The first step of digitising operations is to move from pneumatic controls to electric actuation and digital telemetry. Once those are in place, it is then possible to visualise the operation from a central location via a SCADA system. Many pipeline operations across the world have achieved this step, which greatly reduces the cost of operations and minimises downtime/outages due to the enhanced visibility into the ‘health’ of the operation.
This digitalisation is the first step to empower those at the heart of it all – our control room operators. If a control room operator can visualise what’s happening, then they can react quicker. However, more isn’t always better; we have seen this with alarm flooding. Control room operators have so much information that they are unable to process it, and thus are unable to react to it, which results in control room operator fatigue, which in turn is the leading cause of safety and environmental incidents in our industry. On top of this, humans struggle with complacency once they become very proficient at tasks. We must now look to what’s next with regards to technological development for control rooms in order to unlock the next phase of safe and efficient operations. This is especially important as we strive to reach our sustainability goals as per the Paris Agreement.
Automating Operational Procedures
The next step is to use digital information to automate the operation. By operation, we mean the procedures, checklists and rules of thumb that a control room operator executes to operate the pipeline asset. That may be managing line pack, swings, start-ups, shutdowns, batch transitions, etc. All the things that are part of the day-to-day operations of pipeline assets that ensure the flow of energy to our societies.
Control room operators are much more effective with access to digital information. However, leveraging automation to create ‘auto-pilot’ capabilities for control room operators will greatly reduce incidents related to human factors and generate the efficiency required to meet the initial industrial requirements for the Paris Agreement.
The benefit to control room operators by automating the operation of procedures, checklists, and rules of thumb for pipelines are the following:
- Reaching and maintaining, with substantially reduced variability, true maximum pipeline capacity rates during all operational procedures increasing volumetric throughput.
- Increasing pipeline ratability.
- Managing pipeline line pack for gas systems.
- Reducing control room operator commands.
- Enabling the highest possible consistency of operations between control room operators.
- Ensuring maintained line pack during shutdowns, which increases leak detection integrity for liquid systems.
- Maintaining, with substantially reduced variability, targeted rates during all operational procedures increasing volumetric throughput.
- Automatically managing start-ups, swings, shutdowns, strips for liquid lines.
These benefits empower control room operators to focus on the overall operation of the system, ensuring that nominations are met every day as well as making sure that they are alert and well rested if there are any safety issues that need their immediate and full attention. Similar to how Alexa or Google are fully integrated into your home’s light switches, your simple ‘procedures’ like turning off all lights on the main floor of the house can be simplified to “Alexa – turn off lights downstairs”. That feels so simple as it has many tangible and intangible benefits to both your enjoyment of your house as well as the energy usage of it. In short, the easier we can make things, the better we can make things in many ways.
So how then does automation enhance safety, one would then ask? One of the simple thought exercises that I like to do here is the following:
Imagine getting on a plane to fly from London to Houston without a pilot. Not going to do it, are you?
Now imagine getting on a plane to fly from London to Houston without auto-pilot software. Not going to do that either, are you?
Yet we are operating our world’s critical energy infrastructure every day without the equivalent of auto-pilot software. Whilst we do have all of the critical safety limits in place, the way I see it is yes – we have the guard rails on the highway – but the best way to drive a car is to stay in the middle of your lane. You really don’t want to be bouncing your car off the guardrails. Automation of pipeline operating procedures ensures that you are always driving the car smoothly in your own lane.
I think it’s obvious from what I stated previously that automation of control room operator procedures is not replacing control room operators. If anyone has any doubts, however, I’ll repeat this point again:
Imagine getting on a plane to fly from London to Houston without a pilot. You aren’t going to do it.
Lowering Emissions
Circling back to our global sustainability goals as an industry. Oil and gas Scope 1 emissions account for 8% of greenhouse gas emissions globally in 2015. To play our part in mitigating climate change, the oil and gas industry must reduce its emissions by at least 3.4 Gt of CO₂ equivalent from current operations by 2050, which is approximately a 90% reduction. If oil and gas usage were to decline rapidly then this could be an easy target to reach; however, based on the 2022 Annual Energy paper by JP Morgan Chase, oil and gas usage is forecasted to increase.
The good news is that process changes and operational adjustments have the potential to be sufficient to achieve our climate goals. This is where automation comes in.
Midstream crude transport accounts for roughly 5% of the overall oil and gas Scope 1 emissions. The article cites electrification as the main way to achieve our industry section emission reduction goals; however, I think we need to dig into that more, especially if your pump stations for liquid lines are already electrified.
Pump stations already electrified for your liquid pipelines?
Then you need to look at aligning the consumption of energy at each pump station to the hydraulic profile in real-time. This can be done with a real time, continuous recalculation of the hydraulic profile as a function of the elevation profile and the batch line up to determine which pumps should be running at which locations. Many companies have a team of engineers running these calculations and sending them to the control room every day; however, without the automation of which pumps to operate there is a substantial opportunity for efficiency left on the table.
Pump stations not electrified for your liquid pipelines?
First step is to electrify them; however, if this is not possible and you have a gas-powered turbine powering the pumps, why not apply the same strategy as above? The inputs are slightly more complex as you now must account for the gas consumption of the turbine, but where there is an algorithm there is a way to efficiently automate this.
Gas compression stations on gas pipelines?
Gas compressor emissions are a function of the efficiency of the compressor over time. If line pack on gas pipeline systems is automatically managed to ensure optimal compressor efficiency across all compressors, then there are emissions to be saved.
Conclusion
Crux is on the forefront of automation in midstream control rooms, which is the next step for our industry. We firmly believe that control room operators are the heart of the operation, and we are on a mission to empower them to automate the energy industry, which in turn will increase the safety and sustainability for the world’s critical energy infrastructure.
Article by Vicki Knott, CEO and Co-Founder, CruxOCM
Reference: McKinsey & Company – “The future is now: How oil and gas companies can decarbonize”
