Pilot Construction of CNOOC Intelligent Oilfield for the Largest Offshore Oilfield in China
Authors: Li Jinman , Zhou Jianliang , Huo Hongbo , Zhou Shouwei , Lin Yang , Cheng Linsong 
Published: February 2022

Objectives/Scope

In order to explore the benefits and potentials of digital transformation in China's offshore oilfields and improve the safety and efficiency of offshore oilfield's operations, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) has established a digital transformation pilot project in the Bohai Oilfield, which is not only the very first offshore digital transformation project but also the largest offshore oilfield in China. Integrating all aspects into one highly interactive system and utilizing the most advanced computational technologies, the pilot implementation provides seven modules to cover all aspects of field operations.

Design, Technology and Implementation

To meet the needs for less human operation, reservoir visualization, collaborative operation and robust decision-making for offshore field development and production, the pilot implementation of digital transformation at Bohai Oilfield includes three parts, 1) information system construction; 2) intelligent transformation of offshore platform equipment and facilities; and 3) the construction of a control center on shore. All the parts above are carried out through the V&V (verification and validation) method, get good controls of data, technology, process and organization.

The first part is an information system construction, which applied new technology in big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, internet of things and micro service architecture. It provides improved functions of safety management, reservoir management, production optimization and mobile inspection. The second part is intelligent transformation of offshore platform equipment and facilities, such as utilization of drones, robotics, personal digital assistant, intelligent water injection pump and so on. The application of these intelligent equipment and facilities not only can collect much more data about for production and systems optimization, but also can emancipate the labor force.

The third part is the construction of a control center on shore, which is the decision center of the whole oilfield. Linked with data lake and optical fiber cable, the control center can achieve remote control for the works on the platform.

Expected Results and Benefits

The whole pilot project has been executed from scratch and started operation in July 2021. With the digital transformation, the digital coverage rate for core business is 100%; Once the system runs smoothly per design, the offshore operators are expected to be reduced by 50% due to high level of automation; the equipment failure rate is expected to decrease by 20% due to more intelligent and thorough inspection and maintenance; the incident rate is expected to lower by 20% due to more intelligent QHSE management and high-level of automation; and the reservoir recovery rate is expected to increase by 5% due to optimized reservoir management and well operations.

Novelty/Additional Information

This pilot is the very first digital transformation trial in offshore China. The project team studied examples from many national and international companies and could not find anything that did what we wanted to do, which was to highly integrate every aspect of field operations into one intelligent system.

The project team summoned resources from more than 30 companies, including leading service companies in the petroleum industry and IT and communication companies, 300 people, and started from the scratch to design a system that serves our purpose. Then the team implemented and tested all the modules, purchased, or developed all the hardware and devices, and started pilot operation of the system within 9 months from the project start. To the project team's knowledge, this highly integrated system might be a novel one in the industry. This will provide good experiences and lessons learned for the other 80 offshore oilfields in China. The design, implementation, proved technology, operation experience, etc., can be readily expanded to other fields shortly after the successful deployment of this pilot.