central location without climbing the stairs and opening a hatch. Wireless automation adds to safety by greatly reducing installation time and eliminating the need for open trenches and heavy equipment to be on location. A wired installation often requires a team of people working for several days on location to accomplish what one man can do in hours using wireless instrumentation. Simply reducing man hours on a project also helps reduce risk of injury. Eliminating the need for back hoes and man lifts on location further reduces the potential for risk. Economics There are two factors in economic decisions: * Will it increase production? (increase revenue) * Will it reduce expenses? (increase profits) Automation has a long track record of proving that it can do both of these things effectively. How Automation Increases Oil Production and Reduces Expenses Optimizing gas well production is at the heart of automation. As one major gas producer was quoted as saying, "there are only two kinds of gas wells, those that are on plunger lift and those that will be on plunger lift." New breakthroughs in technology allow operators to implement Class 1, Division 1 wireless instrumentation on to a wellhead. The best of these devices are both explosion-proof and intrinsically safe. The explosion-proof housings make the products extremely durable and "oilfield tough," while the intrinsically safe feature allows technicians and operators to change batteries and calibrate the instrument in place without the fear of creating an electrical spark that can cause a fire accident. Today, manufacturers of wireless instruments offer casing pressure, tubing pressure, flow meter, plunger arrival, and valve control signals from the wellhead or tank battery back to a local Remote Controller, which is located outside the classified area. This can be extremely effective when communication to a central tank battery is desired or if there are multiple wellheads on one location talking to a central controller. 14 www.RemoteMagazine.com How Automation Increases Gas Production and Reduces Expenses In oil production, the emphasis switches from gas measurement with some liquid byproduct to large volumes of liquids and some gas byproduct. With multiple tanks, separators, turbine meters and valves, wireless automation allows operators to bring data from many different Hardwired locations into a central location easily as seen in the figure below. The wireless option reduces installation expense by 30 to 40 percent and cuts deployment time from multiple days to just a few hours. Also, if a particular wireless system provides scalability or expansion of end nodes, adding more points or end nodes to a system at a later time is quite easy to do without the burden of permitting, trenching and running wires. Downtime-Alarms-ESD Systems One of the most attractive features of a wireless retrofit is the flexibility of products. If there is an existing wired system in place, the operator can choose to add new points wirelessly and leave the existing instrumentation in place by disconnecting the wire from the instrument and adding a Wireless wireless transmitter. They can also add new points to the system wirelessly that are capable of communicating to the same data hub in the controller that is already in service. One of the advantages of a wireless system is its ability to be added at any time to a production location and expand on what may already be in place or retrofit to the existing system. Wireless systems provide the ability to send alarms for any process variable, and can provide alarms for the wireless system itself. In addition, many wireless systems provide alarms for poor radio reception, weak battery, and communication failures. Facility alarms for high tank level, high flow, low flow, high pressure and low pressure are often brought back to the controller to allow the controller to make logic decisions and affect emergency shutdown (ESD). However, some operators choose to have the http://www.RemoteMagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Remote - Spring 2015

Editor's Choice
The Impact of OPC UA and Information Modeling on Monitoring Solutions
Protecting Critical Infrastructure: Understanding the Threat to SCADA Networks
Small Power, Big Benefits – Fuel Cells for Remote and Off-Grid Applications
What to Expect in the Equipment Industry in 2015
Wireless Well Pad Retrofit
IT-OT Convergence: The Importance of Aligning Historically Disparate Technologies
Internet of Things North Americs Preview
SCADA
Networking
Security
Onsite Power
Industry News

Remote - Spring 2015