Drones, digital technologies offer savings for oil companies

Drones flying around offshore oil and gas platforms detecting leaks, unmanned underwater vehicles checking well equipment and "intelligent pipelines" able to collect data for predictive analysis are likely to become commonplace in the petroleum industry within the next few years, saving companies tens of millions of dollars a year.

The oil and gas industry needs to move into the digital age, GE Oil & Gas says. Photo: Bloomberg

GE Oil & Gas chief executive Lorenzo Simonelli said several elements of that future were already being put in place, for example, ConocoPhillips' participation in a project using predictive analytics at its Darwin LNG project.

The industrial internet is going to be far bigger than the consumer internet.

"Every industrial company needs to become a digital company," Mr Simonelli told reporters at the LNG18 conference in Perth. He pointed to the more than $US1 billion ($1.3 billion) GE has invested to develop its Predix industrial internet system, which can be utilised across the industry and adapted by adding app-like software depending on the company and use.

"The industrial internet is going to be far bigger than the consumer internet. Think about the opportunity that you can get now by being able to gather that data and reduce unplanned down time. That's where the vision is."

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GE estimated that unplanned outages at LNG projects cost $US11 million a day, meaning the average producer loses on average $US150 million a year in unexpected stoppages that could be radically cut back. Just a 1 per cent improvement in reliability and efficiency would achieve a 10 per cent reduction in plant down time.

In Queensland, electrification and digitalisation are being used to help drive maintenance schedules for gas-gathering equipment at the three coal seam gas-based LNG projects, helping reduce costs and improve reliability of operations, said David Pryke, regional head of oil and gas at Siemens.

The ability to predict failure of equipment can allow action to be taken to avoid it, or preparations to be taken for a shutdown, saving time and money, he said in an interview.

Clearance to co-ordinate maintenance schedules

His comments came as the three LNG ventures in Queensland won clearance from the national competition regulator to co-ordinate maintenance schedules, in a move expected to minimise disruption to the domestic gas market as well as reduce costs for the operators.

"With the oil price where it is, there is a lot more collaboration going on between our customers and ourselves," Mr Pryke said. "We've all got an interest in trying to drive down the cost of oil and gas production."

The ruling from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission allowed the Queensland LNG ventures to co-ordinate on maintenance shutdowns for five years, a shorter period than they had wanted.

That decision paved the way for an application to the ACCC to seek approval for maintenance schedules to be co-ordinated at all the LNG projects across the country, optimising the use of critical specialised maintenance crews, said Woodside chief operating officer Mike Utsler.

"The fact they've agreed to that is a fantastic step forward," Mr Utsler said.

On adopting digitalisation to predict plant behaviour, the oil and gas industry lags other sectors such as aviation, which has been using the techniques for about five years, GE's Mr Simonelli said. Only now, with the financial pain being caused by low commodity prices, is the energy industry appreciating more fully the benefits that could be achieved.

For the offshore industry, drones ��� which are already starting to be utilised to monitor operations ��� can collect data on performance and emissions, information that can be correlated with weather information and production data to create a "digital ecosystem" around the offshore platform. That allows remote analysis to be carried out to assess maintenance timing and needs, and optimise production.

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