The Kern River SCAN Automation System - Sample, Control and Alarm Network
Authors: Shore Robert A. 
Published: December 2007

This paper was prepared for the 43rd Annual California Regional Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME to be held in Bakersfield, Calif., Nov. 8–10, 1972. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon requested to the Editor PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon requested to the Editor of the appropriate journal, provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

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The Kern River Field is a large, shallow, low-gravity oilfield five miles northeast of Bakersfield, California. With the expansion of thermal recovery operations in the Kern River Field, Getty Oil Company (at that time, Tidewater Oil Company) realized that a method had to be devised to obtain more frequent and more precise well tests. The resultant Kern River SCAN System was placed in full operation in October, 1969. After three years of operation, the overall theory and design is unchanged. Data reports, maintenance procedures, and validity techniques have developed as operations deemed them necessary.

It is safe to say that SCAN is the largest and most successful oilfield automation system in existence. Besides gathering a large volume of information, SCAN is constantly evaluating this information and, in some cases, making preliminary decisions.

The basic function of the SCAN system is to monitor gauging operations, production status and injection status of 2,636 producing wells and the operating rates of 129 steam generators. This report explains the configuration of the central computer, the peripheral devices, the telemetry system and the end devices. Maintenance and reliability of the various components are discussed.

The SCAN software developed from the original operating and report programs and is now supplemented by many FORTRAN programs developed in-house. Report output from SCAN is used by field personnel to monitor daily operations and by engineering and technical personnel to evaluate well performance. personnel to evaluate well performance. increases in operating efficiency are shown in the report.

Introduction

Getty Oil Company's secondary recovery operation in the Kern River oilfield is well known as the largest and one of the more successful of enhanced oil recovery operations due to steam injection. To increase efficiency of the large thermal operation, a computer-controlled automation system was installed in 1969 to monitor production and injection volumes. This automation system was developed by CAE Electronics, Ltd., of Canada and is named SCAN, an acronym for sample, control, and alarm network. The system consists of a completely devoted central computer that monitors 96 field sites. The field sites are named AWT'S, for their main function is automatic well testing. The production of the more than 2,600 producing wells is gathered and tested at these AWT sites. The operating rates of the 129 steam generators are also collected at the nearest AWT site.