Offshore Solutions

Based on decades of experience in this industry, the engineers and technicians of eP have developed well controlled solutions comprised of the "best of breed" products.

Executive Summary

Using eProduction Solutions' systems helps operations in the following areas:

• Less downtime for producing wells.
• Real-time information across the enterprise.
• Comparisons between different real-time and static data.
• Interface to SCADA and DCS systems on one screen.
• Analysis from remote locations.
• Integration between wells and related well test information.

By providing real-time applications, manual data entry capabilities, production operations applications, and enterprise information management systems, eP allows the user to significantly optimize field production.

eP's solutions are designed to complete the cycle of activity to optimize platform production operations. The cycle includes a design phase where the user can create the most efficient design for the pump based on the conditions of the well and information from past operations. Once the design is in place, the well must be monitored to assure the design continues to be correct and to identify changes in the well and producing equipment that indicates analysis is necessary. If an exception is identified during the monitoring stage, then analysis must take place. Eventually, analysis will indicate that a well needs remediation or that a new pump needs to be installed and the design phase starts the cycle again.

Offshore Software Solution Summary

An eProduction Solutions' system can be a complete system by itself or it can interface with other SCADA or DCS systems. The systems software can capture data from existing SCADA and DCS systems and provide analysis, reporting, and trending for the user. That data can be stored in the built-in historian and used for long-term analysis.

The software will communicate directly to the controllers at the well through native hardware protocols or using OPC. With this configuration, the software becomes the complete automation software for the platform.

eProduction Solutions' software communicates with hardware devices through the user selected communication type. The users can then monitor, analyze, and control wells and facilities remotely. Using eP's software solutions allows users to perform fine-tuning as well as behavioral changes to increase production or decrease operational expenses. Early detection of production-robbing problems helps increase runtime and decrease downtime from advanced analysis such as:

• Comparison of well test data to theoretical limits and target values.
• Artificial lift analysis.
• Calculated production amounts.
• Notification of wells operating out of preset parameters.

  Cost Reduction

  Fields are able to reduce installation and on going maintenance costs with the software's easy setup and update screens. The time saved with our solutions allows better use of personnel to do proactive maintenance based on the analysis done with the software rather than reactive maintenance. Costs can be reduced in many ways. Operators can reduce electrical costs by:

  • Optimizing submersible pumping unit and motor size.
  • Reduce chemical costs by optimizing the chemical treatment plan.
  • Make chemical treatments less frequent but just as effective.
  • Reduce computer hardware costs.

  Daily Use

  The software gives access to many different people in different areas of the world to the information from the offshore platform. Daily and monthly production reporting is done quickly and easily. Moreover, the daily well management is done by exception. The user can choose to display only those wells where an operating parameter has exceeded a predetermined limit.

  The administration requirements for the software solution are minimal. Tools are provided that allow the local administrator to handle most of the administrative tasks associated with the software. Since it is a single system solution, support costs are reduced. In addition, the web capabilities allow data access to everyone everywhere with no additional cost.

Typical eProduction Solutions Installation

eProduction Solutions' Offshore Installation

The diagram above depicts the use of an eProduction Solutions installation on an offshore platform. The software resides on a central NT server and it polls various types of wells and production facilities. It can poll many different brands of controllers, RTUs, and PLCs on those wells and facilities. Our solutions brings all the needed data from the field devices into the NT server. It can also collect data by using manually entered information.

Operators of the field can control well and facility activity, analyze production, and predict future results and failures using the various modules. The software can be used throughout the entire enterprise by using existing LAN and WAN technology.

eProduction Solution versus a Typical Solution

Typical offshore solutions are DCS systems that are focused on getting instant status and alarms from the operation. Unfortunately, these systems are reactive in nature. They do not provide analytical information that can help predict and even prevent problems in operations of an offshore field. The DCS systems are typically self-contained systems that require separate integration to share the information between the applications. Historical information is generally stored in a separate historical-database application.

eProduction Solution System

eProduction Solutions provides the offshore platform operator with an up-to-the-minute accurate look at the production operations of a producing platform with the following features:

• The operator can scan, monitor, analyze, and report on the status and history of the wells.
• Integration with current DCS systems.
• Automatic, semiautomatic, and manual well testing.
• The results of well tests can be used within the production tools for accurate displays of production changes.
• Current information about production from anywhere in the world via the web, Intranet or WAN.
• User can view and compare information from different applications on one screen.

By comparing more than just production data, the platform operators can take advantage of previously unused data for operational decisions. For example, the electrician can use the amp charts data from the ESPs and the data from the total electrical consumption data to accurately monitor overall electrical usage.

eProduction Solution' systems are compatible with most networks and hardware devices. The solution can integrate with existing SCADA and DCS systems.

Real-time Applications

The architecture of the software products allows for comprehensive monitoring and control of offshore platforms. The software provides general monitoring for virtually any controller, RTU, or PLC. The point-and-click interface provides the ability to easily define RTUs, analogs, meters, and discretes so users can start seeing trends, alarms, and reports in minutes. When additional points are added, users can instantly track trends, print reports, and perform analysis.

The applications can coexist with the monitoring solution or with existing SCADA and DCS systems. With complete OPC and ODBC support, data can automatically be retrieved from existing SCADA and DCS systems.

Users can easily add calculated analog, meters, discretes, and alarms for instant notification of problems. eP's monitoring software works with all of our other products, as well as third party MMI tools such as Wonderware and Intellution.

Due to the high cost of operating an offshore platform, it is imperative that the automation/optimization system does not fail. To that end, our software has incorporated Microsoft's Clustering for Windows NT. Using NT Clustering, the system is seamlessly and instantly turned over to a redundant system in the event of an NT machine crash. The wells and operating systems that are being controlled by the faulty NT computer are not affected. In addition, the users do not notice the seamless change over to the back-up machine.

Manual Entry Applications

Along with real-time connections to the wells and facilities in the field, eProduction Solutions' software also provides the user with an interface to manually enter pertinent data.

Data from the pump shop and the chemical treatment vendor can be entered easily into a stand-alone computer such as a laptop. When the data is entered into the server database, it is immediately synchronized with the current data and made available for analysis. The data synchronization works with other manually collected data and real-time data.

Each software package offered by eProduction Solutions has specific screens to enter the data pertinent to that type of well or facility. In addition, historical data from other applications can be entered through a batch process.

Artificial Lift Applications

There is nowhere where the saying "time is money" is more pertinent than on an offshore operation. By using the analytical design and monitoring software tools offered by eProduction Solutions, operators can optimize well production by reducing downtime and increasing pumping efficiency. Keeping the most appropriate lift system in the hole for as long as possible provides the maximum amount of production for the expensive time on an offshore operation.

Facilities Monitoring Applications

Along with providing optimization at the well level with artificial lift tools, eProduction Solutions also provides tools for operations optimization. By providing up to the minute information about your field coupled with advanced analysis capabilities, the tools assist in making sound decisions related to field operations.

eProduction Solutions' production operations solution offers users tools for total field production analysis, daily and monthly reporting, and facility monitoring and alarming. Well service reporting, chemical-treatment analysis, and subsurface-pump analysis are all a part of the another software package we offer. In addition, part of this solutions provides a tool to perform manual, automatic, and semiautomatic well testing.

Enterprise Information Management Systems

eProduction Solutions uses web software to provide web-based interface for browsing and analysis of offshore platform data. It can be configured to access data from any OPC or SQL compliant data sources and present the data to the user. This unique ability to browse and analyze data from multiple data sources allows data analysis from an integrated solution by anybody on the corporate Intranet or Internet.

By using the web interface, each individual who is responsible for a particular area can use all the information accessed from the platform to make more informed, better decisions. For instance, an electrical engineer can track energy usage from one or several electrical submersible pumps and compare that usage to the platform's total energy consumption from another real-time monitoring system.

Anyone in the company who needs access to current information from an offshore platform can easily access it through the Internet or the company's Intranet.

Communication

eP's solutions works with several different types of communication channels and then sends the information throughout the enterprise via the Internet, Intranet, or wide-area network (WAN).

We have partnership agreements in place with radio, cellular, and satellite companies to assure that the appropriate communication methods are available for each project's specifications. Satellite communication is becoming more popular and provides a workable solution for reaching offshore platforms. Cellular phone communication (CDPD) usually provides a lower priced alternative to satellite links. Radio telemetry can also be used, but licensed frequencies are difficult to procure.