Production

Automation Solutions Designed to Optimize Oil and Gas Well Production







  



	Sensors  and  automation  passively participate in our every- day lives to improve comfort, add safety and reliability, and increase the efficiency of needed products and services.


	
	
by Micahel Smith, R&M Energy Systems


	

	



	

	

	As the use of sensors and automation has proliferated throughout various industry sectors, these products have become reliable, economical and easy to maintain and service. Experienced personnel and suppliers can create, adapt or integrate their products and services for almost any application. The challenge becomes how we collect, correlate and translate this data into actionable information.




	The oil and gas industry is no stranger to the advanced uses of sen- sors, automation and data collection, especially in  the  discovery process, high volume producing wells, regulatory reporting and custody transfer. However, lower producing wells and older, more established producing regions have not been as willing to make these critical investments for the following reasons:



    
	
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		Economics does not justify the expense and support of these technologies
	
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		Entrenched policies and procedures are hard to adapt to new technologies
	
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		Bad prior experience when poor implementation caused more problems than it solved
	
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	These barriers to implementation need to be resolved by addressing the real costs of inaction and overcoming entrenchment and prior experience. The alternatives to doing  nothing are not attractive and lead to greater regulatory involvement, higher insurance costs, lower productivity and lost production. Perhaps the greatest risks from reckless behavior are the loss of good will and a community’s willingness to permit operations in an area.




	For instance, consider a sensor installed to prevent a leaking seal from polluting a well site. The real cost of a single cleanup operation would cover the cost of installing the sensor and automation systems deployed across a significant portion of the operating area. The cost of lost production and employee productivity are significant costs to include in the total equation. Operators too often believe that the impact is minimal and accept the risk. However, the risks are often much larger than realized; once an incident occurs, it will curb growth and new opportunities.




	Overcoming Barriers




	When approaching the described barriers, operators should start with a small project. Some good steps include:



	
	







			
	

  


  

    

          
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