The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) continues with a lot of action and energy if my OTC-related Twitter search is any indication.
The Emerson team sent a bunch of pictures my way, and I’ve selected a dozen to pass along to you in a slide show:
News from yesterday was the Roxar downhole Wireless PT sensor system – Annulus B. It is able to directly measure previously inaccessible pressure and temperature information behind the casing in subsea production wells. It monitors the B Annulus pressure and temperature without any degradation to the original barrier element consisting of the A casing system and can be retrofitted to the monitoring system design of current subsea systems.
I asked the team what kind of issues were at the forefront of the oil & gas producers attending the conference. Emerson’s Gerard Hwang noted that proving the accuracy of ultrasonic flow meters used in custody transfer applications in situ (in place) was a common question he’s been receiving. Generally, the larger the proving volume, the more repeatable the results, making large ball provers the typical choice for on-shore applications. Where space or weight are constraints, such as on offshore platforms, the master meter/small volume prover combination usually works best. The compact prover proves a master meter e.g., turbine meter, which in turn is used to prove multiple ultrasonic meters.
Greg Huey noted that on offshore platforms, a key area of emphasis is on scalability and diagnostics. It costs quite a bit of money to install an additional measurement point when a platform is up and operational. When a system is installed, adding WirelessHART devices and adding THUM adapters to existing HART field devices simplify the installation process. And on the subject of wireless devices, Candra Morrow added that data reliability was a frequent topic of conversation. In an earlier post, Designing Communications Reliability into the WirelessHART Standard, I highlighted the methods built into the standard to provide highly reliable communications.
Rich Pratt noted how engineering contractors were taking a close look at DeltaV electronic marshalling and it’s ability to more easily accommodate late project changes than traditional automation system I/O.
Even if you’re not in the oil and gas production industry, I hope some of these notes I’m passing along have applicability in your industry.