Digital Field Development

Field development is the process through which a discovered oil field is built so that it can produce oil and gas. This is a complex process, which goes through a so-called Capital Value Process, where investment decisions are made at decision gates. The model used by Equinor is shown in the following figure.

Similar models are used by other companies. For example, BP calls the three planning steps Appraise, Select and Define. As a field is moved from DG0 to DG4, large amounts of information are generated about the field and its facilities. This information is used as the basis of the investment decisions at each decision gate. It forms the design description of the facilities and provides the audit trail for the development.  This data grows in size, detail and complexity, until it becomes the as-built data for an oil platform and its subsea equipment.

This information is created by the operating company and its suppliers. At present this is done by handing over documents that are then worked on by the contractor and are handed back to the operator. This process is laborious and costly. For this reason, the industry, represented by the KONKRAFT working party, is working to digitalize these processes and improve the effectiveness of data creation and sharing between operators and contractors.

SIRIUS is working on projects that look at the creation, use and management of three types field development information:

• Requirements
• Design information.
• Project plans and schedules.

These three types of information interact, and should not be seen in isolation. A requirement must be met by a design, and this design must be built and commissioned. We believe that semantic technologies are a way of standardizing and sharing this information so that hand-overs are quick, efficient and error-free.

In 2018 we have been working on requirements, together with DNV GL’s DREAM project and the KONKRAFT READI project. These projects are described in more detail here. Good management of design data in engineering is needed for successful use of digital twins in operations. A semantic framework built during design should be the framework used for operations. This means that the operator of the plant has easy access to the design data they need to make decisions.

More information and news from this beacon

DREAM and READI: Cooperation to Manage Digital Requirements

Industry Panel at the 2019 Description Logics Workshop in Oslo