Halliburton confident that pricevolatility will not impact business

Soaring oil revenues fail to mask region’s economic problems

Gulf oil majors address safety issues

Global energy supplies cannot meet forecast demand

Qatar - getting ready to meet the global energy challenge

How to counter corrosion problems

Automated drilling systems attract interest

Machine tools help speed progress

Why wireless technology will opendoors for oil and gas companies

UK £10, USA $16.50

Current investments worth US$300 billion in the oilexploration and production sectors of the Gulfcountries are expected to boost these countries'production capacity by 10mn barrels a day by 2015.See the latest exploration and production newsstarting on page 28.

Vol 11Issue Four 2008

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86 Oil Review Middle East Issue Four 2008

OOIL REVIEW recently spoke with RajuSeshadri, Industrial Automation (IA)Marketing Manager at YokogawaMiddle East about the development of

wireless technologies in the oil and gas sector.

What is your opinion on the importance of wireless(new) technologies in the oil, gas andpetrochemicals sector?Wireless technology will open doors and provideinformation about processes where it wastraditionally difficult to measure due to the cost ofcabling and safety reasons. In the oil and gasindustry, the expected wireless applications amongstmany others are:6 Upstream wellhead monitoring6 Rig monitoring6 Pipeline monitoring6 Oil/gas tanker vessels6 Stack gas monitoring6 Tank farm monitoring.

The potential advantages for users includereduced cost, reduced fieldwork, reduced installationtime and improved efficiency and safety.

Does the cost of a wireless technology installationdiffer from (the cost of) previous means ofcommunication?The initial installation cost of wireless devices willbe significantly lower, although the total cost ofownership (lifecycle ownership) is under moredetailed study due to power/battery life issues.

What is the average cost of an installation? Set-upcosts? How long does it take?The average installation cost and installation timecould be reduced by 50 per cent or more.

How are the installations maintained? How longdoes it last – is it dependent on weatherconditions/interference, for example?Proper site and installation planning is veryimportant especially when taking into accountfuture expansion capability. The set-up must havethe ability to adjust to changes in theelectromagnetic environment, such as when newobstacles are introduced between wireless devicesor extensive radio interference occurs.

What are the benefits of having a wirelessinstallation? In terms of practicality, and return oninvestment?Wireless solutions are expected to reduce bothcapital expenditure and operational expenditure.

It can reduce not only the cost of cabling butalso reduce downtime and maintenance due to

more digital field information being available.Moreover, it improves safety and product qualitywhile reducing the environmental impact.

What applications does the wireless technologyprovide? Physical security, data logging, forexample?While there are many potential applications, theycan be categorised into three groups. 6 The first group is the empowerment of existing

wired devices, which are able to collectadditional information through wirelesscommunication.

6 The second group is new applications that utiliseonline wireless access to process data we wereunable to observe before.

6 The last consists of applications where wiredinstrumentation is replaced with wireless. Weexpect ‘wired device support’ (i.e. diagnosis) and‘new applications’ (i.e. asset monitoring,environmental monitoring etc) will start to beadopted widely from next year, because theindustrial standard covering these applicationswill be in place. However, it will take some timebefore ‘alternate applications’ (i.e. processcontrol) are adopted widely as they require moreexperience, higher reliability and practical powermanagement.

What makes your company’s services different from others?The vision of our industrial automation system iscalled Vigilant Plant. We put the ‘see clearly, knowin advance, act with agility’ cycle at the heart of thatvision. We can paraphrase this cycle in many ways.For example, ‘visualise, predict, and navigate’, or‘inform, plan, and optimise’.

Anyway, the essence lies in reducing blind spots,avoiding surprises and pre-empting bottlenecks sothat the system enables faster, adaptive businessdecisions and plant operations.

The wireless solution allows us to fulfil thisethos of excellence even further. We are focusing oncustomer satisfaction not just for the lifecycle of theproduct but also in the future. Our solution coversnot only wireless but all of our systems includingwired I/O.

What, in your opinion are the advantages ofhaving/providing ‘real-time’ monitoring forprocessing plants and refineries?Real time monitoring is absolutely mandatory forrefineries and process plants. Instant alerts are veryimportant for real time communication.

Wireless standards – Is it important thatinstallations incorporate all wireless standards?And why? Yokogawa believes that industry standards are veryimportant and the company has been contributingto standardisation. We continue to drive for oneglobal standard in order to realise a real multi-vendor environment. The purposes of standardisationare as follows:6 To realise a true multi-vendor environment. Any

wireless field devices from any vendor should be

able to communicate with each other because ofstandardisation. This will mean users can choosethe best device regardless of the communicationinterface.

6 To provide a common infrastructure such asnetworking equipment, management systemsand tools. A common infrastructure can reducethe level of training needed as well.

6 To maximise frequency utilisation. It is veryimportant that wireless communications sharefinite common space and frequency resources.This situation is quite different from wiredcommunication. I mean a wired communicationsystem can do anything on its own wireregardless of other systems, but for wireless, thefrequency resource is limited. Therefore allwireless systems should be managed in terms offrequency resources. For example, a 2.4GHzindustrial wireless system has to coexist withWiFi, which is wireless LAN radio.Appropriate standards will reduce both the users’

and manufactures’ costs and increase userconfidence, encouraging more users to adoptwireless systems.

Which wireless standards can you work with? Howcan these standards be developed in the future andunified?Yokogawa is evaluating every possible standardtechnology, such as WirelessHART and ISA100, andwill select the best. ISA100 is a family of wirelessstandards being designed to meet plant-wide needsfor many applications such as:6 Process automation6 Factory automation focusing on discrete6 Transmission and distribution focusing on liner

long distance6 RFID for industrial tagging.

ISA100.11a is the industrial wireless standardtargeting process automation. It can communicatewith many existing application protocols such asFoundation Fieldbus, Profibus, and also HARTprotocol. Therefore users can preserve their existingprotocol investments and protect future protocolneeds.

Who are your major clients?Yokogawa is constantly expanding and consolidatingits base in the Middle East region. The company’smain industry focus is on oil and gas, refining,petrochemicals and power.

Any closing comments?Yokogawa firmly believes that the key to thesuccess of wireless is establishing a standard. Theinteroperability is most important. Yokogawa wishesto develop valuable ‘Field Wireless Solutions’cooperating with users. ‘Field Wireless Solutions’must be one of the enablers of the ‘see clearly’ and‘know in advance’ tenets of the Vigilant Plant ethos.Yokogawa will provide both samples ofWirelessHART and of SP100.11a and we will laterselect one of them according to the feedback fromfield trials and the situation of standardisation withinthe market. ■

In the highly competitive and dynamic oil and gas sector, innovative technology solutions canbe the difference between profit and loss.

Real Time

To maximise frequencyutilisation. It is very

important that wirelesscommunications share

finite common space andfrequency resources.

monitoring

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