Efficient Data Integrity Through LIMS-Instrument Interface
Authors: Magzumova Bibigul 
Published: October 2016

Overview

North Caspian Operating Company N.V. (NCOC) is the operator of activities under the NCSPSA (North Caspian Sea Production Sharing Agreement) formed to explore and produce hydrocarbon within the 5,600 square kilometer including the giant Kashagan field, one of the largest petroleum developments in the world.

The Kashagan field is located in the Kazakhstan sector of the Caspian Sea and extends over a surface area of approximately 75 kilometers by 45 kilometers, in stages with the first element designed to produce around 450,000 barrels/day.

The water depth in the development area is less than 4m and is ice bound during the winter season. The development of Kashagan, in the harsh offshore environment of the northern part of the Caspian Sea, represents a unique combination of technical and supply chain complexity. The combined safety, engineering, logistical and environmental challenges make it one of the largest and most complex industrial projects currently being developed anywhere in the world.

The Kashagan Field Development Project is an extremely complex development in respect to the technical issues associated with developing a high pressure, sour hydrocarbon reservoir in a hostile environment. Beyond oil and gas, NCOC believes that NCSPSA activities can and will bring many benefits and opportunities to Kazakhstan.

The Kashagan Laboratory Services have numerous responsibilities for the analysis of the complete range of fluids and chemical associated with the production operations. These include reservoir fluids, plant process fluids, plant products and by-products and waste. The laboratory also assess emissions to the environment by production and process streams and monitor a wide range of environmental substances which are considered relevant to Kashagan operations. Other functions include the support of equipment condition monitoring with the analysis of lubrication oils, grease and another condition related materials and fluids.

Onshore Chemical Laboratory is central repository for all laboratory activities. An onshore production laboratory provided in the Eskene West area (Samal camp) to undertake all required complex analytical testing. It is envisaged that the onshore laboratory shall additionally carry out all future Kashagan development testing and analysis. A second production laboratory provided on D island where utilized very basic laboratory analysis.

It is incumbent upon any prudent operator to measure the chemical composition of the products and by-products that it produces. Measurements collated are used to certify to regulatory authorities and Joint Venture partners that product chemical content is within agreed specification parameters.

To achieve the very high specifications and standards of measurement required a Production Laboratory containing specialized and certified laboratory equipment has become a feature of most production facilities.

When appropriately configured and connected to the laboratory equipment a Laboratory Information Management System LIMS software application is used to define and manage the procedures, schedules, capture, storage and reporting of data from various measurement scenarios and physical equipment within the Production Laboratory.

LIMS supports the laboratory work and provides timely and accurate information to plan operators, managers and other relevant groups within company, its partners and government and regulatory bodies. LIMS system is also receiving store and report data from online plant analytical instrumentation for validation purposes.