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Workflow Automation and Intelligent Control 193

5.7 ADVISORY AND TRACKING ACTIONS

Improved accountability is one of the most important components to
improve capital efficiency and reduce cycle time. Logging events and
recording actions in a database is an essential component to more effective
workflows, that is, tracking actions. The insight here is to measure and
record input, actions, and outcomes. However, oil companies (like other
large complex companies) struggle to manage many data sources, multiple
applications, duplication of information, and many layers of communica-
tions. To avoid this system complexity, DOF systems are enriched with
dashboards to display alarms, alerts, and a list of tickets performed by other
engineering workflows. A comprehensive model published in Al-Jasmi et al.
(2013f ) shows the basis of a fully automated, closed-loop integrated
workflow in which, after the proper personnel approvals, the system is able
to automatically record the operational changes.
On the basis of our own experience, we believe that the best way for
operations personnel to manage actions is by opening and closing tickets
in a managed system environment. The ticket can be generated using a well
ID and ranked by priority and a ticket’s current status. Depending on the
level of authority and degree of empowerment, team members can be orga-
nized, for example, as monitoring team, engineering team, and operation
team. It is critical that all well operational events, changes, and interventions
be recorded in a managed data environment.
The main steps of a tracking action workflow can be summarized as follows:
1. Collect and manage alarms and alerts. Discard alarms that do not exceed
the thresholds.
2. Classify and group alarms and alerts depending on the volume of produc-
tion lost compared to the plan, oil or gas deferral, water increase, GOR
increase, approaching the critical gas rate, or critical drawdown.
3. Generate ticket and assign team responsibility with follow-up actions.
Categorize the tickets by well ID and order of importance for the
organization.
4. Submit the ticket to the engineering team to evaluate if production
underperforms using physical models. Use the workflow to generate
diagnostics and production opportunities.
5. When the engineering team finds an issue or opportunities, the ticket is
transmitted to the operation team to execute actions.
6. The monitoring team closes and stores the tickets.