Huawei: Digitalisation enables smarter, safer oil and gas camp management

Camp management is key to the process of oil and gas production and their mis-use can easily lead to accidents, production faults or a breakdown of supply.

This is according to Li Yangming, Chief Representative, Oil & Gas Industry of Global Energy Business Unit, Huawei EBG while explaining how new digital technologies are boosting efficiency, safety and productivity in oil and gas camps.

He said this in the build up to the upcoming 5th edition of the Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) which will hold from February 27 to March 3, 2002 convened by the Federal Government of Nigeria and hosted by the NNPC where the company will be discussing on how to overcome the crisis and challenges of data to barrel in the oil & gas industry, with policy-makers and industry leaders as well as Huawei’s latest plans for the oil and gas industry in Africa.

“The combustible and explosive nature of oil and gas means that these are inevitably high-risk areas. Mis-use of oil and gas camp equipment can easily lead to accidents, production faults or a breakdown of supply. Not only does this bring immediate danger, it can also result in economic losses to large enterprises as well as damage to the surrounding environment. While routine inspection can mitigate some risk it cannot pinpoint every potential danger. And with legacy equipment in use, possible safety issues cannot be predicted in advance. When combined, all of these factors can pose potential safety risks to the operation of oil and gas camps,” Li said.

The NIES is the official energy meeting of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It was formerly known as the Nigerian International Petroleum Summit (NIPS). The theme of this year’s event is “Revitalising the Industry: Future fuels and Energy Transition”

Speaking further, Li added: “The answer lies in digital transformation. This can help to boost safety at oil and gas fields, while also reducing costs and improving efficiency. The use of reliable production networks and data ensure that the operations are secure, while technologies such as voice and video interaction between the site and the dispatching centre makes daily processes more efficient. A digital approach also enables resources to be used more efficiently.”

“We are now entering a new era where digital transformation is already driving the evolution of smarter and safer oil and gas camp management. For example, vehicle patrols can be improved using HD video. On many sites, patrol personnel have to be authorised and managed manually while access permits for guest vehicles rely on manual document verification. Patrol video cannot be relayed to the control centre in real time, and patrol reports must be completed manually which is not only time consuming but may result in a lack of detail in safety records.

“Camp management is key to the process of oil and gas production. The combination of IoT and 5G leads to a “1+1 >2” result in production. So far, Huawei has integrated smart O&M, security management, and access control functions into the daily operations of oil and gas camps, while more intelligent features can be realised through our solution, which makes remote collaboration, drone Inspection, and HSE surveillance possible. These implementations are showing how technology makes the operation of oil and gas camps more efficient, more convenient, and safer.

“Other IOT solution for oil and gas fields can be found here https://e.huawei.com/za/solutions/industries/oil-gas

“Huawei is committed to shaping the digital evolution of the oil and gas industry. We recognise the importance of intelligent applications based on technologies such as AI, AR, VR, 5G and we are providing the infrastructure that enables our partners to make use of these innovations to optimise their processes in a way that is secure, reliable and safe.

“Huawei has invested a total of $4 billion researching 5G technology since 2009, submitting 26,600 standards contributions to the 3GPP. Currently, we have more than 10,000 people working on 5G networks. We already work with 85 per cent of the world’s top 20 oil and gas companies across 45 countries and regions with our long list of valued partners including ADNOC, Saudi Aramco, and Total,” Li said.