Smart Production Operations in a Remote Field in Latin America
Authors: Rueda Paola , Quevedo Hugo , Osma Iván , Anaya Javier , Gallegos Johanna , Márquez Leonardo , Correa Raquel , Villota Daniel , Alvo Juan José , Tagarot Gary , Bonfanti Benjamín , Useche Marcos , Florez Fabian , Azancot Annalyn , Vargas Angélica , Noya Vidal , Castro Roberto , Salcedo Patricio , Núñez Óscar , Valencia Ángel , Galárraga Diego , Urresta Jose , Carrera Julia , Agarwal Ambica , Romero Cristian 
Published: October 2023

Operational and social challenges have significantly impacted production losses and operations efficiency in a remote Latin America field where well monitoring and operational processes are affected by several indigenous social strikes, long times required to detect and solve production issues, electrical power management, and continuous flow assurance events. Digital transformation in the field came with the integration of digital solutions that support the business strategic objectives of the asset, specifically to improve production, reduce downtimes, minimize carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and optimize operational efficiencies. Smart production operations (SPO) are enabled by integrated digital solutions considering automation and digitalization throughout instrumentation, wireless connectivity, advanced digital workflows, Edge, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), industrial internet of things (IIoT) solutions, and satellite communications.

Assessing the digital maturity of the field to evaluate the level of digitalization was the first stage of this digital solution implementation to further select a challenging location where digital solutions can be a game changer in operational efficiency and production optimization. Once the location was chosen due to low mean time between failure (MTBF) and high production losses, a second stage of defining the digital maturity target state was developed to define the instrumentation and digital applications needed to successfully reach the established key performance objectives (KPOs). The installed components of the integrated solution included field instrumentation such as wireless pressure and temperature transmitters, wireless electrical corrosion probes, single and multiphase flowmeter, remote terminal units (RTUs), dump flooding (DF) and oil producers well surveillance, communication of the data transmission through a satellite link, IIot as digital autonomous operations for chemical injection, Edge computing for operational workflows and autonomous control, virtual flowmeter (VFM), cameras with visual analytics algorithms for security, safety monitoring alerts, and flares volume estimation.

The SPO solution implemented in the remote field is showing us remarkable results for digital value creation to improve the production in a 4% average expected, enhance production monitoring in a water flooding pattern, reduce downtimes, optimize artificial lift reliability, and extend run life by generating a fast well screening for root cause identification of production performance issues and actions, ensuring an effective, continuous and autonomous chemical injection, to reduce 1.5 ton CO2 emissions per month, to improve people efficiency by 60%, to ensure security surveillance of the location and to optimize the operational efficiency through digital autonomous tasks.

This SPO implemented is an excellent example of best practices novel and innovative automated workflows for a digital transformation strategy in the oil and gas industry to improve the digital maturity of a field. These practices and workflows show that the next level of autonomous production operation is paramount to optimize production and resources, reduce the environmental impact, minimize operational costs and security concerns in a challenging and remote location where manual processes are difficult to perform and a strict surveillance workflow is required.