What Is Next for Intelligent Energy?

Abstract

Guest editorial In recent years, many companies in the oil and gas industry have been making steady progress employing digital oilfield (DOF) solutions to improve operations through better data capture, visualization, analysis, and automation. As more implementations provide value to particular fields or assets, a question remains of how they can be leveraged as a whole to provide aggregate value at the business portfolio or corporate strategy levels. The large volume and detail of information that DOFs generate, not only in terms of data, but also decision outcomes, interpretations, and knowledge, both tacit and implicit, contribute significantly to a company’s intellectual capital. Looking at the business case, asset-level business drivers are normally defined by considering short-term benefits in light of immediate challenges. Because of the varied production environments and diverse approaches associated with DOF implementations, determining return on investment and value for an organization’s overall production business is difficult at best; it is analogous to an “apples vs. oranges” comparison of assets. For companies actively pursuing multiple DOF programs, managing commercial uncertainties is, therefore, a key challenge for allocating resources, defining a coherent vision, and ultimately determining the appropriate level of commitment, financial or otherwise. Applying this perspective, there is a clear opportunity, and corresponding challenge, to scale the DOF value proposition by smoothly integrating independent digital assets into a cohesive system by delivering a smarter, more comprehensive view of a company’s business portfolio. Toward this end, several key concepts and issues should be considered carefully in order to understand the implications of each implementation as the first step toward corporate value realization. Strategic Business Intelligence DOF solutions leverage real-time asset awareness, in combination with intelligent analytical tools and collaborative business processes, to continuously optimize production. Data is gathered and manipulated to create information, which in turn develops into knowledge for decision support. Knowledge is the critical piece and having the ability to exploit it to the benefit of the organization should be fundamental. This is the essence of business intelligence and is at the core of the DOF value proposition.

Real‐time feedback control of SAGD wells using model predictive control to optimize steam chamber development under uncertainty

“…The term real‐time here is in reference to a certain time scale of measurement and control that is much shorter than that for mid‐term planning in reservoir management. A huge amount of real‐time data from intelligent wells, coupled with data analytics and domain expertise has made implementation of RTO possible to optimize the wells and field performance in real‐time . A lot of untapped potential can be realized through the use of integrated software tools in these digital oil fields for real‐time (hourly‐daily) feedback‐based production monitoring and optimization.…”