An innovation workflow that supports O&G operations
OKEA and Solution Seeker have been chasing opportunities for production improvement since 2020. The innovation workflow applied by Solution Seeker is a great match with OKEA’s core values, enabling value creation for the Draugen production system.
A great match
OKEA’s core values include efficiency, openness and agility. On efficiency: “We aim to simplify processes, make quick decisions and create alliances with the service industry. “
Solution Seeker’s innovation workflow is tailored to create value on Oil & Gas production systems, with its ProductionCompass AI software and data science toolbox. Production systems are constantly changing due to depleting reservoirs, and planned and unplanned production disrupting events, such that opportunities for improvement come and go. Through a close-knit collaboration, several use cases have been explored using AI and machine learning on the Draugen field’s production data. These include well test optimization, oil-in-water challenges and data-driven flow rate estimation.
«We are focused on exploring opportunities for digitizied production optimization and surveillance for Draugen, and we have chosen Solution Seeker to implement ML & AI solutions to improve production»
Elise Husebø
Principal production engineer in OKEA.
Optimizing well tests and simplifying the workflow
Well test optimization has been a key focus area for Solution Seeker. Well tests capture crucial information about well behavior and are often the foundation for data-driven well rate estimations. In addition, the workflow around well testing is often manual and very time-consuming for most operators. So Solution Seeker developed a dedicated Well Test Application to ease this process and consistently capture this high value data. The workflow of conducting and analyzing well tests for Draugen’s topside wells has been simplified using ProductionCompass AI’s Well Testing Application. For the subsea wells, an upgrade to the control system has enabled deduction testing, a by-difference test that is conducted by shutting in one well at the time. This incurs a loss while the well is shut-in. The Well Test Application helps optimize the time spent on a well shut-in, minimizing the loss while obtaining high quality results.
«The Well Test Application has simplified the whole process of well testing significantly.»
Marit E. Telstø
Production support engineer for Draugen
Virtual sensors and smart alarms
A more experimental approach was applied to the problem of high contents of oil-in-water after topside separation last year. Initial analyses proved the value of tracking flow factors for different hydrocyclones, enabling a better foundation for decision-making on necessary maintenance or injection of chemicals to improve the situation. Using the ProductionCompass AI toolbox, these models were deployed as soft-sensors on live data for real-time tracking. As the models were deployed and the urgency of the challenge decreased, further improvements to the monitoring workflow are being made by automating the tracking of the models through smart alarms. That will further reduce the need for constant monitoring of the models, since the relevant engineers will be notified if their attention is needed.
«After many years of innovating and implementing software solutions to improve production, perhaps the most important key to success is to utilize a standardized data science toolbox, while being agile together with the production team on the challenges we solve.»
Vidar Uglane, COO of Solution Seeker and managing the partnership with OKEA
Ready for action
Indeed, production challenges are tricky to predict in an ever-changing environment of predictable and unpredictable production disruptions and depleting reservoirs. The best we can do is to have the mindset and toolbox ready to seize the opportunities for reducing deferment and improving production as they present themselves. That’s how we will continue to chase the barrels together with the OKEA production team for Draugen.