Digital Transformation of Production Governance and Assurance Process for Improving Production Efficiency
Authors: David Richard , Marinai Luca , Di Sarra Andrea , Escorcia Alvaro , Akhtar Mohamed Masud J , Al-Jefri Abdulqader , Al-Hendasi Ahmed 
Published: November 2020

In the pursuit of driving production efficiency and profitability, ADNOC Upstream has embarked on a collaborative initiative with its group companies, to conceptualize, develop and implement Production Efficiency Improvement (PEI) digital tool for effective production governance and assurance. The initiative is aligned with ADNOCs ambition to leverage Oil and Gas 4.0 technologies and digitalization to achieve 5 MMBPD by 2030.

This digital foundation comprise of process standardization, automation and analytical visualization to support the maximization of the integrated production potential, as well as optimization of uptime and availability of facilities, and driving continuous improvement. The existing systems and process are based on the traditional methods, which include reporting data in spreadsheet format and information through e-mails, and several tools, repository systems and databases. Traditional approaches carry several business limitations like inefficiency, long cycle time, inaccuracies in the data reporting, lack of management of change, sub-optimal planning and delay in decision making.

PEI is being developed to address the challenges faced by the traditional processes, therefore further enhancing decision-making agility and robustness by automating workflows involving all stakeholders in ADNOC Onshore and HQ and enabling Digital Management of Change. This includes digital gathering of all technical information and storing it as single version of truth in Upstream Data Hub which provide reliable references among all Stakeholders. PEI digital tool automates and manages the workflow of three critical business processes through the following modules:

Module 1 – Production Governance and Shutdown Assurance

Module 2 – Production Deferrals Allocation and Reporting

Module 3 – Investigation of Unplanned Events and tracking of actions

The PEI solution has been designed following agile methodology, through a Proof of Concept, pilot and deployment across ADNOC Onshore assets in a staged manner directly involving relevant ADNOC Onshore stakeholders through an extensive collaboration as one integrated team. Shutdown plans can be optimized, and continuous improvement can be empowered, by automating production capacity plan submission and approvals, as well as introducing a system to track and manage changes proactively. A Pilot phase followed with participation of Adnoc Onshore and Adnoc Offshore,

The system enables daily actual production reporting and track deviations from the FTR (field technical rate) High-impact unplanned events are automatically identified, to ensure resources are adequately allocated to their resolution. The investigation of these Unplanned Deferrals and High Potential Events is assured in the system, which allows to track investigations’ progress, and effective management of these events.

This approach aims to to support ADNOC Upstream to maximize the Field Technical Rate potential, optimize planned shutdowns, and minimize unplanned shutdowns, whilst optimizing the utilization of the available resources.