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Feasibility of industrial internet of things (IIoT) in flow assurance and production engineering

Tsarouchi Alexandra

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Summary

The advent of mechanical production systems, mass production and finally automation of production processes led to the fourth industrial revolution which points toward intelligent and networked systems. At the heart of ‘’industry 4.0’’ lies the Internet of Things (IoT) using digital technology. For Oil and Gas, digital transformation has been one of the most important strategic objectives with IoT device installation increasing exponentially over the past decade. The IoT is a system of interconnected computing devices, mechanical and digital machines with particular attributes and the ability to collect and share data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. Any physical object can be transformed into an IoT device if it can be connected to the internet to be controlled or transmit information. IoT and Cloud computing are closely attached. IoT creates immense amount of data, while Cloud computing provides the pathway to present this data in a useful way to the end user. The main objectives of this digitalization in the operational context are real time monitoring, optimization and achievement of superior predictive capabilities. In the present thesis the IoT is discussed and analysed, with focus on Industrial applications (IIoT) within the Oil and Gas sector, and in particular, flow assurance issues and production engineering. It clarifies the drivers of IIoT, presents the advantages and benefits and describes the challenges faced during the implementation. The goal of this research is to apply further automation with implementation of IoT on a company’s existing conventional technology, aiming to increase production, efficiency, minimize downtime and reduce costs. This study is the outcome of research done in collaboration with Hydrafact Ltd, an Edinburgh, UK based company providing consulting and technology expertise on Upstream O&G. The main focus of the study was the implementation of IoT on Hydrafact’s sensor, HydraCHEK. This product is an analytical solution for monitoring the concentration of hydrate inhibitor and salt in produced water from a pipeline. The Cloud platform used was from IBM and the IoT device was a Raspberry Pi, a small scale computer capable of accomplishing a desired task. The Raspberry Pi, was connected to HydraCHEK and the IBM Cloud through programming, enabling communication and data exchange between the sensor and the user. Programming was done both in Python language and Node-Red visual programming tool, due to the fact that both pre-exist in the Raspberry Pi and IBM Cloud. However, Python appeared to be more feasible solution. The proposed study indicates the feasibility of implementation of IoT in Oil and Gas and flow assurance. With use of such “smart” technology, operations are more efficient, production is optimised and cost is reduced.

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