Author Topic: Schlumberger, Rockwell create joint venture for the digital, automated oilfield  (Read 1348 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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Houston Chronicle by  Jordan Blum Feb. 19, 2019

The energy services company Schlumberger is partnering with the Milwaukee firm Rockwell Automation to form a new company in Houston to sell equipment and services to advance digital technology and automation in the oilfield.

The new company, called Sensia, aims to combine the automation and analytics technology of Rockwell with Schlumberger's oilfield expertise and tools to help producers churn out more oil and gas with fewer workers, an increasing focus of an oil and gas industry looking to cut costs and stay profitable when oil prices fall. Schlumberger, which has one of its principal offices in Houston, is the world's biggest energy services player.

The new company will employ about 1,000 people initially, including 200 in Houston, when it starts up this summer. The joint venture will specialize in sensor-measuring technology with intelligent automation, or IA, hence the Sensia name.

Oil companies are drilling deeper, faster and more cost effectively, but there's still a lot to be desired when it comes to digital connectivity so all the equipment in the oilfield can communicate with each other and operate as more than just "dumb iron," said Allan Rentcome, Rockwell's director of global technology who will become the chief executive of Sensia.

More:https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Schlumberger-Rockwell-create-new-JV-for-the-13628114.php

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So they plan to analyze real-time drilling data in Houston and make decisions from there instead of trusting the actual drilling crew?

HA!

Offline Idiot

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Houston Chronicle by  Jordan Blum Feb. 19, 2019

The energy services company Schlumberger is partnering with the Milwaukee firm Rockwell Automation to form a new company in Houston to sell equipment and services to advance digital technology and automation in the oilfield.

The new company, called Sensia, aims to combine the automation and analytics technology of Rockwell with Schlumberger's oilfield expertise and tools to help producers churn out more oil and gas with fewer workers, an increasing focus of an oil and gas industry looking to cut costs and stay profitable when oil prices fall. Schlumberger, which has one of its principal offices in Houston, is the world's biggest energy services player.

The new company will employ about 1,000 people initially, including 200 in Houston, when it starts up this summer. The joint venture will specialize in sensor-measuring technology with intelligent automation, or IA, hence the Sensia name.

Oil companies are drilling deeper, faster and more cost effectively, but there's still a lot to be desired when it comes to digital connectivity so all the equipment in the oilfield can communicate with each other and operate as more than just "dumb iron," said Allan Rentcome, Rockwell's director of global technology who will become the chief executive of Sensia.

More:https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Schlumberger-Rockwell-create-new-JV-for-the-13628114.php

They already have the ability to monitor the rig remotely.  Heck, I can watch it from my phone.  Now if they'd just add closed circuit cameras on the rig and maybe a remote control stun gun, it might be easier to keep the crews awake.  :laugh:
https://www.pason.com/
« Last Edit: February 20, 2019, 03:59:38 pm by mrpotatohead »

Offline Joe Wooten

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That's a good way to become very vulnerable to a hacker attack. Ransomware hackers would just love to hold an entire field......

Offline Elderberry

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Are they monitoring the mwd, lwd, and rss data and making remote drilling decisions?

Offline Elderberry

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They already have the ability to monitor the rig remotely.  Heck, I can watch it from my phone.  Now if they'd just add closed circuit cameras on the rig and maybe a remote control stun gun, it might be easier to keep the crews awake.  :laugh:
https://www.pason.com/

And you laugh. 9999hair out0000

My son had to go investigate where one of his crew members went psychotic after he was worked over 40 hours straight with no sleep.

Offline Smokin Joe

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Are they monitoring the mwd, lwd, and rss data and making remote drilling decisions?
There is some of that, too, even remote 'geosteering' using MWD data.

I always found it interesting that when it came time to cut costs, the first to get the cuts were humans in the field. That iron might need to pay for itself, but it doesn't have kids to feed.

40 hours without sleep is just too long. You see things out of the corner of your eyes and hear stuff by then, and you're past the point where mechanical devices that won't work 'have it in for you'.

Humans need that nap time, and it's the sleep deprivation that makes anyone sketchy after 36 hours.
Unless you have been there and understand the effects and deal with those, too, it would be easy to become irrational, even wig out.
 
Incidentally, Sleep Deprivation is why speed freaks lose it, too.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline Idiot

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And you laugh. 9999hair out0000

My son had to go investigate where one of his crew members went psychotic after he was worked over 40 hours straight with no sleep.
We were in the process of running casing and one of the rig hands ran off the rig floor stripping his clothes off as he went.  He ended up laying on the dirt naked saying there were ants all over him trying to kill him.  He blamed it on the energy drink he just had...LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL.  I suspect it was the meth he likely had earlier...lol.

I'd be up 3 days at a time doing well site work.  By the last day you were pretty much a vegetable.  I'm glad those days are mostly over.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2019, 07:48:38 pm by mrpotatohead »

Offline ABX

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How long until someone screams that this type of automation will put people out of work and the government should step in?

Offline Elderberry

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This guy freaked out in fear of his life. His crew mates were probably messing with him as he veg'd out. So he got a butter knife and was swinging it around. They calmed him down and got him off the rig. Well he made it to a local cafe to eat and got messed with again. This time he really went off in the cafe so the cops were called. They were going to haul him in, but before, fortunately an emt was also there, and diagnosed him as sleep deprived. They hauled him in anyway to make sure he got some sleep. My son got involved as he was a recruiter for the co. that supplied the crew to Schlumberger. And when all this was coming down, the company man contacted Schlumberger, but my son's co. was not contacted for several days. There was a big stink over that for a while. All about employee responsibilities and rights and such.

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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How long until someone screams that this type of automation will put people out of work and the government should step in?
Not likely.

The oilpatch is way behind other industries in adapting digital technology.  It is catching up.

Your worry will occur with say, the post office going digital.
No punishment, in my opinion, is too great, for the man who can build his greatness upon his country's ruin~  George Washington

Offline Smokin Joe

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Not likely.

The oilpatch is way behind other industries in adapting digital technology.  It is catching up.

Your worry will occur with say, the post office going digital.
There is no substitute for having boots on the ground, even if they are simply work boots. Tech is limited in its ability to size up a situation and take steps to prevent problems, There remains no substitute for the human senses, either, but beyond it all, even if everything was effectively remotely monitored, there are still people in the loop to interpret and even monitor the information.

When a machine can determine not just the bulk chemistry of a rock sample, but can identify the petrofabric, depositional environment, and the significance of that information for the wellbore in question and those around it (drilled or proposed), then I'll go home and sit by the fire.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis