Oil IT Journal Interviews Geir Engdahl, CTO and co-founder of Cognite. Cognite Data Fusion is built atop a PostgreSQL database. A new API, a.k.a the PG3, a ‘Pretty Good Property Graph for PostgreSQL’ allows for ad-hoc model extensions. Cognite likes standards, graphs and open source software. Has Oil IT Journal’s long time skepticism regarding the Semantic Web been misplaced?
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Siemens ‘pioneers’ digital bond issuance
Digital bond on blockchain sold directly to investors. But where are the safeguards for money laundering and tax avoidance?
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AI in maintenance – are you sure?
What does optimization mean: better or cheaper? Oil IT Journal editor Neil McNaughton ponders the issue in the light of AI in equipment maintenance, with an imagined court case following a future disaster. Discourse overheard at CERA week may play into the prosecution’s hands. Oh, and an unrelated footnote on Mr. Fabelman senior.
One of the earliest use cases for AI was in operations –
specifically in maintenance. This is not my field and I admit to having
been surprised by the notion that there were significant benefits to
come from ‘optimizing’ maintenance. As I see it there are two kinds of
potential benefits here. An ‘optimal’ maintenance program ought to
result in less breakdowns, less production loss and consequently more
revenue. That’s good but it does not necessarily mean spending less.
This ‘optimal’ may cost more. The other potential benefit involves
using super smart analytics to achieve the same (or perhaps better)
results with a reduced spend on maintenance. The first kind of benefits
are like apple pie. The second kind sounds a bit dodgy.
Imagine if an operator is using AI to achieve the same with less
spend. And imagine that things go wrong. There is a major accident. An
offshore field blows up. There are deaths and a trial. The maintenance
program is called into question. Figures are produced showing a year on
year reduction in inspection and maintenance which meant that some bad
kit was not spotted in time. The judge asks, ‘How did you establish this reduced maintenance program?’ The operator is forced to admit that the AI system came up with the new program. ‘And how did it achieve such a result?’
‘Well we can’t actually answer that question because the reasoning is
kind of hidden in the neural net – we don’t actually understand how AI
comes to its conclusions’. Maybe in a couple of years time defendants
will be answering the same question with ‘Because ChatGPT told us it
would be OK’, but I digress.
You may think that this is preposterous. I think it is preposterous
myself. But that was before I listened to one of the talks given at the
2023 CERA week on ‘Transforming workflows and operations with AI and data’.
This was presented by SLB’s (formerly Schlumberger) Sujit Kumar who
explained how ‘Digital transformation is […] helping companies do more
and achieve better performance, with less. Using AI, data analytics,
and machine-learning techniques, it is now possible to realize tangible
cost and time savings across data-intensive processes, reducing tasks
that took months and years into days and hours’.
The first parts of Kumar’s talk correspond to the apple pie style of
benefits, one applied AI to prolific data streams to optimize well
performance, the other was a ‘smart gas plant’ developed for DCP
midstream with AI boutique Geminus.
But it was Kumar’s concluding remarks that made my mouth drop. In his
summary he stated, ‘Cost reduction was substantial in both examples.
Once you have activities like a smart maintenance program [ in place ],
you are not doing maintenance as often as before. You are not doing inspection as often as before.
You are reducing a huge amount of human footprint and machinery
footprint’. Wow! I would not like to be a defendant with a witness like
that! Imagine the CSB video interview of the inspectors who were ‘let
go’.
~
On an unrelated topic, while, as one does, futzing around on my
smartphone on the subject of Steven Spielberg’s excellent
autobiographical film The Fabelmans, I read up a bit on his dad, Arnold
Spielberg . Arnold was quite a star in the IT world, migrating from the
field of electronical engineering and setting up GE’s Industrial
Computer Department in 1957, before working on what might be termed the
digital transformation of point of sale systems. Why am I telling you
this? Well, next time you hear a presenter dissing the old folks who
‘don’t get digital’, think of Arnold. Next time you hear a speaker
trotting out the old trope that digital transformation is something
shiny and new, think of GE in 1957. Arnold died in 2020, aged 103. More
of his interesting life on Wikipedia.
Geomatics in the Energy Transition
New USBL spec. ARC’s TIDE data management. Woodside on new IOGP data models.
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You want BIG data?
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s Avatara*-P project builds massive digital palynology dataset. Diskos 2.0 up and running on Landmark and Kadme.
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Software, hardware short takes
Altair’s RapidMiner converged platform. Aperio DataWise 2.0. ArrayFire Quantum Simulator. AspenTech DataWorks unit. Bluware’s InteractiveAI 4. East Daley Analytics’ Energy Data Studio. EnergyMarketPrice announces Prophet AI Prognosis. Element Analytics’ Unify 5.0. Getech new Exploration Analyst/Data Assistant releases. New Grapher from Golden Software. Ikon updates Curate, RokDoc. Kongsberg Digital launches ‘Industrial Work Surface’. Caliper’s Maptitude 2023/Online. Optime Subsea’s eSCILS deployed. Eliis’ Paleoscan 2022.2. Canonical releases real time Ubuntu. New ResInight from Ceetron. Siemens Field Data Enablement portfolio. Volume Graphics’ VGStudio Max. WellDatabase 23.1.
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2023 ABC Wellsite Automation Conference
Oxy/ISA on automating CCS operations. Qube on new EPA emissions regulations. Vermillion’s VETVision for exception-based operating. Oxy’s AVOID hardware for cloud-based fugitive emissions detection. Peavy Energy Ventures on methane and the US Inflation Reduction Act. Woodside’s automated data science workflow. Kuva Systems and the EPA ‘super emitter’ proposal. Signal Fire’s MQTT-based ‘sensor to cloud’ solution. And also … Ndustrial.io, Techneaux, Akinê.
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Folks, facts, orgs …
North Sea Transition Authority. Add Energy. US CSB. BP, Energy Institute. ENG. Eliis. Fern Communications. Flogistix. Genasys. H2 Green. Halliburton. IHRDC. IOGP. Intelligent Wellhead Systems. Petrosys. Process Service Specialists. Rockwell Automation. Ryder Scott. SCA. Shell. Stampede Drilling. TechnipFMC. Validere. Williams. XetaWave. CO-LaN. OSIsoft.
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Standards stuff
API Webstore. Digital Twin Consortium and OPC Foundation ‘liaise’. IOGP classifies well control incidents, looks into eye tracking. ISA’s ‘consensus-based’ Scada. ISO 14068 GHG reporting. New Modelica version and user guide. US prototypes ‘open knowledge network’. OGC OK’s FlatGeobuf, kicks-off GeoDCAT. OPC UA FX and OPAS to converge. XBRL Guide reporting formats.
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Cognite Data Fusion compliant with DNV RP A204
Data platform underpins Aker BP’s Yggdrasil development. CDF announced as compliant with DNV QA recommended practice. But what exactly does ‘compliance’ mean?
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Regulatory round-up
EPA fines for Permian Resources Operating, Matador Production. Texas RRC challenges EPA ozone plan. EU Net Zero Industry Act to accelerate CCS. North Sea Transition Authority team oversees CCS projects. Uganda joins Danr hub. UK launches taxonomy oversight group, releases best practice guide.
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Going, going … green
EPA $27 billion GHG reduction fund. AspenTech’s Operational Insights. Iconic Air’s Emissions Intelligence. UK’s Climate Resilience Demonstrator. EU low-carbon Model Explorer. Envana Catalyst. New Mexico OK’s Flogistix. PetroMasila uses flare gas. Gas Liquids Engineering. Azuli launched. Inmarsat: ‘ESG reporting not believable’. Carbon Disclosure Project: Only 12 companies out of 18,700 merit ‘Triple A’. Canada ends for fossil fuel. TSOR teams with Eion on CO2 removal. Chevron, Baseload Capital team on geothermal. EU funds Energy Dome’s CO2 battery. Pason Systems’ sustainability report. Graforce a winner in Petronas ‘Race2Decarbonise’. IEAGHG’s CO2DataShare. Kontrol Technologies, LNG emissions and GIIGNL framework. MiQ certifies CF Industries’ natural gas. Project Canary certifies Hyperion Midstream operations, teams with Xpansiv. Occidental/1PointFive kicks of DAC in Permian Basin. CanERIC, PTAC and Canada’s CRIN. GeothermEx audits Deep Earth Energy. TOG Enterprise Architecture and sustainability. API/Ipieca Guide to sustainability reporting in oil and gas.
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Done deals
ABL Group buys AGR. AEGIS acquires ARM hedging advisory. Core Lab delists from Euronext, redomesticates to US. Dawson buys Breckenridge acquisition assets. Energy Aspects has acquired OilX. NV5 buys L3Harris. PetroLedger bags Associated Resources. Repay sells Blue Cow Software to PDI. Risilience closes funding with Quantum Innovation. SLB bags Gyrodata. ADV Integrity acquires Velentium oil and gas division. Veritas Capital has acquired WoodMac. I.Safe Mobile invests in Senseven. mCloud ‘exploring strategic alternatives’.
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Sales, partnerships, deployments …
Oracle cloud for Saudis. IP.21 for DuPont. Bell Geospace, Saudi Geophysical team. Shell and Bluware. CGG and 2CRSi, NetApp. Delek rises with SAP. Emerson automates the Golden Triangle. Genasys emergency management for Aramco. DecisionSpace 365 for Hess, Petrobras. IntelliShift, Procore partner. Parsons and Microsoft. Rockwell and Cognite. Sierra Digital and SAP BTP. Seeq process health for Williams. Sinopec buys more Sercel kit. Aker BP and TechnipFMC. Balance e-biz for Vallourec.
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AMG World Oil & Gas Automation and Technology Week
Corys: ‘digital twins challenge best practices beliefs’. Veerum: ‘Visual machine learning out-of-the-box’. Streamline Control on MQTT/Sparkplug-based Scada. MagellanX wearables for health and safety. Wazoku/Innocentive and the Oil Spill Recovery Institute. Yokogawa update on OPAS process ‘standard of standards’.
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Siemens and the IIoT Digital Data Chain
Digital Data Chain Consortium work leveraged in ‘digital nameplate’ for plant components.
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State of Open Source Software
Perforce Software surveys open source software in industry. Energy, oil and gas usage ‘up significantly’. EOG category N°1 in ‘planned nonfungible token implementation’! Small sample size argues for caution.
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Serious games in the Gulf
National Academies’ Gulf Research Program conducts oil spill preparedness exercise and plays ‘path to net zero’ game.
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