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PETROMAKS2-Stort program petroleum

Real-Time Remote and Autonomous Well Intervention On Normally Unmanned Installations

Alternative title: sanntids fjern og autonom brønnintervensjon på ubemannede platformer

Awarded: NOK 4.2 mill.

Stimline has in the period 2018-2019 created a real-time, safety-critical, mixed reality environment supporting remote operation of well intervention equipment on Normally Unmanned Installations. This was done with support from Petromaks in the project named "Real-Time Remote and Autonomous Well Intervention On Normally Unmanned Installations." All software developed was created as add-on modules to Stimline's IDEX software which covers planning, executing, and analyzing well intervention jobs. Focus areas of the research project where: - Determine required sensor and data input. Study versions of mission-critical data exchange. Verify requirements with regards to rules and regulations. Identify gaps and discuss approach with oil & service company. - Study the human and psychological aspects of situational awareness from remote locations. - Create software for mixed reality providing reliable and truthful representation of "being there." - Create autonomous operating software so the equipment determines stand-alone actions based on plans made by experts and adapts the operation through predictive algorithms based on real-time and historical data. - Create simulator software using the mixed reality visualization to test and optimize workflows, operations, decision-making for normal operations as well as test responses to uncontrolled situations (e.g., well control situations). - Test and demonstrate the invention. The resulting innovation can be developed and commercialized as a solution that will help oil companies to dramatically lower NUI intervention costs by enabling service companies to run wireline operations without people on-board. The alternative is to reduce the number of interventions or having to utilize very expensive jack-ups for all interventions. Classic interventions with crew and equipment on-board for multiple days are not an option. As such, this project constitutes an important enabling technology for the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The main objective for this project was met: to create a prototype demonstrating a real-time, safe, mixed reality environment for remote and autonomous operation of well intervention equipment on Normally Unmanned Installations. During the fall of 2019 we set up a wireline winch in Kristiansand. A big thank you goes to Altus Intervention for letting us borrow the necessary equipment for testing and demo. We showed how to plan a wireline job in our software, called IDEX, transfer this this plan to a Stimline XOS operator station, and then sit in the operator station and control a wireline winch located elsewhere. As part of the project we made a digital twin of the well, the completions in the well, the BHA, and winch. The test setup consisted of Stimline's operator chair XOS, placed in front of a 150 inch video wall, with computers generating mixed reality images. About 300 meters away was a conventional wireline winch that was upgraded with a control system, camera, and network for data transmission. An important part of the test was to examine the delay between operator input and video link. The test showed that the delay was within the limits considered real-time and was considered very good. The video wall showed real-time video from the winch mixed with video of 3D models, data from our own planning tool (IDEX), and sensor data from the winch. In the demo, we demonstrated that the system can perform operations on its own using plans prepared in advance. In other words, the system performed instructions and tasks that had been entered in advance without the operator having to intervene and adjust the plans. Two of Aker BP's intervention experts were among those who visited us in Kristiansand for the demo. The comment from Magne Aase was: "As the Aker BP responsible for the Petromaks Project for Autonomous Operations on Normally Unmanned Installations, I witnessed the test where the technology was demonstrated. The result fully met my expectations and I believe that technology as developed in the Petromaks project has the potential to be commercialized and provide increased efficiency and lower cost to Offshore Interventions." A big thank you goes to Aker BP who was a partner in this project.

The project has generated a lot of interest among potential customers, both oil companies and service companies. Given the multifaceted aspect of the project (unmanned installations, autonomous operations, immersive environments, etc.), we believe it will lead to several business opportunities in terms of additional projects and revenue in 2021 and going forward. When the project ended, we moved the equipment to a test well in Stavanger. This has and will be used as the showcase for the technology going forward, as we work on commercializing new modules. In addition, we continue to work on commercializing specific modules and introducing them in the North-American market.

Stimline will, in cooperation with Altus Intervention and AkerBP, create a real-time, safety-critical, mixed reality environment supporting remote operation of well intervention equipment on Normally Unmanned Installations. The resulting innovation will help oil companies to dramatically lower NUI intervention costs by enabling service companies such as Archer to run wireline operations without people on-board. The alternative is to reduce the amount of interventions, or having to utilize very expensive jack-ups for all interventions, which both may lead to NUI projects becoming less economically attractive. Classic interventions with crew and equipment on-board for multiple days are not an option. As such, the project constitutes an enabling technology for the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The main objective for this project is to create a prototype demonstrating a real-time, safe, mixed reality environment for remote and autonomous operation of well intervention equipment on Normally Unmanned Installations. Key research challenges are: -How does an operator that is used to be close to the well maintain situational awareness remotely? -How to react if communication is lost between the NUI and operator center? -How to optimize human-machine interface when dealing with a partly unpredictable process with little sensory feedback (a well often hide surprises). -How intelligent should an autonomous wireline operation become? -Human factor issues and mitigating factors in this domain.

Funding scheme:

PETROMAKS2-Stort program petroleum