Successful Implementation of a Digital Production Monitoring Solution Eliminating Data Entropy
Authors: Belaid Faycal , Sami Zahir , Larachiche Mohamed Nassim , Hemmaz Abdelghani , Kedia Rachit , Abdullayev Azer , Amarni Mohamed , Sadoun Amar 
Published: October 2022

In conventional production management, a lot of production reporting is dependent on the analysis of a vast amount of data from different sources - this is the key to effectively analyze the behavior of the production systems and plan timely interventions. More often than not, as the E&P organizations go through the production lifecycle, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep this data in a structured format and a place where it can be easily accessed by the end users for their day-to-day workflows (Moustafa, et al., 2020). This paper talks about a digital initiative for Sonatrach to automate daily production reporting, provide efficient access to production data and deliver powerful analytical capabilities to end users through role-based information dashboards.

The legacy approach to production reporting relied heavily on the Sonatrach staff manually gathering production data through Excel spreadsheets from the seventeen in-country joint ventures (JVs), which consumed significant staff productivity and carried a high potential for erroneous data entries. Moreover, the lack of a structured system of records to store JVs production data restricted the staff's ability to meaningfully collaborate with and contribute their expertise to the JVs. On the other hand, the huge pile up of these Excel spreadsheets created a data entropy and bottlenecked efficient production data management.

The digital solution implemented to overcome these challenges involved 1 - Configuration of detailed production information dashboards that enabled all the organizational stakeholders to access actionable information, anytime and from anywhere, 2 - Automation of all the tasks related to manual data handling, 3 - Delivery of a central production data repository (CPDR), which stored all the relevant production data by integrating with JVs source systems and fed production dashboards with the quality data, 4 - Establishment of a technology platform to drive workflows and insight-driven analytics

The implementation of this bespoke digital system enabled maximum utilization and faster adoption of the technology. The high degree of automation eliminated the time-consuming efforts and let Sonatrach's staff focus on high value tasks. In addition to that, it resulted in an improved collaboration between them & the JVs and a better utilization of Sonatrach's expertise. The detailed dashboards provided a better oversight of the operations and delivery of the business plans, and a unified database secured the opportunity for advanced analytics and better identification of production enhancements.

The new solution, built on an open & scalable architecture, opened the pathways to accommodate additional workflows, business rules, dashboards and new data sources without costly workarounds associated with closed and proprietary systems. As a result, it has proved to be an important cogwheel in Sonatrach's digital transformation journey.