Next-level asset management for next-level performance: How upstream operators can get more out of their existing assets

Posted: August 8, 2023

The challenge: Unsustainable cost

For upstream companies, the cost of unplanned downtime continues to add up. Research from Senseye Predictive Maintenance shows that the average oil and gas producer loses up to $128 million per year. ¹ In today’s energy environment, that magnitude of loss just isn’t sustainable.

The recent energy crisis and the resulting focus on energy supply and security have led to a recovery in oil and gas demand. Capitalizing on that demand, however, isn’t so easy. For years, the industry has underinvested in production, and new capacity will take time to come online. In the meantime, upstream operations teams need to fill the gap and get more performance out of existing assets. That, too, is easier said than done.

Assets are getting older, and so is the workforce. As this generation of workers retires, departing workers are taking their knowledge and experience with them. To take advantage of the opportunities ahead, upstream companies will need to rely on new technologies to monitor, manage and maintain their assets at the next level.

First, the foundation: Data management

Data is the foundation of successful production operations. IBM estimates that the average offshore production platform has 80,000 real-time data streams.² With so much data, upstream operators must have a scalable data management infrastructure to collect, manage, contextualize, and analyze it all. Without that data management foundation, turning raw data streams into actionable insights is next to impossible.

Luckily, where data management is concerned, a number of upstream companies have a head start. Many leading exploration and production companies have long since adopted AVEVA™ PI System™, the industry standard for operational data management. AVEVA PI System allows these companies to properly manage millions of streams of data and enable production and asset monitoring, optimization, and analytics.

For a long time now, asset management and reliability teams have relied on AVEVA PI System for a condition-based approach to maintenance. AVEVA PI System empowers teams to monitor operations in real time, react quickly to equipment anomalies, and notify field personnel and engineering teams of any potential issues.

These improvements are markedly more sophisticated than simple schedule-based maintenance, and for some pieces of equipment, provide the perfect solution for optimal performance. Other types of equipment, however, require a far more sophisticated approach. High-value equipment with long lead times or equipment that is especially critical to production can benefit from having any failures predicted as early as possible.

Next, sophisticated APM: Advanced analytics

The average upstream company using AVEVA PI System has a massive wealth of data. Within all that data lies the answer to maximizing production, minimizing cost, and ensuring safe and reliable operations.

By layering in advanced asset performance management (APM) solutions and predictive analytics, upstream operators can start to refine their maintenance strategies and identify patterns and correlations in their data that can provide very early warnings of future failures. Once these predictive models are running in real-time, operations teams are more informed about asset and equipment health and are empowered to make optimal maintenance decisions.

To learn how upstream operators can get more performance out of their existing assets, Read the White paper.

<sup>1. “The True Cost of  Downtime 2022.” Senseye Predictive Maintenance. Published by Siemens, 2023.
2. Evenson, Ole, and David Womak. “How AI can pump new life into oilfields.” Expert Insights, IBM.</sup>