Following its acquisition of Industrial Evolution last month (now consolidated into a new Industrial Knowledge unit) Yokogawa extends its software portfolio with the acquisition of KBC Advanced Technologies (see below). GE is also shifting upstream, with a deal (a partnership, not an acquisition) with Paradigm Geophysical and the establishment of a new digital solutions business inside its Oil & Gas unit.
The GE/Paradigm deal promises a ‘first-of-its-kind’ reservoir-driven production optimization (RDPO) solution, integrating Paradigm’s subsurface knowledge with GE’s production intelligence. In a presentation at the GE Oil & Gas Florence event, Paradigm’s Indy Chakrabarti opined that current operations ‘focus on the performance of an individual well,’ which may mean missing the big picture. The new RDPO solution lets operators view production data in its geological context. Issues such as early water breakthrough can be related to potential causes such as a nearby sand channel that may have been previously overlooked. The injection pattern can then be adjust to mitigate water inflow. GE claims the potential for reduced operational costs of ‘10-25%’ through fewer interventions and more efficient resource utilization. The ‘turnkey solution,’ combines GE’s FieldVantage production monitoring technology, Paradigm’s Skua/Gocad reservoir modeler and, at least in the demo, an application from StreamSim Technologies.
Another engineering to upstream teaming was announced this month as Emerson and OVS* unveiled a joint initiative to embed OVS’ production data toolset into Emerson’s ‘Integrated Operations’ (iOps) solution. The idea is to feed sensor data from Emerson’s DeltaV control system into OVS’s oilfield software (see OITJ Vol 20 N°6) to support applications including gas lift optimization, huff and puff steam generation and decline curve analysis.
Comment: The marriage of engineering/process specialists with upstream software houses like OVS and Paradigm can be seen as a stretch goal or breakthrough. It is curious though that GE, in Paradigm, now has a geomodeler in its line-up, whereas Emerson, which already has one (in Roxar’s RMS) does not seem to be leveraging it in its digital oilfield.
Read
our report from the GE Oil & Gas meet on page 6 and 7, our
interview with Paradigm’s Indy Chakrabarti on page 3 and this month’s
editorial on page 2.
* One
Virtual Source.
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