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SGI
technology drives Statoil's new onshore support center
Posted: 30 April 2004
SGI Onyx 3000 Family of Visualization Supercomputers Deliver
Real-Time Onshore/Offshore Collaboration for More Profitable, More
Secure Intelligent-Field Environments
Revolutionizing oil exploration and production, Norway's Statoil
has purchased a sophisticated array of Silicon Graphics visualization
technologies that herald a new era in remote reservoir management.
Statoil, the largest petroleum operator on the Norwegian continental
shelf, has installed SGI Onyx 3000 family-based visualization supercomputers
in its first Onshore Support Center (OSC), which officially opened
in late December 2003. Onshore scientists, engineers, and management
can now see what the operators on the North Sea oil platforms see,
provided by real-time data feeds via fiber optic cable, broadband
radio-linked communication, and sub-surface sensor transmissions.
By supporting a variety of offshore operations to onshore remote
management, Statoil will be able to:
- confidently drill new oil wells with extreme precision
- reduce the number of people on the rigs
- reduce cost of transportation
- improve the safety of their workers
- accelerate and improve decisions
- increase the amount of oil from existing platforms and wells
- achieve a safer, more profitable environment over the lives
of reservoirs
One of the world's largest net sellers of crude oil and a substantial
supplier of natural gas to Europe, Statoil constructed the OSC at
their offices in Stjørdal, Norway. Several more remote management
centers based on SGI technology are in the planning and construction
stages at Statoil.
"This new entity puts Statoil among the leaders for implementing
new and existing technology," said Svein Omdal, HNO-Stjørdal
Visualization & Onshore Support Centre, Statoil. "It could
improve recovery by 19 million barrels of oil—worth some 3
billion Norwegian Kroner [more than US $428.5 million over a 5 year
period]—through optimal well positioning for optimum recovery.
This new way of working can also reduce costs during the drilling
process. By using the better support from onshore and better collaboration
between offshore and onshore personnel, we feel that we can become
more efficient in the drilling process, and that we can save drilling
days in the project. We selected SGI because of our prior experience
with their high-end visualization products and because they continue
to be market leaders in the visualization compute area for oil and
gas recovery. It was important for us at Statoil to continue that
good work."
Statoil's OSC is based on the SGI Reality Center environment, powered
by SGI's Onyx 3000 family of visualization supercomputers, and uses
Barco CADWall projectors and screens. It features a rear-projected,
flat-screen with two-channel passive stereo. There are also two
rear-projected three-channel Barco control room displays, plus a
number of pods and modules where the operations engineers and geologists
work. The SGI® Reality Center facility utilizes four Barco SIM6
MkII digital projectors and a two Barco PASCAD projection screens
as well as SGI Reality Center Manager augmented by video, DVD, audio,
and switching equipment. The combined SGI Reality Center and control
room displays result in a visualization area that is over 18 feet
wide and over 6 and one-half feet high (5.5 meters x 2 meters).
Working with Statoil, SGI designed and, with long-time partner Barco,
delivered the control walls and SGI Reality Center systems.
"This is a whole new direction for the inclusion of visualization
technology into the operations management part of the petroleum
business," said Magne Arne Brekke, country manager, SGI Norway
AS. "For Statoil, the SGI Reality Center facility onshore visualization
provides much more visual information and much more accurate and
precise information than ever before. Throughout the industry, these
kinds of centers will be, more and more, where decision-making takes
place, not only for production and reservoir management but also
for safety and security, an ever-increasing concern. With onshore
remote visualization and control, management can follow whatever
situation occurs, especially under certain circumstances such as
bad communications or in war zones. Many oil and gas companies are
considering onshore centers because, frankly, oil is located in
many areas where many companies wish it were not. While cost-savings
and greatly improved exploration and drilling operations are paramount,
security remains a substantial part of the industry's move to remote
management operations."
Considered by many as the collaborative, asset-team office of the
future, the SGI Reality Center facility at Statoil's OSC delivers
complete, real-time virtual representation of all the instruments
people would see in the control room on the oil rigs. Users can
experience a complete virtual presence with none of the risks of
traveling by helicopter in the brutal winds over the frigid waters
of the North Sea. These supercomputers handle a variety of collaborative
efforts-ranging from day-to-day operations and management, and beyond,
to virtual reality planning and monitoring of drilling wells based
on data transmitted from the drill bit, to computation of complex
seismic data to optimize well locations. Statoil's onshore multidisciplinary
geoscientific, engineering and operations teams will work closely
together with personnel on the platform, to bring offshore and onshore
together in a tightly integrated team.
"Statoil has long been a pioneer in the application of technology
to their oil business and now, once again, Statoil will be setting
the global standard for how remote operations are going to be built
and used," said Bill Bartling, senior director, Market Strategy,
Energy, SGI. Silicon Graphics is very well established in the exploration
work process, but this is now moving those time and field proven
technologies, which have proved to be so effective in exploration,
into a new part of the petroleum business—into the Production
Department Profit Centers where teams will use them as their everyday
workstations. The fact that Statoil has built one Onshore Support
Center, and has selected SGI to continue to deliver visualization
supercomputers as they build several more, is testimony of their
confidence in the value these centers are going to provide. It's
a powerful endorsement of SGI technology. Plus, the OSC provides
a very convenient vehicle to place teams in close proximity that
were previously distant to collaborate using the best data, the
best tools and the best people to drive improved operational, environmental
and financial excellence. Putting all the teams together in the
same place around their data in a collaborative facility is a way
of bringing disparate disciplines together in a way that's going
to have a lot of very tangible and measurable financial benefits."
As the OSC was being outfitted, Statoil began using some of the
SGI visualization capabilities and the operation control rooms with
rigs that have similar equipment installed on board. At present
this includes five North Sea drilling rigs. Plans are underway to
install similar equipment on other Platforms and drilling Rigs,
in addition to Statoil's several new OSC's currently under construction
throughout Norway.
Silicon Graphics: The Source of Innovation and Discovery
SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is the world's
leader in high-performance computing, visualization and storage.
SGI's vision is to provide technology that enables the most significant
scientific and creative breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether
it's sharing images to aid in brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently,
studying global climate or enabling the transition from analog to
digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing the next class
of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative users. With
offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View,
Calif.
For more information see www.sgi.com
About Statoil
Statoil, the largest operator on the Norwegian continental shelf,
is one of the world's largest net sellers of crude oil, and a substantial
supplier of natural gas to Europe. Technical services are provided
by Statoil for the world's most extensive submarine gas trunkline
system, which runs from Norway and its offshore fields to continental
Europe. Statoil has 17,115 employees with operations in 25 countries
worldwide. Statoil operates some 2000 service stations in nine countries.
For more information see www.statoil.com
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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