IoT Evolution in the Digital Oilfield
Session Abstract:
A decade and a half ago, years before the term IoT was prominent, the oil and gas industry saw a critical need for wireless sensor technology for many applications in upstream, midstream, and downstream, for monitoring wells, pipelines, refining, and chemical operations. The requirements were driven by the need to eliminate the need for using cables to connect sensors to SCADA systems and to monitor assets in very remote locations. Eliminating cable installation resulted in accelerating deployment time, cost reduction, and eliminating complex logistics of cabling. Most of these wireless sensors had to be installed near the processes which required them to be explosion-proof certified, as a result, most of these devices had to be low-power and battery-operated which limited the communication range to a few meters and limited their data processing capabilities. Most of these wireless sensors used Zigbee-type communications and specific protocols such as WirelessHART. For very remote locations these wireless sensors were connected to battery-powered low-earth-orbit satellite modems.
The O&G industry’s need for advanced IoTs is ever-growing, and the applications are numerous, however, the industry is still using mostly first-generation IoTs, and little advancements have been made. There is a need to advance the technology in IoTs to perform not only monitoring but also intelligent processing (analytics, ML), smart control, and optimization. In order to develop the next generation systems, we need to leverage several technology advancements such as: 1. Low-frequency radio technologies, such as LORAWAN and others to extend the communication range of these devices. 2. Edge computing capabilities to perform in-situ complex processing, leveraging advancement in microprocessors. 3. IoT-to-Cloud using MQTT to facilitate data capture and management. 4. 5G integration to leverage all the capabilities of bandwidth, latency, and speed, and 5. New satellite constellation networks.
Speaker:
Hatem Nasr Ph.D – A leading expert in Upstream Digital Oilfield (DOF), strategy definition and systems design of DOF systems for: production management, automation, IoT, workflow automation, field development, waterflood management, integrated asset management, and smart operations. His experience spans over 27 years in the energy industry, as a company executive, entrepreneur, and senior advisor the C-suites on Digital Strategy. Before joining Softserve, Hatem has been a senior advisor on strategy, technology roadmap and projects execution to several multinational companies across the world (IOCs and NOCs). He has been involved in more than 14 Digital Oilfield projects around the world with major oil companies, including: KOC (led DOF with budgets over $200 Million), Shell, Chevron, Saudi Aramco, ADNOC, PDO, Pemex and many others. Published over 30 articles and hold several patents. Previously, he was a co-founder of a leading Digital Oilfield start-up financed by Shell Technology Ventures and Director of Advanced Technology in Baker Hughes.
Register now