November 2002 - Issue 22
e-Business
Forum
Success
Second Wireless, Telecommunications and
e-Business Technology Forum
In October, 119 registrants attended the
“Creating Value for the Oil and Gas Industry using Wireless, Telecommunications and
e-Business Technology Forum”, the second forum in this series. PTAC thanks forum
partners TELUS Mobility, Industry Canada and Fujitsu Consulting for their support.
The purpose of the forum series is to
educate industry participants on the innovative use of wireless, telecommunications and
e-business technology and to find new approaches to building innovation into oil and gas
industry business processes. Oil and gas industry members were given opportunities, via
moderated panel discussions and question and answer periods following case study
presentations, to provide their input and create an industry ‘wish list’ of
practical solutions to solve oil and gas industry challenges and to improve their bottom
line financial performance.
A keynote presentation by TELUS Mobility
outlined the current state of wireless technology and future possibilities. Case study
presentations featured innovative wireless, telecommunications and e-business technology
applied to actual oil and gas industry problems. A plenary session by Dr. Cooper Langford
outlined the history of the wireless industry as it responded to the growing requirements
of the oil and gas industry.
Demonstrated interest by both producers
and vendors indicates a need for the forum series to continue to identify oil and gas
industry needs and to allow vendors to offer proven solutions to industry challenges. A
committee will be struck to plan a spring forum and to create a panel of subject matter
experts to vet all presentations prior to acceptance for presentation.
To
participate on the forum planning committee or as a presenter at a future forum, or if you
have recommendations for additional topics or presenters, please contact –
Arlene Merling
Director, Operations
phone: (403) 218-7702
Pilot
Projects Initiated
Wireless City Workshop Generates Pilot Projects
As a result of the Calgary Technologies
Inc. (CTI) Wireless City Initiative presentation at the “Creating Value in the Oil
and Gas Industry using Wireless, Telecommunications and e-Business Forum,” a workshop
was held on November 5, 2002 at the
Nexen Theatre. Sponsored by Bell Mobility and facilitated by PTAC with Richard Belzil of
CTI, the workshop’s goal was to facilitate partnerships between the oil and gas
sector and the wireless, telecommunications and e-business solution providers. Seven
producers met to discuss their project ideas, then reconvened with the 49 vendor
representatives to identify and vote for potential projects.
Three project ideas of interest to the
petroleum industry were fairly well-developed by the end of the day’s session.
1.
ConocoPhillips Pipeline Integrity Program
Working with
ConocoPhillips’ existing Pipeline Integrity Project, Wireless City partners will
showcase solutions to enable a remote workforce engaged in corrosion mitigation operations
to record their activities. This is valuable to ConocoPhillips because it permits
regulatory compliance reporting based on field activity, and allows the preventive
maintenance program to be cost-controlled while mitigating risks of pipeline operation.
2.
Remote Site Access Technologies
A very broad
field with wide interest, the approach to this project is to break it down to a number of
sub-projects. There are many technologies to reach remote locations, but they don’t
all have exactly the same economics and ideal application. An attempt will be made to
isolate particular sub-topics of interest with each of the four producers who expressed
interest in participating. The following possible sub-projects are under review:
Traffic
Multiplexing: A project to showcase the use of common links for sharing critical
applications (e.g. SCADA) with bursty, less critical applications. (e.g. Operator HMI,
Invoicing, VoIP) at the wellsite. May use bandwidth reservation techniques to
segment the link.
Route
Diversity: A project to showcase the use of alternate routes offsite to provide a higher
level of system availability.
Shared
Infrastructure: A project to showcase the use of VPN technology to share network
infrastructure between adjacent sites belonging to different producers.
Having ROI visibility on these projects
will have a huge impact on the usefulness of the outcomes to the producer community, so
tracking costs will be a central theme.
Project participants will identify
particular site opportunities, and technical points of interest. Interested link and
networking participants please contact Richard Belzil of CTI.
3. Asset Management
Keeping track
of consumables at remote sites is an administrative headache. This project is essentially
a mobile purchasing application geared to run remotely on a small-screen device, which can
showcase either:
A mobility data solution (e.g. 1xRTT, GPRS or CDPD), or
A LAN-based solution (e.g. 802.11a/b) coupled with a permanent site link., or
both
This project could also run in conjunction with
the Traffic Multiplexing idea above, as one of the non-time-critical applications that can
coexist on a multiplexed offsite link.
Husky and other interested producers are
reviewing this project with CTI to determine whether their company possesses an existing
purchasing function capable of remote, mobile data entry and their IT department’s
availability for the project.
Project ideas generated during the
producer breakfast and subsequent workshop are currently being reviewed for scope and
likely producer/vendor partnerships. Participants will be identified to carry out the
selected projects, with project meetings scheduled to begin the first week of December.
For
more information, or to participate in a project, please contact –
Richard Belzil
Calgary Technologies Inc.
phone: (403) 284-6406
wireless@calgarytechnologies.com
Pilot Project Success
Trusted Communications Pilot Project a Success
PTAC, law firm Gowlings Lafleur
Henderson LLP (Gowlings), a series of producers, technology companies and knowledge
experts formed the PTAC Trusted Communications Working Group, meeting throughout late 2001
and 2002 to discuss an industry-driven solution for trusted communications. As a result of
these discussions, it was determined that, from a technical as well as a business
perspective, the best way to prove up the concept of trusted communications was to conduct
an industry pilot. Thereafter, a smaller group of companies, led by Talisman, collaborated
on making trusted communications a reality for Talisman’s wellsite geology
operations. A steering committee chaired by Mo Crous, Manager of Exploration Technology
for Talisman, with representatives from Gowlings, NON-ELEPHANT Encryption Systems Inc.
(NE2) and Malibu Engineering & Software Ltd. (Malibu), was formed to initiate and oversee the pilot.
Principles of Trusted
Communications
Trusted communications is based on the
premise that data is a corporate asset. It follows that data needs purposeful and
deliberate stewardship on the part of the company that owns the data.
Trusted communications can be described
as a standard business operating environment whereby all information that a business needs
to capture, relay, review, analyze and manage on an ongoing basis satisfies the following
conditions:
- it is freely available to those entitled;
- it is secret to everyone else;
- the partners who exchange data are
authenticated and validated parties;
- there is assured integrity as to origin,
accuracy and currency; and
- it is legally enforceable.
The Business Case for Trusted
Communications
One challenge with technology
investments is measuring the business impact and value. For Talisman, the trusted
communications pilot produced a series of benefits for the corporation, including:
- The implicit assurance that the data
received is correct, secret when necessary and that it was sent from the correct person in
the field and then delivered to the right people in the office and partners outside the
company.
- More transparent business processes that
reduce the typical corporate information-is-power syndrome. All those who need to know
information have access to it and this openness drives efficiency and encourages employee
accountability and associated rapid response times.
- Higher quality and rate of knowledge
transfer. A secure knowledge management solution ensures that business processes are
explicit rather than tacit; there is less of a need to rely on prior social context(s) to
interpret and understand information.
- The ability to query and use current and
historical geo-logical information. A secure knowledge management solution incorporates
business processes into the software and provides the ability for staff to customize data
views, produce ad-hoc reports, make comparisons, drive workflow and measure progress over
time.
Pilot Results and Next Steps
Talisman successfully piloted the
Malibu-NE2 solution this past summer. Geological information was successfully and securely
captured, transmitted, analyzed and distributed internally and externally by Talisman.
Effective December 2002, Talisman is going forward with the Malibu-NE2 Trusted
Communications solution within their wellsite geology operations for the next winter
drilling season, a period of peak drilling activity.
An area of further
focus is the encryption of data and information while resident on the local hard drives of
laptops, desktops and servers. Once this is in place, and augmented by the use of
username, password and SecurID or similar device, then the full trusted Communications
model will be in place.
For
more information on the Trusted Communication Pilot Project, please contact –
Joel Tennison
Malibu Engineering & Software Ltd.
phone: (403) 237-0909 ext 561
jct@malibugroup.com
BACK TO TOP
Environment
Target
Energy Losses
Industrial Energy Audit Incentive
Upstream oil and gas energy use
is worth over $4 billion/year.
PTAC provides access to –
- the Industrial Energy Audit Incentive to
identify losses and solutions,
- energy audit management information, and
- a matrix of energy audit contractors.
This program will benefit oil and gas
producers interested in –
- reducing ‘off-the-book’ losses,
- increasing rate of returns,
- saving energy by 10-20%,
- receiving financial
- incentives, and taking the first step!
NRCan Industrial Energy Audit
Incentive Successfully Launched
PTAC Petroleum Technology Alliance
Canada, Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
(CAPP) and the Small Explorers and Producers Association of Canada (SEPAC) are supporting
a new initiative to facilitate the identification of energy reduction opportunities for
oil and gas producers in Western Canada to be funded by NRCan’s Office of Energy
Efficiency. Program objectives are to provide funding and technical support for producers
and suppliers to implement facility energy audits over the next two years.
The Western Canadian oil and gas
industry consumes approximately $4 billion per year in energy based on an assumed average
energy cost of $3/GJ. Audits supported by NRCan in other industrial sectors across Canada have demonstrated that significant energy
reduction opportunities can be identified through proactive audits. PTAC believes there
are significant energy reduction opportunities in oil and gas operations as a result of
new technologies and practices now available.
NRCan’s energy audit incentive will
pay 50% of the cost of an audit up to $5,000 per facility. This incentive, designed to
help defray the cost of hiring a professional energy auditor, is available to companies
who sign up as Industrial Energy Innovators.
On behalf of NRCan, PTAC will supply
user-friendly technical support to facility managers or field level foremen to achieve
reduced energy use and improve bottom-line performance of their business units.
A technology information session marking
the launch of the program on October 30, 2002, was well attended with 80 participants.
For
more information, visit PTAC’s web site at www.ptac.org/iei1.html
or for technical information, please contact –
Bruce Peachey
New Paradigm Engineering Ltd.
phone: (780) 448-9195
newparadigm@shaw.ca
For
program information, please contact –
Brenda Belland
phone: (403) 218-7712
Pilot Project a Reality
PTAC VAPEX Pre-pilots Enable $30 million Heavy Oil
Pilot Project – DOVAP Technology to Reduce Emissions
While the VAPEX Process research history
reaches back over 20 years, PTAC’s facilitation of several pre-pilot VAPEX projects
over the past few years has made the pilot a reality.
This new recovery method could reduce
carbon dioxide emissions by 85 per cent in heavy oil extraction.
In early October, the Alberta government announced it was joining forces
with nine leading Canadian oil and gas producers (the DOVAP consortium) to invest in a $30
million heavy oil research project to test the economic, environmental and technical
viability of a new recovery technology.
The Vapex Process involves injecting
vapourized solvents into heavy oil and promises to virtually eliminate greenhouse gas
emissions and significantly reduce water consumption, as compared to other extraction
technologies currently being used.
The Alberta government, through the Alberta Energy Research Institute (AERI), is
contributing $7.5 million to the project from their existing budget, and the DOVAP
consortium is contributing $15 million. The federal government, through Technology
Partnerships Canada, previously announced its $7.5 million contribution in June 2001.
The long-term research project will be
conducted at the Dover site in Fort McMurray and will be operated by Devon Canada. The project will be integrated with existing facilities to reduce costs and
is expected to last between five to 10 years.
The DOVAP Consortium is an association
of Canadian oil and gas producers, including Devon Canada, Chevron Canada Resources,
Imperial Oil Resources, Gibson Energy Ltd., Petro-Canada, TotalFinaElf E&P Canada
Ltd., Suncor Energy, Canadian Natural Resources and Nexen Petroleum Canada.
For
more information, contact –
Glenn Guenther
Director of Communications
Alberta Innovation and Science
phone: (780) 427-0285
glenn.guenther@gov.ab.ca or
John Pearce
Manager, Thermal Heavy Oil Exploitation
Devon Canada
phone: (403) 232-7111
Request for Technology
Infrared Driving Safety
Request for Technology Meeting
An Infrared Driving Safety Request for
Technology (RFT)was issued to potential supporters and suppliers of the proposed
technology in August 2001. This technology commercialization initiative was a direct
result of work by Shell Canada and others and was identified by participants at a PTAC
Driving Safety Workshop as a priority for the Canadian upstream oil and gas industry. It
is also of potential interest and value to many other industrial sectors that experience
driving safety losses due to wildlife/vehicle strikes.
PTAC was recently contacted by Veridian,
an organization from Michigan, USA, who have expressed an interest in
demonstrating a commercial Infrared Driving Safety System to meet the needs outlined in
the subject RFT. A meeting is scheduled with PTAC Infrared Driving Safety contacts and
other interested individuals to discuss the response from Veridian and convene a working
group to move forward with required action at a luncheon on December 4th.
To
view the RFT, visit PTAC’s web site at
www.ptac.org/techhasf.html.
For
more information, please contact –
Tannis Such
Environment, Health and Safety Coordinator
phone: (403) 218-7703
ERAC
Applications
Environmental Research Advisory Council Funding Status
PTAC thanks those who submitted
applications to the 2003 ERAC competition for funding. The funding approval process is
well underway and decisions will be finalized by the end of November. PTAC will advise the
status of the applications early in December.
The ERAC Application Process
PTAC initiates the ERAC funding cycle by
distributing a Call for Applications. PTAC collects and processes the applications by
compiling the application data and reviewing applications for completeness. Once the
application deadline has passed, PTAC forwards to CAPP a summary of all project
applications along with a private web site link to view the applications for CAPP to
provide to their voting members for evaluation.
CAPP forwards the summary to
approximately 35 CAPP member companies – typically those member companies with an
Environment, Health and Safety Department (EH&S). Each application is ranked high,
medium or low according to its level of interest to industry as a whole and to individual
companies. The ranking results are collated by CAPP staff and presented to the CAPP
EH&S Executive Policy Group for recommendations. These recommendations are presented
to the CAPP Broad Industry Initiatives Committee for approval.
When PTAC receives these funding
decision results, a formal letter is sent to applicants advising them of the outcome of
their applications.
ERAC Project Requirements
ERAC projects are overseen by PTAC
Technical Steering Committees (TSC). A CAPP member Project Manager will manage the project
and report the status of the project to the TSC quarterly.
The project results are made public as
they become available on the PTAC web site at www.ptac.org/techenvp.html.
For
more information on ERAC funding, please contact –
Tannis Such
Environment, Health and Safety Coordinator
phone: (403) 218-7703
Request for Participants
Ecological Integrity Technical
Steering Committee
PTAC is soliciting participation in an
Ecological Integrity Technical Steering Committee (EITSC). This committee will meet
quarterly to discuss the status of ongoing Ecological Health projects, identify new
research priorities and solicit funding opportunities. Ongoing projects that will report
to this committee include the Foothills Model Forest Grizzly Bear Research Project (Foothills Model Forest), the Native
Species for the Sandy Soils Disturbances of the Parkland Ecoregion Project (Alberta
Research Council), and the Woodland Caribou Project (Boreal Research Program).
PTAC welcomes participation from the
upstream oil and gas industry, funding organizations, provincial and federal governments,
regulators, and oil and gas associations.
For
more information please contact –
Tannis Such
Environment, Health and Safety Coordinator
phone: (403) 218-7703
Project Update
InsOil Demonstration Project Update
The ATCO Electric - InsOil Canada Ltd.
“Dynamic Nitrogen Blanketing System” (DNBS) pilot project launched in May 2002
is posting some promising results. At last report, relatively few data were available to
show the effects of the Dynamic Nitrogen Blanketing System (DNBS). Since then, the
increased number of laboratory test results illustrates the trend of the enhancements. In
addition, further steps have been undertaken to provide further proof that the removal of
dissolved oxygen and decay products significantly improves the internal insulation of
aging transformers.
A comparison of the dielectric
properties of the windings before and after the removal of dissolved oxygen was planned
for the end of September. The possibility of oil reclamation in October with a subsequent
final Doble test to assess the effect of the oil free of oxygen and decay products on the
solid insulation was examined.
The opinion of scientific monitors
regarding the content of this report as well as the comments of any participant in the
project would be most welcomed.
To
view this progress report in its entirety, please visit PTAC’s web site at www.ptac.org/env/dl/envt0203r1.pdf.
For
more information on this pilot, or to provide your comments, please contact –
John Sabau
Project Coordinator
InsOil Canada Ltd.
phone: 403-547-0103
jsabau@insoil.ca
Technology Development
Research Continuing on Treatment of
Oil-Contaminated Drill Cuttings by Supercritical Fluid Extraction
Imagine taking a common greenhouse gas,
converting it into a solvent and then using it to wash and recover oil from drill
cuttings. A research project headed by Dr. Selma Guigard of the University of Alberta’s
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is exploring just that.
Dr. Guigard and master’s students
Olusegun Odusanya and Jairo Lopez Gomez are working with carbon dioxide (CO2),
an environmentally-friendly, non-explosive or flammable, inert, inexpensive solvent under
supercritical conditions (high heat and pressure), to extract oil from drilled solids
– a technique referred to as supercritical fluid extraction.
After preliminary results for this
promising technology were presented at PTAC’s Drilling Waste Management forum in
December, 2001, Guigard and Odusanya began working with Unique Oilfield Technology
Services (UNOTEC) to further their research and explore the upscalability of the process.
For
more information on this project, please contact –
Ari Laurell
Land Reclamation
UNOTEC - Unique Oilfield Technology Services
phone: (403) 294-3431
ari@unotec.com or
Dr. Selma Guigard
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Alberta
phone: (780) 492-8585
selma.guigard@ualberta.ca
Project Launched
Standards for Heavy Oil Vent Volume
Quantification
Nexen Inc. and New Paradigm Engineering
Ltd. are pleased to announce the launch of a Joint Interest Project (JIP) to develop
Standards for Heavy Oil Vent Volume Quantification. Currently the four project
participants are: Nexen Inc., Husky Energy Inc., ExxonMobil Oil Canada Energy and
Petrovera Resources Limited, with in-kind support offered by the Alberta Energy &
Utilities Board (EUB).
The initial project task is to conduct
two workshops to collect input to better define the issues and problems associated with
vent quantification, and to determine which specific areas most lend themselves to
development of standards. The first session, to collect information on field issues
related to measurement, analysis and internal reporting was set for late November in Lloydminster. A second workshop will be held in
early December to address head office issues related to GHG mitigation strategies,
long-term vent volume forecasts and external reporting needs.
Input from the
workshops and analysis of other data collected over the coming months will be used to
develop standards for key aspects of vent measurement, analysis and reporting. Completion
of the base project is scheduled for April 2003.
This JIP is open to additional
participants for a $15,000 contribution towards expanding data available for the base work
scope and extending the work scope to address other vent flow variability issues.
For
more information, please contact –
Bruce Peachey
New Paradigm Engineering Ltd.
phone: (780)448-9195
newparadigm@shaw.ca
BACK TO TOP
PTAC News
Resources
Publish your Success Story
in this Newsletter
Has your Joint Interest Project,
Technology Information Session or Workshop resulted in a successful project or
partnership? Publishing your non-proprietary project results in P-talk can keep your
project’s momentum going in the following ways:
- Solicit interest, feedback, participation
or potential funding for new R&D projects.
- Solicit additional funding or
participation for ongoing projects.
- Find industry partners to complete
proposed R&D or technology development (such as field test or pilot sites) or to
report on field test or pilot results.
- Provide information on technology related
services offered by members (such as funding, legal and tax).
- Market new technology or proven
technology that is new to the Canadian oil and gas industry.
Along with the printed version of the
newsletter, your information will be published on PTAC’s web site in pdf and
searchable html documents.
PTAC would like to hear from you.
To submit your article for a future
issue of P-talk, please contact –
Arlene Merling
Director, Operations
phone: (403) 218-7702
www.ptac.org
What’s New?
Search Engine Ready to Roar
Looking for information on a PTAC
session or an oil and gas industry topic you heard about through PTAC? Try out PTAC’s
new search engine at www.ptac.org/search1.html.
This addition to PTAC’s web site
will allow you to explore the contents of available html documents on this site.
Explorers can further refine their
searches by limiting them to a particular Technical Area of Interest.
PTAC welcomes your feedback on the
effectiveness and ease of use of our web site. Please submit your feedback to –
Arlene Merling
Director, Operations
phone: (403) 218-7702
New Members
177 PTAC Members
PTAC now has 177 members. We welcome the
following new members:
Service and Supply Companies
- Adoil Inc.
- Ashton Jenkins Mann Petroleum Consultants
- Deep Blue Associates Inc.
- Newalta Corporation
- Object Reservoir Inc.
- Omega Oil Company
- P.K. Services International
- Quorum Business Solutions Inc.
- RightsMarket Inc.
- Rigstar Communications Inc.
- XERGY Processing Inc.
Individuals
- Alain Durand
- Duncan McBane
- Michael Olanson
- Bill Penhale
- Brendon Rose
BACK TO TOP
PTAC Petroleum Technology Alliance
Canada
Facilitating Innovation, Technology
Transfer, and Collaborative Research and Development (R&D) in the Upstream Oil and Gas
Industry
PTAC is a not-for-profit association
governed by a volunteer board of directors made up of representatives from producers,
service and supply companies, research and educational institutions, inventors and
government.
P-talk is published quarterly
– both electronically and in hard copy – and is available through PTAC. If you
would prefer not to receive the hard copy, please contact Lorie Frei of PTAC.
Material may be reprinted without permission but credit
would be appreciated.
Contact Us
For further information, please
contact PTAC
PTAC
Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada
Suite 750, Hanover Place, 101 - 6th Ave. S.W.
Calgary, Alberta T2P 3P4
www.ptac.org
fax: (403) 920-0054
Eric Lloyd
President
phone: (403) 218-7701
Denis Gaudet
Director, Technology Transfer
phone: (403) 218-7710
Arlene Merling
Director, Operations
phone: (403) 218-7702
Brenda Belland
Information Specialist
Technology Centre for Natural Gas (TCNG)
phone: (403) 218-7712
Lorie Frei
Administrative Assistant
phone: (403) 218-7700
Kerri Markle
Technology Transfer Coordinator
phone: (403) 218-7711
Tannis Such
Environment, Health & Safety Coordinator
phone: (403) 218-7703
|
