The offshore oil and gas industry has changed significantly in recent years, and companies are innovating to meet challenges such as emissions targets and an increasingly digital economic landscape. Offshore Technology explores five exploration technologies for the offshore industry.
Digital transformations
Oil and gas companies have been looking for digital solutions to streamline operations and transform their digital infrastructures to increase exploration efficiency.
Digital transformation can help oil and gas companies explore and manage remote areas. Data-enhanced technologies such as remote monitoring and predictive maintenance enable offshore operations to be conducted and moderated in places humans cannot reach.
Companies can use digital visualization to access real-time data and information about operations, react to changes as they occur, and take preemptive measures to resolve problems before they happen.
This information can help discover potential areas for exploration and uncover new resources by increasing the accessibility and utility of existing data.
Digital transformation can also potentially reduce methane emissions in oil and gas operations. In February 2019, the Environmental Defence Fund (EDF) published a paper entitled Fuelling a Digital Methane Future, outlining how strengthened digital infrastructures and improved visualization systems could manage and reduce waste in exploration and production projects.
Methane detection systems
Methane accounts for approximately one-fifth of artificial global emissions. Oil and gas companies are now taking steps to reduce methane emissions from their operations.
This can be accomplished by integrating methane management into digital infrastructures, with technologies being developed to detect emissions and leaks more efficiently. These enhanced infrastructures also allow oil and gas companies to repair methane leaks more quickly.
One such program is the LUMEN digital methane detection program, which oil services provider BHGE unveiled in January 2019.
The platform consists of two connected formats: a ground-based solar-powered wireless sensor network and a drone-based system for over-air monitoring. These systems can stream live data from their sensors to a cloud-based software dashboard for accurate and efficient monitoring of methane emissions.
LUMEN also uses machine learning and algorithms similar to those used in search engines to provide real-time methane concentration data, with rates and locations of leaks. This allows operators to make quicker and more reliable decisions.
Seismic imaging
Seismic imaging is an important part of the oil and gas exploration process. It allows for the discovery of potential wells and the collection of data to construct seafloor maps.
However, the process generally uses airguns to send seismic waves through the sea and has been criticized for potentially disrupting marine wildlife such as whales and dolphins.
This has led companies to develop alternative methods, such as that by seismic service company Geokinetics. Dubbed the AquaVib, the “marine vibrator” puts the same amount of vibrations into the water as conventional airguns over a longer period. This prevents potential disruptions to the natural patterns of marine life compared to the shorter bursts produced by airguns, which release more energy into the ocean.
Seismic technology has become more advanced, with companies working to make the process safer and more efficient. An example is BP’s Wolfspar seismic source technology. This submarine-like machine uses low-frequency waves to see deeper below salt layers and identify untapped oil and gas resources.
BP has uncovered new resources in its Gulf of Mexico operations thanks to the Wolf Star seismic technology. An additional 1 billion barrels of oil are at its Thunder Horse field and 400 million at the Atlantis field.
Artificial intelligence
Oil and gas companies have started using artificial intelligence (AI) alongside existing digital infrastructures to increase the efficiency and productivity of exploration operations.
BP invested in Houston-based technology start-up Belmont Technology in January 2019 to bolster the company’s AI capabilities.
Belmont Technology developed a cloud-based geoscience platform nicknamed “Sandy” using AI. This platform provides BP with unique “knowledge graphs” created by interpreting geology, geophysics, historical, and reservoir project information from BP.
The AI intuitively links that information, identifying new connections and workflows and creating a robust image of BP’s subsurface assets. The oil company can then consult the data in the knowledge graph, with the AI using neural networks to perform simulations and interpret results.
In March 2019, Aker BP partnered with SparkCognition, a tech company, to enhance AI applications in its ‘Cognitive Operation’ initiative.
SparkCognition’s AI systems will monitor topside and subsea installations for more than 30 offshore structures through an analytics solution platform called SparkPredict.
SparkPredict analyzes sensor data using machine learning algorithms. This enables the company to identify suboptimal operations and impending failures before they occur.
Automation
In addition to upgrading technologies like AI and digital infrastructures, oil and gas companies have invested in hardware to enhance physical infrastructures.
Autonomous robots have the potential to reach previously inaccessible areas, open them up for exploration, and efficiently perform maintenance roles.
The UK’s Oil & Gas Technology Centre trialed an autonomous inspection robot on Total’s platforms in April 2018 and, in May 2018, invested in three robotics projects to help increase production and lower maintenance costs for platforms on the UK Continental Shelf.
Automation is used to enhance the platforms, as well as robotics.
In October 2018, Equinox celebrated the start-up of the Oseberg H oil platform, the world’s first fully automated oil and gas platform. With no living quarters or facilities, the platform is entirely unmanned and requires only one or two yearly maintenance visits. In January 2019,
Aker BP moved its Ivar Aasen operations in the North Sea to its Trondheim office9, becoming the first company on the Norwegian Continental Shelf to operate a staffed platform from an onshore control room.
The platform was constructed with two identical control rooms, one on the platform and one onshore. The onshore control room monitors production, facilities, equipment, and all activity on the platform.
