Heavy focus on integrated operations

StatoilHydro aims to be a global leader within integrated operations. This is one of three selected focus areas across the organisation, chief executive Helge Lund said at the Intelligent Energy conference in Amsterdam on 25 February.
Helge Lund

Helge Lund was one of the speakers introducing the panel discussion. (All pictures: Jarl Fr. Erichsen)

Intelligent Energy is the largest and most important forum for the oil and supply industry related to Integrated Operations (IO).

The aim of IO is to use real time communication to improve the efficiency of interaction between disciplines and decision-makers, regardless of geographical location.

Fibre-optic cables and solutions for high-speed communication connect platforms, people, computers and continents in a new way and open for improved collaboration.

“Real time competence sharing is necessary in a complex and demanding industry. It is all about integrated operations and people in a seamless collaboration, independent of organisation, time and place,” Lund said in connection with a panel discussion where major participants in the industry presented their visions for unrestrained interaction and intelligent energy.

“Our future success is dependent on our ability to draw on our experience from the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) when we go global. New work processes and interaction by means of IO will facilitate the sharing of knowledge between Norwegian experts, suppliers, and local operators in other countries,” Lund said.

Lund opened the debate, together with Andrew Gould, chief executive for Schlumberger, Malcolm Brinded, executive vice president for exploration & production, Shell, Amin Nasser, head of petroleum technology and development, Saudi Aramco and Ben Verwaayen, chief executive, BT.

According to Sjur Bjarte Talstad, vice president, Sleipner production and head of the Intelligent Energy conference committee, the use of IO on the NCS by StatoilHydro is progressing well.

“We show this initially when we set the stage for the entire conference. We will demonstrate what IO means in practice: A problem arises during a drilling operation offshore, and the drilling operator needs expert assistance from land in order to solve the problem,” Talstad says.

There will be real time transmission from four locations that are interconnected and displayed on a big screen – the Sleipner A platform, the Sleipner area operations room onshore, StatoilHydro’s subsurface/drilling expert centre and Schlumberger’s operations support centre.

“Thanks to IO we are able to make quicker, safer and better decisions, because they are based on real time data. We bring the data to the experts rather than bringing the experts to the data,” Talstad concludes.

This is the third Intelligent Energy event. 1,150 participants from 40 countries have signed up. StatoilHydro is heavily involved in the conference with representatives both in the conference and programme committees, and many presentations and posters, in addition to a stand.