Real Time Topsides Control Technology
Authors: Hill Charles , Saugier Kent 
Published: October 2008

Process Control, SCADA, and telecommunications technology have progressed steadily over the past decade. Keeping track of the separate systems deployed on offshore platforms has escalated as more and more type of systems are implemented and the range of desired functionality has increased. Integration of the systems can now be done using Open Standards such as Foundation Fieldbus?. The objective of the paper is to show how using Open Standards and all digital field instrument data transmission in conjunction with Wide Area Network telecommunications will yield integrated systems that are used by all layers of the Oil and Gas Enterprise to make better business decisions.

Introduction

The implementation of industrial control systems has changed dramatically over the past fifty years. We have seen the evolution from pneumatics to electronic analog to digital Distributed Control Systems (DCS) and Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) systems. We are in the midst of another evolution which may really be a revolution. There are several facets to this change:Wide Area Data CommunicationsWide Use of Common Operating SystemsEmergence of Open StandardsInter-Operable Field InstrumentsRemote Diagnostics & TroubleshootingUnified Third Party Package IntegrationRemote Condition Base MonitoringIntegration of Operations and Business Data

Although some of these factors are changing how we do business in general, these factors have a very significant effect on the offshore oil and gas industry. Moreover, the oil and gas industry is leading other industries in joining the revolution.

Why is this happening?

The significant oil and gas resources that are being produced now and in the foreseeable future are almost always located in remote, undeveloped regions that have no local oil and gas infrastructure to call upon. Thus, leading oil producers are turning to real time systems that provide not only traditional operating data, but also provide remote troubleshooting on a World Wide basis. Further, oil and gas operators are using these technologies to implement total integration of business data from the well bore through custody transfer meters at the point of sale.

Data Communications

Until recently, DCS and PLC systems have employed data communications which utilize "proprietary" protocols or protocols which are not widely used by many different manufacturers. With the advent of Foundation Fieldbus, a standard, accepted protocol is being used by a large number of instrument and control system suppliers to market interoperable field instruments at the measurement and control level.

For data communications between individual control loops and the Human Machine Interface (HMI) equipment, Ethernet and TCP/IP are now widely used. This is the same protocol used on the Internet and on our desktop when we communicate with one another on a LAN. Ethernet uses TCP/IP plus other protocols to provide efficient data communications. Ethernet has characteristics very similar to human communications in groups. Only one person should talk at a time and when you want to speak you first listen for a break in the conversation.