How virtual collaborative environments can save $120m
Feature Articles, Jan  18  2010 (Digital Energy Journal)

- Cap Gemini recently put together two “proof of concept” projects with virtual collaborative environments for oil companies – and one of them estimated that it could lead to savings of $120m

“Virtual collaborative environment” is a fancy name for what most of us do in immersive computer games – except that instead of slaying monsters, we are (for example) walking around a piece of oil and gas plant with our colleagues.

You can visit an offshore platform virtually before you have to there, so you are already familiar with it. You can try out a plant design which you are going to be involved in operating, before it is actually built. You can practice (with your team) doing a plant start-up, or what you are going to do in a safety drill.

An oil and gas engineer fixes a problem with a subsea choke valve - using a computer simulation

You can also use it to train new recruits – or to get live experts involved in sorting out problems.

The virtual environment does not need to be completely separated from the real environment – you can feed data from the live plant into the virtual plant. Taken to further extremes, you could actually operate the actual plant from standing within the virtual plant.

All of this will take a lot of time to build, with plenty of problems along the way – from getting live data integrated into the virtual model, to making sure that it can’t be hacked. But the savings could be worth the effort.

Clive Holtham, professor of information management at Cass Business School in London, is quoted as saying that most of the value in 3D virtual environments should be found from integrating heavy duty 3D applications with business processes and helping people to learn, not in the consumer sphere.

Shell already uses a computer model of its Ormen Lange subsea development for training and intervention planning; Chevron has a model of parts of its Salt Lake City refinery and two of its Gulf platforms.

Cap Gemini offers services to “drive” the projects forward – “we help them understand what the virtual environment is all about, help them do pilots, and advise them on whether this is something that they should be rolling out more broadly,” says Pat Quinlan, vice president of management consulting at Cap Gemini.

In its recent internal global conference, Cap Gemini showed the audience a virtual world on the screen, with staff members walking around in it as avatars. “We set people on fire on the screen,” says Mr QUinlan. “It's really powerful when you see it. You think, wow, this has a lot of potential.”

It is a very similar environment to a computer game, which most under 45 year old people are quite familiar with. “You build up your data, your performance indicators, your scores – that environment is one they are comfortable in,” he says.

Cap Gemini recently ran two “proof of concept” projects with clients to find out if such a system could work and what would be involved in making it work. As a result of the projects, “both operators have broad ambitions to extend this capability out,” says Mr Quinlan. For one of the projects, the potential cost savings it could lead to were calculated at $120m.

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Problem with subsea pressure sensor

One of Cap Gemini’s “proof of concept” projects was used in a real live case on an oil platform, when an operator sent a command to a control system to open a subsea choke valve 5 per cent.

But (as would have been expected), there was no increase in the production pressure, as more oil surged through the well up to the surface. So the operator wasn’t sure if the valve had opened or not.

However he did see a drop in hydraulic fluid pressure, which is used to actually open the valve.

So he invited a subsea engineer in Houston to watch the scenario on a visualization, as a replay.

Remotely, the subsea engineer did some diagnostic tests on the production pressure sensor, which seemed to indicate that it was working properly.

So she had an idea that there could be a build up of wax in the pipeline, preventing more oil from flowing through it.

She invited a production engineer with experience with hydrates to join the visualization, and the two of them took a look at historical pressure readings and saw it rose in steps – indicating that it was probably plugged with hydrates.

They suggested opening the choke 20 per cent, to get a much bigger and faster increase in pressure downhole, with a rush of fluids which could force the hydrate plug open.

They did this and the pressure sensor reading rose, indicating that everything was working properly.

Afterwards, the historical pressure readings were adjusted, to reflect the fact that the sensor had been covered with hydrates at the time.

The project was completed with no interruption in production and no need to send engineers out to the platform.

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Stage one – build the visualization

The first step is to build a computer visualization of the plant. This can be constructed using the original CAD (computer aided design) drawings, if they are available, so it can be completely accurate.

Without any integration with live data, the visualization can be used to rehearse different business processes with the team – such as equipment refurbishment or maintenance– or use it to train people how the plant works.

This would be particularly useful in a complex operation, such as a plant start-up.

People could join the visualization over the internet from anywhere in the world. So, for example, someone could be given a tour of a platform they are about to be deployed on – by a live person who is actually on the platform.

This model could be used to aid co-ordination between designers of the plant and the people who will be operating it. A virtual model of a plant could be built before the real plant is built – so the operators can try what it is like to walk around and operate, and maybe suggest changes.

All of this can be done without spending money on travel costs or physical meetings.

The model can be used for a rehersal of emergency procedures, with different people having different roles, and other people able to see everything they are doing to check they are doing it right. This is much cheaper and safer than an actual safety drill.

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Stage two – involve live data

The second stage of the idea is if you bring in live data into the virtualization. So the actual fluid flows, valve positions, equipment status of the actual plant is replicated in the virtualization.

By doing this, the virtualization can be used by live experts to try to solve problems. Like on Second Life, the experts could be present in the virtualization as avatars, talking to each other, looking at different pieces of equipment, or taking different readings.

Plant data streams are increasingly being provided in standard formats – including the Energistics PRODML data standards for production data, and standard automation communication systems.

“We marry the physical asset – the piece of steel that you’re standing on – with the operating environment (production data ). All that can be now brought into the virtual work environment,” says Mr Quinlan.

“This isn’t a simulation – this is real operating conditions but in a virtual environment.”

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Stage three – controlling the plant

The third stage is if you can control the actual plant from within the virtualization. Clearly at this stage there are big security and safety concerns which would need to be sorted out. But it wouldn’t be the first time it has been done – the US military already flies unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with staff viewing the aeroplane in a virtual environment.

Many companies already have automation systems connected into wider corporate networks one way or another, and already good at managing the security.

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