Tracking gas

RFID is purported as an ideal tool for the oil and gas supply chain.

The oil field is a complex network of nodes with the ultimate objective of extracting, processing, and delivering hydrocarbons from source (ground) to destination (consumer).

This is a simplification of an intricate supply chain that provides a very unique set of challenges for a ‘delivery network’ that is dependant of people, products and processes for its success. Ultimately, without the right people, performing the appropriate processes, using the proper products, the delivery network fails.

For example, on an oil platform, if a tool is not available to perform a particular process, then this tool must be procured or the operation cannot be performed. Such an event, or rather lack of it, can prevent drilling activities from continuing.
The ‘tool’ can be a stud-tensioner used during the handling of risers, a tubular
pipe used for drilling, or any piece of equipment that is required to perform a particular task on a platform.

In some cases rather than a tool or piece of equipment being unavailable, it is unusable. For instance, when fracing (an activity performed to increase
or restore hydrocarbon output from the formation), field products used in the process require frequent servicing cycles. If field products are used excessively without servicing they risk structural failure. These field products with attributed servicing dates are then rejected for use and must be sent back for servicing. Worse yet, those that are not identified as ‘unusable’ are used in the field and create a hazard for personnel and the operational itself.

Finally people, are the most important component of this network. A person walking across an oil field platform, retrieving ‘tools’ or performing ‘processes’ is a very dynamic asset that requires the utmost attention. In the case of an emergency on an oil platform, personnel must be evacuated in what is typically called ‘mustering’, an assembly of the staff at a particular location. With some platforms capable
of housing several hundred people, even a simple assembly of people can become a difficult task to manage.

The same fundamental people, product, and process subject matters are prevalent across every aspect of the oil field supply chain, across every field product that is used and with every staff or visitor to a facility.

Data collection using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, the fusion of this data to activities, and the interpretation of this data through Business Intelligence (BI) application systems, delivers the necessary framework to control the people, products, and processes within the oil field supplychain. Furthermore, the complexity of the assets when it comes to orientation and assembly, the accumulation of mud and dust on the products, the shifting of the product through various stages of ownership, and the high value of some of these assets, validate the need for RFID to be the data collection technology of choice.

Now that we understand the technology, it application uses, and its value to the oil field, let us take a look at a particular case study at a glance.

CASE STUDY
Company Type: Integrated oil producer
Location: United States/Gulf of Mexico
Application Type: Using RFID to control field product movement from distribution yard to offshore platform

The company stages items that include risers, bushings, stud tensioners, running
tools, and other field products across its terminal yards. Upon demand these components are loaded onto barges and moved into the sea port, for preparation to be shipped to offshore rigs. The long-term objective of this system is to RFID tag all field products moving through the supply chain and develop an underlying software system or extend the existing system such that it can identify and locate these products, as well as providing information on the maintenance and repair, and operational time of each product on a one-on-one basis. The approach was as follows:

1. Scope: Identify all the field products that are required and/or auxiliary to the riser and riser assembly/disassembly.
2. Process analysis: Understand the types of processes that are associated
with a selected field product as it moves through the supply chain.
3. Handling process: Understand the manipulation of the field product during
its movement throughout the supply
chain as a means of understanding what potential abrasions can occur during its handling.
4. Value requirements: Determine the functional needs of both the software system and the tagging and reading locations.
5. Process analysis mapping: Using the data gathered during the ‘value requirements’ and ‘business process analysis’ steps perform basic business analysis using business process and performance analytics engines.
6. Stress Analysis Mapping: Using the data gathered during the handling process analysis in conjunction metallurgic and mechanical variable elicitation and testing, simulate an engineering analysis on the underlying field products using a component design/modification via CAD.
7. Solution and system design: Consolidate all the process and handling analysis data to determine the optimal RFID hardware selection and RFID read locations in addition to the integrationpoints to the software system.
8. Deployment: When requesting a field product, a shipment request form is issued to the terminal. Items are located through a web-based application which provides quantity, bin location, assigned field and other related data. Items are loaded into shipping containers and are validated using either mobile RFID readers or fixed RFID readers, depending on location. During the final loading process, items are hoisted onto a barge. On arrival at the seaport, items are unloaded and scanned into the system using a fixed RFID reader system. They are staged temporarily until they are loaded on a vessel for their designated field location. Upon loading, they are scanned once again using a fixed RFID reader setup at each docking bay.

On arrival at the rig, items are hoisted onto the surface of the rig and stored in inventory designated areas. They are scanned on arrival using mobile handheld RFID readers. Some items are used only on the rig platform for the assembly of risers; other times, namely risers are lowered sub-sea. These are scanned at the borehole using a fixed RFID reader.

Conclusion
The upstream, midstream and downstream operations of the oilfield are the conduit of hydrocarbons from a reservoir to the consumer. Each of these sub-units contains a diverse ecosystem of companies that explore, drill, separate, refine, transport or consume hydrocarbons or their derivatives. Assuring that the delivery network functions efficiently entails managing field products and staff to perform various activities. These activities can include the use of field products, maintenance and repair of field products, movement of field products, allocation of staff to particular jobs, and the safety and security of field products and staff. The oilfield demands a system that can manage these assets and personnel and achieve corporate objectives, such as minimising time-to-total-depth, reducing costs of transport, increasing reservoir output and improving safety protocols. To achieve the capacity to deliver this business intelligence, data must first be collected at the ‘operational edge’.

Edge data collection is facilitated through automatic identification (AID) technologies that include barcoding and RFID. RFID takes precedence to barcoding technologies within the oilfield space because it is able to deliver hands-free data collection
and rewritable field product identifiers. These two basic capacities of the technology enable faster and more accurate processing of field products and staff. Whether the objective is to locate a field operative on an offshore oil rig, perform a maintenance inspection of a pipeline in a refinery, or use a stud tensioner to assemble a riser, RFID technology provides groundbreaking methods of streamlining these processes.

As the technology continues to evolve, standards emerge, and success stories accumulate, this ‘wireless barcode’ should not be overlooked by anyone in the oilfield. It provides significant differentiating advantage to those using it and will be the data collection technology of choice as the oil field moves deeper into the 21st century.