|
In the Petroleum industry, Integrated operations (IO) refers to new work processes and ways of performing oil and gas exploration and production, which has been facilitated by new information and communication technology. Multi-discipline collaboration in plant operation is one example. IO has in a sense also taken the form of a movement for renewal of the oil and gas industry. In short IO is collaboration with production in focus. ==Contents of the term== The most striking part of IO has been the use of always-on videoconference rooms between offshore platforms and land-based offices. This includes broadband connections for sharing of data and video-surveillance of the platform. This has made it possible to move some personnel onshore and use the existing human resources more efficiently. Instead of having e.g. an expert in geology on duty at every platform, the expert may be stationed on land and be available for consultation for several offshore platforms. It's also possible for a team at an office in a different time zone to be consulting the night-shift of the platform, so that no land-based workers need work at night. Splitting the team between land and sea demands new work processes, which together with ICT is the two main focus points for IO. Tools like videoconferencing and 3D-visualization also creates an opportunity for new, more cross-discipline cooperations. For instance, a shared 3D-visualization may be tailored to each member of the group, so that the geologist gets a visualization of the geological structures while the drilling engineer focuses on visualizing the well. Here, real-time measurements from the well are important but the downhole bandwidth has previously been very restricted. Improvements in bandwidth, better measurement devices, better aggregation and visualization of this information and improved models that simulate the rock formations and wellbore currently all feed on each other. An important task where all these improvements play together is real-time production optimization. In the process industry in general, the term is used to describe the increased cooperation, independent of location, between operators, maintenance personnel, electricians, production management as well as business management and suppliers to provide a more streamlined plant operation. By deploying IO, the petroleum industry draws on lessons from the process industry. This can be seen in a larger focus on the whole production chain and management ideas imported from the production and process industry. A prominent idea in this regard is real-time optimization of the whole value chain, from long term management of the oil reservoir, through capacity allocations in pipe networks and calculations of the net present value of the produced oil. Reviews of the application of Integrated Operations can be found in papers presented in the by-annual society of petroleum engineers Intelligent Energy conferences. A focus on the whole production chain is also seen in debates about how to organize people in an IO organisation, with frequent calls for breaking down the Information silos in the oil companies. A large oil company is typically organized in functional silos corresponding to disciplines such as drilling, production and reservoir management. This is regarded as inefficient by the IO movement, pointing out that the activities in any well or field by any of the silos will involve or affect all of the others. While some companies focus on their inhouse management structure, others also emphasize the integration and coordination of outside suppliers and collaborators in offshore-operations. For instance, it is pointed out that the oil and gas industry is lagging behind other industries in terms of Operational intelligence.〔Michael R. Brulé - Digital Energy Journal sep09 p22 www.digitalenergyjournal.com/issues/DEJ20web.pdf〕 Ideas and theories that IO management and work processes build on will be familiar from operations research, knowledge management and continual improvement as well as information systems and business transformation. This is perhaps most evident in the repeated referral to "people, process and technology"〔http://www.integrated-operations.co.uk/ "Integrated Operations is about ensuring people, processes and technology work much more efficiently together"〕〔http://www.intelligentenergyevent.com/page.cfm/Link=65/t=m/goSection=16 "the 3 inter-related categories of: People, process and organisational change; Technology and data; Case studies"〕〔http://www.touchoilandgas.com/distance-nothing-operation-everything-a143-1.html "The Third Efficiency Leap – Focus on People, Process and Technology"〕 in IO discussions. As bullet-points this mirror many of the aforementioned fields. Since 2010 major mining companies have become implementers of Integrated Operations, most notable Rio Tinto, BHP Biliton and Codelco. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Integrated operations」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|