SABLE OFFSHORE ENERGY INC (SOEI)SELECTS WEB BASED PROCESSINFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEMImagine accessing information about your plant’s performance at the click of a mouse. Daily reports, gas well-test results, live andhistorical data intermingled with lab data, process graphics – all available through your Web browser. This is what the collaborativeSOEI team wanted from their Web enabled Process Information Management System (PIMS) and a payback of a few months for theirinvestment! SOEI selected an integrated hardware, software and services solution that provides a framework for the flow of informationbetween the process, plant control and business systems for all the SOEI onshore and offshore facilities. SOEI’s PIMS team decidedthat operations and other SOEI employees should have instantaneous access to current and historical information to make informeddecisions in both their day-to-day activities and their long-term operations. Ultimately, this new technology decision support tool willlead to considerably improved process operations through enhanced process understanding.

SOEI HistoryFrom the mid 1960’s to late 1980’s, significant deposits of gas were discovered in the porous sandstone underlying the SableIsland area, 160 to 300 km off the east coast of Nova Scotia. SOEI has constructed the facilities for three natural gas reservoirs.These three reservoirs are Venture, Thebaud, North Triumph, which contain 100 billion cubic metres of recoverable gasreserves.

SOEI has offshore and onshore facilities for production, transmission and processingof natural gas. The Scotian Shelf has the potential to become a major player inthe North American natural gas industry.

ABB Automation is a member of the SOEI Facilities Allianceresponsible for the design and construction of the project. Asa member, ABB Automation is the automation partner andresponsible for a number of key integrated packages.These packages include:

• Fire and gas detection systems

• Open Control System (OCS)

• Safety shutdown systems

• All telecommunications systems

• Simulator and simulator trainingprogram

• Process Information ManagementSystem (PIMS)

This article focuses on the main functionsof the SOEI Web enabled PIMS systems:

• Collecting process data from theonshore at Goldboro and offshore atThebaud OCS (INFI 90) loops via theBailey semAPI interface

• Storing process and operational datainto the historical PIMS databases bothonshore and offshore

• Managing the enormous amount ofonline stored data (200 GB)

ISREP-09

ISREP-09

• Serving current and historical datato the IP.21’s Process Explorer/Web enabled GUI clients andsoftware interfaces

• Serving data to the Internet Infor-mation Server (IIS) for use by theProcess Information Web Server(PIWS)

• Providing reports, queries anddisplays on the PIMS system

• Minimizing data collection loss onthis complex telecommunicationsolution

• Allowing other systems (e.g. MobilProduction Reporting System orMPRS) to retrieve data from thePIMS historical database usingstandard development connectivitytools (SQLplus and ODBC)

• Provide Web based manual dataentry capability to store data intoPIMS or MPRS

• Integrating PIMS functions withWeb Browser technology for easyaccess onsite or remotely

• Provide access on desktop com-puters to e-Process Report (Webbased classREPORT) reportingsystem

Overview of SOEI PIMS SystemPIMS provides the ability to generatequick adhoc or scheduled emailedreports, perform data analysis and viewgraphic display mimics and trends. Spe-cific applications (Web based customizedreports using e-Process Report, ManualData Entry, Web Browser access to DCSgraphic displays) and development con-nectivity tools (SQLplus, ODBC) will alsoprovide SOEI with the capability toanalyze and report on critical plant datathrough easy to use standard applica-tions. The development tools also pro-vide data mining capability for SOEI todevelop new statistical analysis andreports in the future to meet their chang-ing business needs.

The SOEI PIMS computer hardware con-sists of three Windows/NT serversinstalled onshore at Goldboro and off-shore on the Thebaud platform. The serv-ers are connected to the SOEI businesslocal area network (LAN) at each loca-tion. Satellite communication links con-nect the offshore into a very large widearea network that includes Halifax, PointTupper, Dartmouth, the two offshore

simulation and advanced control appli-cations and provides an easy interfaceto any business information system.

The heart of the system is the IP.21 PIMSserver and its 10,000 tags database histo-rian. Other systems and applications com-municate with the PIMS server to eitherretrieve or store data into history. As men-tioned, Scanner Computers collect proc-ess data from the OCS (INFI 90) loops.The Corrosion System for the offshoreplatform retrieves process data for its cal-culations using an ODBC interface viastandard protocol (TCP/IP). The MPRSsystem will retrieve a subset of processdata for product ion a l locat ioncalculations and regulatory reporting.

Many applications use the process datastored in the PIMS historical database foranalysis, reporting and additional datamanipulation. Client PC’s will displayprocess data in graphical trends andgraphics using Infoplus.21’s ProcessExplorer Web enabled GUI application.The Web based Manual Data Entry ap-plication enables users to add manuallygathered process data or laboratory testdata into the PIMS historical database

drilling rigs and all the way to MobilCalgary. This network connectivity allowsaccess to data onshore or offshore.

The Scanner Computer collects processdata from the OCS (INFI 90) loops andsends the data to the PIMS server usinga dedicated Ethernet network link or buff-ers it if the PIMS server is unavailable.The PIMS Server receives data from theScanner Computer and stores it into thehistory. It also serves the data to the cli-ent workstat ions, other servers orapplications. The server will also backfill data from the other PIMS server ifthe Scanner Computer is unavailable. TheIIS server is the main engine for PIWS’Single Web Interface. e-Process Reportruns on the IIS server and schedules andgenerates operations reports. This serveralso accesses data for Web pages re-quested by users on thin client PC’s us-ing standard Web browsers. PIMS Utilitiesare used to safeguard historical informa-tion and ensure its completeness at bothoffshore and onshore locations. Back-up and restore procedures onto a differ-ent medium are used to safeguardprocess data stored in the PIMS histo-rian in case of accidental loss or cor-ruption of data. Whenevera Scanner computer isunavailable, a backfill util-ity will transfer processdata from one PIMS serverto the other in order tokeep both servers withidentical data.

The InfoPlus.21 (IP.21)PIMS historian is an NTbased three-tiered client/server software platformfor automated collection,storage and presentationof real time and historicalplant data. IP.21 has beendesigned with a flexiblereal time database to fit ap-pl ica t ion needs and astate-of-the-art historicaldatabase capable of stor-ing data at true resolution.PIMS provides both arobust, current picture ofthe process and the abil-ity to access accumulatedknowledge using historicalinformation that can bequickly ident i f ied, re-trieved and deployed inother applications. PIMScan be the platform for

ISREP-09

from anywhere. This data is then avail-able for historical queries and for use incalculations. A separate facility is alsoavailable to enter manual data directlyinto the MPRS system.

The e-Process Report package enablesthe configuration, scheduling, and execu-tion of reports that encompass both realtime and historical data. Report layoutsare conf igured using the s tandardMicrosoft’s Excel spreadsheet packagebut have the benefit of being in a self-contained reporting package with a se-cure interface.

The Infoplus.21 PIMS historian has thecapability to calculate derived data val-ues using any combination of collectedprocess data (raw data), manually en-tered data, other calculated data and nu-merical factors within Calc.21. Thesecalculations are embedded within the se-cure PIMS servers as a trusted calcula-tion source.

Web based InterfacePIWS is incorporated in the SOEI PIMSsystem to serve data to the Intranetlocated onshore and offshore. From a

client computer, a desktop browser canaccess information served to the IIS fromPIMS as well as any other data that SOEImay choose to integrate at a later date.

The beauty of the Web solution is thatany person in the company can easilybrowse live and historical process plantdata with a simple Internet browser. Us-ers will be able to access the applica-tions with a single interface. Web userscan enter manually captured lab data intoPIMS or MPRS, view on-line documents(Bailey CAD and Composer drawings,spreadsheets, process and instrumenta-tion drawings, financial information,maintenance information and instrumen-tation data), view process data, graphicsand trends. The Process Graphic Viewerwithin PIWS allows graphics from theOCS Operator Interface System consolesto be displayed in view (no control) onlymode within Web pages. These OCSgraphics are actual graphics viewed byoperators and contain animated processvalues coming from console servers. Thispackage will save SOEI money in nothaving to engineer another set of proc-ess type graphics for the PIMS package.The status of the OCS system nodes can

also be monitored withinPIWS using the Control Net-work Viewer.

Well-test batch reports areretrieved from the PIMS da-tabase for analys is andresults are stored into thePIMS database. Within Webbased e-Process Report ,users may view and con-

figure reports or issue a request to theMPRS system to generate a report anddisplay it in the web browser.

The single Web user interface consistsas a two-frame HTML document. The leftframe utilizes the standard MicrosoftActiveX components to provide the useran expandable/collapsible navigationaltree so users never get lost in the Web.The contents of this tree control objectare:

• Process Graphic Viewer to displayOperator Console screens

• e-Process Report to view, configureand manually request reports,execute

• Manual Data Entry into an HTMLdocument

• Aspen Tech InfoPlus.21 @aGlancetools to create static Web pagesusing provided CGI, ActiveX orJava based components

• Aspen Tech “Process Explorer WebComponents” to view IP.21 ProcessGraphics and Trend Displays

• Online documents and Help allowlinks to frequently used docu-ments, help and user created files.

The PIMS system at SOEI is essential toassist in increasing productivity, decreas-ing costs and will lead to better real-timedecision making. The expected paybackon similar PIMS systems is less than 6months. Should you want us to reviewyour site needs for process informationsystems, please give us a call to com-plete a needs analysis audit.