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This paper presents a process flow of an efficient method to diagnose, identify and optimize non-optimum gas lifted wells for a gas-lifted oil field. During normal day-to-day operations, a Petroleum Engineer's deliverables include well lifting performance analysis as well as optimization. Gas lifted wells are deemed optimized when the injection point is at the deepest mandrel possible and no multi-pointing scenario is occurring. However, the real-life well production can be unstable, corroborated by real-time data of flowing tubing-head pressure, casing head pressure and gas lift injection rate. The analysis of these real-time data can infer non-optimized lifting, where one of the symptoms is valve chatter. This in turn translates to well slugging and affects the whole production system. In a field with a large number of gas lifted wells, the diagnosis of these types of cases requires a substantial investment of time each month. By utilizing this workflow, the time spent for lifting diagnostics can be reduced, as well as contributing to time savings for other meaningful tasks, i.e. designing new gas lift system on non-optimized wells. The Gas Lift Diagnostic workflow, which is developed using pre-defined logic and the existing well model, eliminates the time-consuming manual task that slows down work and streamlines the processes to generate more value for the business and organization.

PETRONAS Upstream is cognizant of the need to provide a unified digital production platform to the entire upstream community. The digital platform enables the community to perform analytical, collaborative monitoring & surveillance, and optimization to sustain production and improve our operations. Digital Fields (DF) is a modern digital platform, integrating data and analytical services, that provides smarter insights and shed light on potential insights that contribute to better-informed decision-making and improves the way of working. A big data ecosystem and strong infrastructure is the foundation of this digital platform, allied to existing business processes, it allows frictionless secure flow of data, high performance, scalability to support business operations. Digital Fields platform provides the following features: Scalable to all PETRONAS fields operated in Malaysia as well as International assets Solution architecture that allows fast implementation of new solutions and insights A common company-wide platform with the same familiar user interface and user experience The critical aspect to liven up a digital production platform is to identify first the available data sources. Some fields have the luxury of transmitters and sensors installed at the well head, topside facilities and export pipelines where the data can be easily retrieved from the SCADA system for data acquisition. Some other fields with less real-time data luxury would keep their operational data inside some operational reporting documents. A smart report ingestion solution was developed with the means to transform unstructured data from the operational reports, which empowers the users with multiple options for data upload and consumption while ensuring a single, traceable and auditable source of truth. Digital Fields leverages the combination of Daily Operation Reports (DOR), data with different frequency, such as real-time data, with engineering models changing the way the users consume data and provides proactive actionable insights to accelerate tangible values for the business organization. The solution establishes the foundational digital capabilities for field operations and speeds up data-driven value opportunities from operational data and analytics at scale.

Hydrate blockage had caused impeded flow in offshore pipelines and resulted production stoppage and significant economic loss. Hydrate blockages can occur very rapidly especially during winter conditions. The amount of inhibitor used need to be frequently revisited to ensure sufficient inhibition due to temperature change and other affecting parameters. The objective of this study is to provide an online monitoring of hydrate formation for four offshore pipelines to ensure sufficient mono-ethylene glycol (MEG) inhibition. It also provides an integrated operations monitoring that can be accessed anywhere and anytime. The system can provide early warning of hydrate formation to avoid blockage and production disruption. There are three parts in this study:-Part 1-Hydrate Prediction Model, Part 2-Integration with PETRONAS Integrated Operations platform and Part 3-Hydrate Monitoring and MEG Tracking. In Part 1, fluid composition for each pipeline was used to develop the hydrate curve. The minimum inhibition concentration model was built using mathematical curve fitting at maximum operating pressure under varying temperature. Another computational model was built to determine the MEG injection rates based on various parameters such as water cut, lean MEG concentration and safety margin. The model was then integrated with both real-time and sporadic data and run on predetermined schedule on the Integrated Operations (IO) platform. Part 2 ensures the critical parameters are linked to the hydrate prediction model and provide results such as hydrate operating condition, minimum inhibitor concentration requirement and MEG injection rates. In Part 3, real-time hydrate monitoring has to be readily accessible to everyone via a mobile compatible web interface. Actual MEG concentration vs minimum MEG concentration is analyzed to represent adequacy of current MEG injection rates. Further analysis can be done to predict the MEG recovery plan by tracking MEG inventory. The online hydrate monitoring is frequently used by offshore operations in their daily meetings. The system assists in advising the amount of MEG injection rates and ensure sufficient inhibition for all of the pipelines. From available trending, operator can optimize the MEG rates based on current operating temperature, pressure, watercut and relevant parameters. This online monitoring is useful to avoid re-occurrence of hydrate blockage in the pipelines and to optimize MEG usage. There are many hydrate inhibition technologies in existence, but this is the first in the world of its kind which is simple, innovative and inexpensive method to monitor the pipeline from entering hydrate region in real-time, which can be conveniently accessed anytime and anywhere. Not only the system had prevented production loss in millions of dollars, it also saved operating cost of MEG which may cost operations several million dollars.

Oil & gas industry player have always been big investors in advancement of technology, especially in the direction of extracting additional petroleum to address the production decline. In the spirit of automation, PETRONAS has various automated technical workflows that tackles different types of challenges and purposes. The operational, technical and engineering aspects of increasing production and effectiveness of execution are built upon these processes related to automation of data sources as well as systems integration. With the recent challenge that forced the employees to work remotely, it is now more important than ever to ensure that the Digital Fields (DF) solution can cater for more information and to transform the way of working. Linking distant teams to work together on the same platform to resolve production related issues, centralized monitoring and diagnostics is key to this transformation. Workflows can enable organizational vision since having the right type of information available in a visualization environment that provides actionable insights to the right "persona" across different domains and teams accelerates production increases and decreases the production decline at brown fields. The success of this is linked with working together with the Reservoir, Wells and Facilities Management (RWFM) team to ensure the critical information are captured. The improved synergy between offshore and onshore staff due to the shared operations visualization supports further analysis and decision making irrespective of their location. Providing the "persona" with the relevant production and other related data in a modern analytical platform allows them to concentrate on production optimization rather than the data gathering aspect of the traditional method. PETRONAS has considerable experience in developing automated digital oilfield workflow solutions and extending Digital Fields capabilities with greater coverage of other systems such as Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) and topside facility management is part of the current and future roadmap. In this paper, we will describe the journey taken by PETRONAS Upstream Digital in extending the Digital Fields capability, and how the effort in digital transformation has helped in unlocking greater value in the daily operation.