This article was written by Dominic Ellis and originally published in the Energy Digital April 2022 issue (pages 90-97).
Onshore and offshore, the robotics profile is growing in the energy sector as firms look to drive efficiency and safety.
The global oil and gas market is going through an unprecedented transformation, triggered by efforts to reduce carbon emissions and rely on more renewable and environmentally friendly energy sources.
The digitalisation and automation of processes accompanying this shift represent enormous opportunities, and the market is poised to witness significant growth in the years ahead. Spurred by technology innovation, the automation market will play a critical role in driving the efficiency and safety of the global oil and gas market.
One area where RPA is gaining traction in the energy industry is in inspections and maintenance.
You no longer need to be at home to use your landline, you can have your phone anywhere you go. I’m confident that that will happen in heavy industries as well.
Wood recently received $3mn funding from the Canadian Province of Newfoundland and Labrador to maximise employment for residents and support the recovery of the offshore oil and gas industry in the area. The project was secured under the Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Oil and Gas Industry Recovery Assistance Fund and aims to establish an autonomous robotic inspection and maintenance offering in the region.
It is focused on supporting onshore and offshore oil and gas infrastructure assets, and the successful completion of this project could result in the deployment of multiple robots and position Wood to support future developments in the province.
The robotic inspection offering will create a variety of new technical roles to customise the robots and develop inspection software to analyse the visual, thermal, methane, and acoustic data they collect.
This detailed data will enable the team to monitor the integrity of the assets, allowing for earlier detection of leaks, corrosion, and anomalous vibrations and temperatures, which will provide an opportunity to make timely decisions on maintenance and repairs. This capability will improve the safety of personnel offshore, reduce carbon-emissions, and drive low-cost sustainable operations.
Paul Leonard, Wood’s President for Operations in the Americas, said its partnering with clients to adopt digital solutions to drive innovation and shape the future of our industries.
“We are delighted to receive funding from the Newfoundland and Labrador government to accelerate our autonomous robotic inspection program and value the opportunity to provide new employment prospects to the residents of the province,” he said.
Wood’s proposal for development of an autonomous robotic inspection service for land and topside oil and gas facilities was one of 26 proposals to successfully receive funding under the programme.
New service providers offer technical services, including drones and robots for monitoring and assessing or even individual component-based monitoring.
How RIPA Can Boost Safety And Efficiency
After years spent working as a process control engineer in the oil and gas space, Vicki Knott, co-founder and CEO of CruxOCM, began to wonder – why should industrial processes be any different?
This revelation led to her ideation of Robotic Industrial Process Automation (RIPA), a technology to guide control rooms and streamline complex functions in oil and gas supply chain processes.
Through RIPA, CruxOCM is future proofing oil operations to run efficiently and safely, achieving a 99% reduction in control room operator workload when applied to oil pipeline gathering systems.
As control room operator fatigue is a concern often cited by industry regulators to lead to safety incidents in pipeline operations, adopting RIPA could be a step in the right direction across industries.
“CruxOCM is closing the loop in heavy industrial control rooms to achieve autonomy,” she said. “RIPA is designed with safety in mind; by easing the pressure on control room operators, you’re able to reduce fatigue that can lead to avoidable environmental and safety catastrophes.
By limiting the opportunity for human error, you dramatically increase safety protocols.”
She foresees operations will become simple enough that control room operators can operate assets by a tablet anywhere.
“By this point, cybersecurity will be locked down and control rooms will essentially cease to exist and we will have achieved industrial autonomy,” she said. “Think about yourself, you no longer need to be at home to use your landline, you can have your phone anywhere you go. I’m confident that that will happen in heavy industries as well.”
But she acknowledges there are ongoing challenges in these times of fast-track digital transformation.
“Finding software engineers that are highly skilled and interested in stepping away from web apps and optimisation work to something closer to the metal has been challenging,” she said.
As the global renewables market continues to grow and mature, the wind services industry is shifting from product-focused to service-focused business models and witnessing an increasing scale of digitalisation.
