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Oil & Gas: in-depth

Oil & Gas—a successful history of digital twin innovation
Demands for increased production coupled with the need to reduce environmental impact, increasingly hazardous and remote operating environments, and other challenges have not only driven investment in solar and wind energy, but also investment in technology—sensors, inspection robots, AI, and digital twins.1
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Nextspace digital twins

Nextspace’s platform provides the data interoperability that brings multiple technologies together in one data model for analysis and visualisations to help teams understand complex situations at a glance—more informed and faster decision making.
Oil & Gas interoperability
Oil & Gas assets, facilities and operations are capital-intensive, complex, and data-rich. The safe efficient construction and operation of facilities rely on specific measurement and control.
Therefore it’s unsurprising that data unlocks the production potential of complex process facilities and enhances asset investment returns.
McKinsey calculate that the typical offshore platform runs at approximately 77 percent of its maximum production potential, an industry shortfall of 10 million barrels per day, or US$200 billion in annual revenue.
“The primary source of O&G’s performance gap is the operational complexity of production and processing facilities. Think about a crew of two or three control room operators on an offshore rig. The crew works at the center of a massive data hub. As many as 30,000 sensors continuously feed data into this hub from downhole, subsea, and topside equipment. In theory, the crew controls 200 or so operating variables, each with a multitude of different settings. In addition to the millions of possible control combinations these variables represent, the crew must also consider exogenous factors that affect production, including wave heights, temperature, and humidity.
Of course, the crew is supported by SCADA systems, simulation tools, extensive training and onshore experts. But those control systems and practices are usually calibrated to the design capabilities of the asset. They do not update dynamically. They seldom take exogenous factors into account. They typically are not updated when the asset is modified. There are substantive flaws in the tools—and in the training that offshore crews receive. Simulation tools, for instance, have only a limited capacity to process actual performance and operational data.
The complexity translates into material performance differences. Analysis of real performance data from an offshore field in the North Sea reveals more than a 5 percent difference in production output between the highest- and lowest-performing control room crews. At another asset, the difference was a staggering 12 percent. These performance data were adjusted for scheduled downtime and larger unplanned production outages.”2
Digital twins and Oil & Gas
In simple terms, a digital twin is a digital replica of a physical asset, such as a pipeline, a drilling rig, or a refinery. By creating a digital twin of an asset, companies can simulate performance and behavior under various conditions, identify potential problems before they occur, and optimize maintenance and repair schedules.
Digital twins of physical assets, processes, and systems provide a wide range of quantitative benefits to the Oil & Gas industry. Digital twin technology has already proved to be a valuable tool for Oil & Gas, with many leading companies having strong histories of investing in digital twin technology.
The oil and gas industry is constantly looking for innovative ways to use technology to increase efficiency, reduce costs, reduce hazards and improve safety.3
Digital twin technology has emerged as a powerful tool that can help achieve these goals:
Digital twins improve Oil & Gas productivity and performance, and reduced costs, waste and downtime.
Digital twins enhance asset maintenance, safety and environmental protection initiatives.
drives supply chain efficiency and site safety, and
Digital twins monitor operations, equipment, and personnel and helped predict wear and prevent costly failures before they occur.

Asset management & maintenance

One of the main benefits of digital twin technology for the oil and gas industry is the ability to improve asset management and maintenance.

By creating a digital replica of an asset, companies can monitor its performance in real-time and detect problems before they cause downtime or lead to costly repairs. This allows companies to perform preventative maintenance instead of reactive maintenance, which can significantly reduce costs and increase efficiency.  

In addition, digital twins also allow for abetter understanding of the aging process of an asset, which will help in providing more accurate estimation of remaining lifetime and plan for replacement or repair.  

Case studies have seen up to 50% reduction in downtime, and 20% improvement in productivity by using digital twins to optimize the performance of drilling rigs.
Other benefits generated by digital twins for Oil & Gas operators
Connecting assets and transferring critical specialist knowledge. BP have used digital twin technology to provide visibility into operational issues. Interrelated machine failure is captured with the visualization and analysis of interactions between machines. Human intuition and experience has assisted in the past but does not scale and is impacted when long serving specialists retire.10
Total Energies employed a digital twin to train staff virtually and identify issues before commissioning a new rig. The twin’s main function was to train engineers, technicians, supervisors, and operators to increase their competency to manage normal and abnormal situations in the lead up to first gas. The twin mimicked specific unit operations and the offshore environment. It enabled several process design issues to be identified and addressed before commissioning, while some 90 issues were spotted during configuration and corrected before startup.11
Another example is BP's use of digital twin technology to improve operations. Named APEX, it took BP just a year to scale this program up to 30 of its assets. The company says APEX has taken a systems optimization process that used to require about 24 hours down to 20 minutes. The net result delivered by APEX in 2018 was an additional 19,000 B/D to BP’s baseline production.12
Digital twin technology drives multiple other benefits across the Oil & Gas industry. Confidential results promote the following outcomes:

Digital twin goal

Environmental protection at two USA refineries by simulating and optimizing operations.

Result

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2% and improvement in energy efficiency by 3%.

Digital twin goal

Remote monitoring and real-time expert troubleshooting of North Sea offshore facilities.

Result

20% reduction in unplanned downtime.

Digital twin goal

Simulate different scenarios and identifying potential hazards in USA refinery.

Result

Reduction of the number of safety incidents by 50%.

Digital twin goal

Simulate Gulf of Mexico production platform.

Result

20% reduction in unplanned shutdowns. This resulted in an annual savings of $3 million.

Digital twin goal

Simulate and optimize operations at an Asian refinery.

Result

15% reduction in energy consumption and a 10% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Digital twin goal

Ease of access to data stored by Texan operator in different places and systems.

Result

15% increase in the efficiency of their operations.

Digital twin goal

Gulf of Mexico remote monitoring and troubleshooting issues.

Result

40% reduction in the time required to resolve problems.

Digital twin goal

Identify potential problems with the drilling rigs.

Result

15% increase in drilling efficiency.

Digital twin goal

Simulate the performance pipelines under different conditions.

Result

15% increase in pipeline efficiency and 20% reduction in downtime.
Unquantified benefits abound in this industry that routinely deals with confidential information. These commonly include:
More informed, better decision making.
Identification of potential hazards, spills, leaks, environmental concerns.
Optimal scheduling of inspections and maintenance by predicting possible issues.
Optimization of designs, virtual testing of equipment under different conditions, resulting in better quality build and maintenance.

Industries

When implemented correctly, digital twins deliver significant ROI. This is why more industries are building digital twins into their core asset and operational management processes.

Our platform

Data-first digital twins built on Nextspace are customizable and extensible. Our platform helps you integrate, federate, and futureproof valuable data.

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