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Integrating operations in the digital age
A new Norwegian initiative is aimed at designing a digital computer and communications architecture to support state-of-the-art oil and gas field developments that rely on remote operations and that include large amounts of instrumentation. The objective is the design of a standard digital architecture that will enable the effective and efficient exchange of information between remote offshore fields and onshore operations centers, coupled with the automation of key oil field processes in the challenging environment of the high north.
The initiative, in the form of a joint industry project managed by Norway-based risk management organization DNV, is called “IO in the High North” — “IO” is an abbreviation for integrated operations, a concept in which oil and gas production processes offshore and onshore are coordinated and optimized through immediate access to data and information.
State-of-the-art digital technology will underpin the IO approach to doing business.
“On the Norwegian continental shelf the installations are connected to the onshore facilities through powerful (optic) fiber cables,” DNV spokesperson Kjetil Hjertvik told Petroleum News Sept. 4. “That makes it possible to transfer data in real time.”
Unmanned offshore rigs The project focus will be on improved approaches to semiautonomous control systems for unmanned offshore rigs, production security in Arctic regions and sub-ice operations, according to a DNV press release. Much attention will be paid to the environmental aspects of oil and gas operations, DNV said.
The Norway Oil Industry Association, the Business Association of Norwegian Knowledge and Technology Based Enterprises and the Norwegian Defence and Security Industries Association are supporting the project, with the Research Council of Norway also contributing funding. The project is expected to last four years.
“Collaboration between different industries is important to meet the challenges of the future,” said Heidi Brovold, the person with responsibility for integrated operations work in DNV. “IO in the High North shows how the Norwegian knowledge industry is taking a leading role in the global oil and gas industry.”
—Alan Bailey
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