Computer-Assisted Operations in a Northern North Sea Operation
Authors: Doble Paul A.C. 
Published: December 2007

This paper presents an overview of the computer systems, and their interconnections, being installed on the northern North Sea platforms and pipelines operated by Shell U.K. E and P on behalf of Shell and Esso. The problems associated with the introduction of these problems associated with the introduction of these facilities on operational platforms are discussed and the prospects for the future are outlined. prospects for the future are outlined. Introduction

Shell U.K. E and P has installed and now operates eight production platforms in the northern North Sea. It also production platforms in the northern North Sea. It also acts as operator of two major pipeline networks, an oil pipeline network to the oil terminal at Sullom Voe, and a pipeline network to the oil terminal at Sullom Voe, and a gas pipeline system to St. Fergus on the Scottish mainland. Originally the platforms were designed without any centralized data-collection, processing, or storage mechanisms. The potential difficulties of operating a combined drilling and production platform and of coordinating these activities on a number of sites have now been recognized. This coordination task has been made more difficult because other oil companies in the North Sea have fight of access to the transportation facilities of the pipelines, while as operator Shell retains responsibility for the technical integrity of these facilities. A complex computer network has been designed and installed to assist these operational and coordination tasks. This paper outlines these computer systems and describes some of the difficulties of their design, installation, and commissioning.

Functional Requirements

The geographical distribution of the system to be monitored and controlled by the computer systems described in this paper is shown in Fig. 1. In analyzing the functional requirements for operating this complex, three distinct systems were identified:platform operations.pipeline operations, andcoordinating activities.

Platform-Related Requirements Platform-Related Requirements The first generation of platforms installed by Shell in the northern North Sea were built with a number of separate control rooms located around the platform. To give operations personnel an overview of platform activity, a centralized system was required to monitor, in real time, all significant plant status and operational data and to present these to the operator in an efficient manner. This present these to the operator in an efficient manner. This frees the operator from continuous, laborious data collection and recording. All major process and plant variables are monitored. About 500 analog and 1,600 status variables are monitored on each platform. The major requirements for offshore computer-assisted production operations (OFF-CAPO) were identified as follows.1. Collect data from all major plant systems.2. Maintain alarm and event records.3. Provide information to platform operation staff in auser-friendly way.4. Collect data for maintenance needs.5. Provide reports to platform management.6. Perform trend analysis.7. Transmit data and reports to our onshore coordination center.

JPT

P. 701