Petronas implements enterprise-level real-time data management infrastructure

By Linda Hsieh, Managing Editor

Although Petronas had established its Smart Drilling Optimization Monitoring Centre (Smart DOMC) in 2010, the operator decided in 2014 to change its approach to rig-site monitoring. “At that time, the environment of the real-time (monitoring) was fully managed by a service company, so we felt that we didn’t have control,” Noorazmah Yusoff with Petronas said in a presentation at the 2016 IADC/SPE Asia Pacific Drilling Technology Conference, held 22-24 August in Singapore. “We wanted to have more control of the data, from the location portion up to the integration portion of it.”

The company began by establishing several criteria for the new system. First, data management had to be based on WITSML, the standard language for data exchange of well construction data. It also had to allow for seamless flow of technical data from the rig site. “Another requirement was that it has to be housed internally. We wanted to host it within the company’s IT environment,” Ms Yusoff said. Further, Petronas wanted the capability for web-based visualization and for at least 24 rigs to be supported simultaneously.

The company ended up implementing a system called the Real Time Well Solution, which consisted of one rig-site server deployed on each rig, as well as an enterprise-level central database hosted in Petronas’ data center. The rig-site server has several functions: as a real-time data aggregator, a real-time data synchronizer, rig-site data storage, rig-site real-time data display and rig-site WITSML data store. The central data repository constantly synchronizes data from the various rig-site servers.

To access data, users can log in via standard browsers on their computers and/or mobile devices. This was a significant change from the previous system, Ms Yusoff noted. “The familiarity of format is a challenge for the engineer, so once we changed to the new system, they had to relearn it.” To assist with this process, various communication methods were deployed to accelerate users’ familiarity levels. These included internal training sessions, discussion sessions, electronic newsletters and questionnaire surveys.

So far, the Real Time Well Solution has already enabled seamless flow of technical data from rig sites to headquarters and across applications for further analysis and decision-making support, Ms Yusoff said. The infrastructure has also allowed Petronas to fully capitalize on its existing investments by eliminating data silos. “We also provide a complete view of the whole well construction,” she added.

In some cases, the new data management infrastructure has also helped to support Petronas’ international operations outside Malaysia. Ms Yusoff referenced one example of an operation in central Africa that benefited from real-time collaborative oversight from both the local office and the company’s Malaysian headquarters. All that was required was for a rig-site server to be sent out and installed by a local IT support engineer. This allowed the drilling operation to be monitored by Petronas experts in another location. “We already preconfigured the server… so in six hours it can be set up and running,” Ms Yusoff said. “It was very efficient.”