Data Management and Digitisation: Connecting Subsea Assets in the Digital Space

摘要

While topside plants have made progress in the field of digitalisation. subsea plants are lagging behind. Due to inherent differences between topside and subsea plants (e.g. frequency and ease of changes), certain areas of digitalisation also provide more value than others. A topside plant is in a state of constant change, while a subsea production tree is ideally installed and never touched for 25 years. For example there is no need to update the 3D model of the tree every year, while it may be cost effective to do so for a topside platform. The paper discusses digitalisation benefits in the areas of operating, maintaining and upgrading subsea plants, focusing on current and near term areas ("low hanging fruit"). This is part of a general effort to reduced cost for subsea plants. Longer stepout become possible using DC power and fibre-optic communication systems and along with this comes the ability to connect new sensors that provide valuable insight. IOT sensors can be attached to products to monitor equipment during manufacturing, storage, transport, deployment and in operation. These can provide insight into weaknesses in the equipment which reduces its lifetime or identify improvements to handling or operation to extend product life. In the operating domain, one focus is on making information easily available to the control room operator, reducing alarms, and tuning the control system for optimum performance. The goal is here to maximize production while avoiding or minimizing costly shutdowns. While the control room operator is mainly concerned with keeping the plant running while avoiding trips, onshore personnel monitor the plant with longer term views, e.g. for automatically identifying trends that indicate future failures or for proactive maintenance planning. Key to this is developing intelligent systems with visualization that highlights the most important information. In the maintenance domain, focus is on Condition Monitoring and Condition Based Maintenance. Certain deterioration mechanisms can be tracked remotely, and intervention planned in advance. A planned intervention may give a 1 day shutdown, while an unplanned can give a 30 day shutdown. Any advance warning that equipment is about to fail thus results in shorter shutdown, and less deferred production. Examples of algorithms in recent and current use and under development are presented. Current advances in Big Data and Data Analytics are discussed in relation to how these can support lifecycle monitoring, operational support and product design improvements.