Using NI FieldPoint and LabVIEW to Perform Redundant Drilling Control on the Alaskan Schlumberger Oil Drilling Operation

Author(s):
John Roy - B & B Technologies

Industry:
Oil and Gas

Products:
Compact FieldPoint, Industrial I/O, LabVIEW, FieldPoint

The Challenge:
Creating a monitoring alarm system with control and shutdown capabilities to prevent costly pump damage and environmental hazards and make the job of the pump operator safer and easier.

The Solution:
Designing a reliable custom control system using NI FieldPoint hardware and LabVIEW Real-Time software.

Schlumberger Limited is a global oilfield and information services company with major focus in the energy industry. The company delivers real-time technology services and solutions across industry markets that customers use to translate acquired data into useful information for improved decision making.

Over the past several years, Schlumberger’s groundbreaking coiled tubing drilling (CTD) operations in Alaska have been opening the door to a host of cost-effective, new techniques for exposing bypassed oil reserves and enhancing well productivity. CTD uses a long, continuous length of pipe wound on a spool. The pipe is straightened prior to pushing it into a wellbore and recoiled to spool the pipe back onto the transport and storage spool. Because connection time is eliminated during tripping, Schlumberger uses coiled tubing so operations proceed quickly when compared to using a jointed pipe drilling rig. Nearly half of all new wells in North America’s largest oilfield use coiled tubing for drilling.

Safety Top Priority
While the CDT system provided numerous benefits, including greater safety and efficiency, reduced environmental impact, minimized formation damage, and improved drilling performance, operation managers at Schlumberger’s Prudhoe Bay field in Alaska were seeking a customized integration system. They wanted to implement an automated backup for their drilling technicians and operators, to provide a backup controller for their computer operations, and to standardize the operator interfaces on different pump equipment. Designing a customized system to meet these needs would create built-in redundancy for extra security and could save lives as well as money.

Schlumberger contracted with NST for a solution to this industrial challenge. NST is a National Instruments Select Integrator headquartered in New Mexico, that designs and produces data acquisition and control systems for a variety of industrial applications. We have extensive experience with the use of LabVIEW and FieldPoint technologies, and have utilized both products in industries ranging from automotive and oil and gas to military and aerospace.

After evaluating the requirements of the Schlumberger system, we determined that the key system requirements were:

• Reliability
• Ruggedness
• Embedded Control
• Data Logging
• Communication
  
  

Because the system required both reliability and a mix of advanced functionality such as data logging and embedded control, we recommended using LabVIEW Real-Time running on a FieldPoint control bank. We worked with Schlumberger to design a computerized, soft pump integration system to act as a backup controller in the event that the host computer became disabled, idle, or shut down.

Automation Delivers Added Control
This soft pump integration system was composed of five major components – the personal computer, SPI control box, engine, transmission, and pump. The heart of the system is the control box, which we designed using a FieldPoint 2000 Real-Time module with digital inputs and outputs, analog inputs, 2 frequency to analog transducers, and a battery-backed up power supply. The custom software, using NI LabVIEW Real Time, delivered a simple, easy-to-use standard control interface with user-configurable alarm monitoring and data logging capabilities. The control system communicates with a central monitoring system, which is equipped to perform remote shutdowns of any pump system on the entire network.

We built numerous other safeguards into the system’s design, including “watchdog” mode, which monitors all engine parameters and shuts down when one parameter exceeds pre-defined “normal limits.” The system can monitor levels and automatically adjust the throttle to maintain certain pump levels. In addition, if the pump operator’s laptop becomes disconnected, the control box kicks the engine transmission into neutral and idles the throttle. The control box continues to monitor engine parameters and shuts off the engine when levels exceed normal limits. The operator can retrieve the log entries when the laptop connection is restored.

If a different laptop is connected to the control box, the box will upload its settings to the new operator’s laptop for control to continue. All calibration settings, alarm levels, and control procedures are stored in the control box. The FieldPoint modules are hot swappable, providing easy, on-site maintenance with minimum down time.

NI FieldPoint provides solutions for controlling and monitoring instrumentation, including water pumps, temperature controllers, and drilling systems. Schlumberger is using these systems in Alaska and in Malaysia.

For more information, contact: 

Timothy R. Brooks

NTS

5200 Pasadena Ave NE

Albuquerque, NM 87113

Tel: 505-345-9499

E-mail: tim.brooks@ntscorp.com

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