Application of IoT (Internet of Things) in the monitoring and control of offshore oil & gas production platforms

Abstract

Internet of Things (IoT) is a new technological development in the oil and gas field, for both up upstream and mid/downstream industries. More stringent requirements with regards to process safety, optimisation, plant equipment health monitoring have pushed companies to investigate IoT for the improvement of their processes. IoT refers to a network of internet connected objects or devices for the purpose of collecting, exchanging data and taking automated actions (V. Hassijaet.al., 2019). In the context of offshore oil and gas exploration processes, it refers to computers (control) systems that are interconnected in a network in order to access and process data for the purpose of monitoring and taking controlled actions on the production process, thus ensuring process safety and optimisation. Due to the unfavorable operating conditions in which offshore oil and gas production facilities exist, companies are looking into the use of IoT in order overcome these harsh climatic and environmental offshore conditions, whilst making profits, with minimal or zero safety incidents. An IoT infrastructure and architecture typically consists of: measuring devices or transmitters, signal transmission protocols, control systems which process the collected data, networks which link the different data collectors and processors, and human machine interfacing, which allows end-users to access, interpret and make use of the data, for technical actions such as design, operation and optimisation. Measurement technology is required to be robust and reliable in the harsh offshore production environment. Wireless technology such as virtual flow metering is on the rise in the offshore environment, as it uses less infrastructure (wiring and cabling) for measurements. Signal transmission protocols such as 4-20mA, 1-5V, ethernet and modbus (foundation fieldbus) is still in use in, whilst radio frequency identification (RFID) and satellite telecommunications are on the rise, as it requires less infrastructure and allows for unmanned offshore production operations. For processing the collected data, distributed control systems (DCS), programmable logic controllers (PLC) and emergency shutdown device (ESD) systems are used as standard control systems. These systems are powered electrically with 24 V DC or 110 V AC power supply. For subsea measurement technology, both 24 VDC is used for the transmitters and hydraulic power is used for pressure actuated isolation valves, in the gas and oil wells. Subsea control actions are done in the master control system (MCS) and topside platform actions are done in the DCS. For equipment health-monitoring, monitoring systems are implemented for predictive maintenance and abnormal situation management. Opportunities for further investigation have been identified, in the areas of wireless monitoring, pipeline leak detection methods, advanced process control, alarm management, subsea and parameter estimation modelling