Page 21 - Intelligent Digital Oil And Gas Fields

4 Intelligent Digital Oil and Gas Fields

making that supports a company’s objectives in terms of maximizing hydro-
carbon recovery and improving operational efficiency. Several common
definitions from the literature include the ones listed below:
• “Digital oil field is an umbrella term for technology-centric solutions
that allow companies to leverage limited resources. For instance, such
technology can help employees to more quickly and accurately analyze
the growing volumes of data generated by increasingly sophisticated
engineering technologies (Steinhubl et al., 2008).”
• Saputelli et al. (2013) have defined DOF as “the orchestration of disci-
plines, data, engineering applications, and workflow integration tools
supported by digital automation, which may involve field instrumenta-
tion, telemetry, automation, data management, integrated production
models, workflow automation, visualization, collaboration environ-
ments, and predictive analytics.”
• “A digital oil field is defined by how a petroleum business deploys its
technology, people, and processes to support optimizing hydrocarbon
production, improving operational safety, protecting the environment,
maximizing, and discovering reserves in addition to maintaining a
competitive edge.” (istore https://www.istore.com/).

We define a digital oil field implementation as a technology system that integrates
high-volume data acquisition and transmission in real time for using data in oper-
ations centers, distributed computer systems, and mobile technologies. From these
destinations, data are reproduced in virtual models and visualized in a cross-
discipline collaborative environment by automated workflows, machine-to-machine
communication, intelligent agents, and predictive analytic systems. An integrated
DOF approach enables a company to maintain its oil and gas operations at optimal
and safe operating conditions and ultimately maximize financial potential with min-
imum human intervention.

Fig. 1.3 depicts the most important elements of a DOF system.

1.2 DOF KEY TECHNOLOGIES

Many in the industry would argue that DOF began in the early 1980s
with the introduction of SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition)
systems in oil and gas production. Those first programs were analog systems
with charts that were manually read and interpreted by people. The term
DOF is more appropriately associated with introduction of digital sensors,