People around the world use gasoline for transportation every day. For consumers and businesses, the most noticeable thing about each fill-up is its fluctuating price, but they often know little about the complex process of extracting crude oil and refining it into motor fuel. For example, few are aware that crude oil only accounts for one-tenth of what is extracted at the typical well site. The other 90% is toxic wastewater.
This creates significant friction for the business. Operational impacts include the need for increased scaling in wells, more corrosion of equipment and more energy consumption. Having so much wastewater also means less treatment capacity for the oil that brings revenue in the first place. The operational impacts also cause sustainability problems. Processing large volumes of water requires more energy consumption and creates additional CO2 and NOx discharges. It also requires the use of large volumes of biocides, corrosion inhibitors, and other chemicals.
For oil and gas companies, these operational and environmental impacts also create enormous pressure on the bottom line. As per industry sources, it is estimated that 45% of capital investment in the typical well, and 65% of its operating costs, go toward the management of toxic wastewater. These massive financial costs result in a significant increase in the lifting cost of a unit of oil or gas.
Significant Improvement Is Possible
Even many inside the industry assume that the wastewater to crude oil (90% : 10%) ratio is fixed and cannot be improved. The fact is, making the overall operation more efficient reduces wastewater and brings down per-unit production costs by up to 23%.
This overall potential cost reduction can be the result of efficiencies gained throughout the process, as shown in Figure 1. By optimizing operations at the progressing cavity pumps (PCPs), organizations can realize a 10% reduction in energy costs and reduce chemical use at the wellhead by 7%. By having to process less water, the first-stage and second-stage production separators can see further reductions in both power consumption and chemical use, and the emulsion breaker also requires less energy. Finally, less volume means huge savings in the cost of treating, transporting, and disposing of the wastewater. This includes 40% less chemicals used in the treatment process and 13% less in the pipeline; and a 27% reduction in power consumption for treatment and a 40% reduction for disposal.
The reason that such significant savings are possible is because of inherent inefficiencies that have remained unaddressed in the drilling process for decades. These points of friction are so ingrained at many organizations that even longtime veterans may be skeptical of resolving them. The problem is that each element of the very complex process of drilling has historically been managed in a silo. To optimize operations, improve efficiency and reduce the volume of wastewater, organizations must take a holistic approach, using automation to optimize each step in the process and minimize waste.
Architecting a Solution
With an advanced and unified orchestration and analytics platform, all elements of the drilling process seamlessly work together to ensure maximum efficiency and minimal waste. The platform is built around data concentration units (DCUs)—computational units that acquire data and orchestrate different data sets between an advanced analytics platform, a digital ecosystem platform and the drilling and processing infrastructures (Figure 2).
Actuation sensors and actuators measure and control the flow at the rig site and at the pumps. Micro Edge Computing infrastructure enables data processing onsite before it is transferred to the DCUs. Since drilling rigs are typically in remote location, this transfer is enabled by satellite communications.
At the refinery, MECs are again used to process data from all aspects of the process. This information uses a secure data exchange (SDX) solution to transfer the data to the DCU. The SDX tool also facilitates the integration of the operational technology (OT) systems that provide plant automation and controls with the DCU.
Doing significant computation at the edge and rapid transfer of data by satellite results in data collection and analysis in real time, enabling organizations to make drilling adjustments on the fly to reduce water production. It also builds both efficiency and resilience into the overall process, making it more likely that problems are solved before they become unmanageable.
Improving Sustainability and the Bottom Line
By taking a holistic, strategic approach, it really is possible to reduce the amount of wastewater that results from drilling, thus boosting operational efficiency. This, in turn, significantly reduces chemical use and power consumption throughout the process, resulting in big savings in operating costs. And as the orchestration and analytics platform is standardized across an organization, leaders can anticipate less wastewater for future wells—resulting in savings in capital expenses for new projects. Needless to mention that this supports sustainability, has a positive impact on the global economy and makes the earth a better planet.
Purushottam Konar
Global head of Products & Solutions Engineering
Purushottam is the Global Head of Product and Solutions Engineering at Wipro. He has over 24 years of experience in design, development and deployment of enterprise solutions and products for large multifunctional organizations across different verticals. Purushottam has extensive experience in architecting & building products, platforms and solutions in the IoT and IIoT domains. He is currently responsible for the global product and solution engineering charter of Wipro’s IoT practice.
Ashish Khare
General Manager & Practice Head – IOT, 5G & Smart City, Wipro
Ashish has over 30 years of experience in Consulting, SI & Manage Services in IT & OT. He is currently working on various 5G and IoT solutions for multiple industries. He heads the 5G, IoT and Smart City CIS group. He is working on IT-OT convergence & Service Management framework for IoT. He owns multiple IP’s including Wipro Smart i-connect™, Platform for Smart Spaces & IoT, won innovation awards.
