3 Tips to choose the right Pipeline SCADA system

Posted: November 2^nd 2020

One fine morning, I woke up to the sound of rain in my bedroom and quickly realized that my ceiling was leaking. Water was dripping from the light fixture causing a blackout in the house.  Immediately I called and engaged a contractor who came to fix the leak as a small leak could turn into big problems if left unattended. While the contractor was repairing the leak, my thoughts began to wander off to the oil and gas pipeline operations.  Just imagine what the impact would be like if this was a pipeline leak incident?

As recent as last month, a leak was discovered on a crude oil transportation pipeline running through Tiruvarur District of the Tamil Nadu state in southern India, causing significant contamination in the surrounding farming area. For a pipeline operator, nothing can be worse than having a pipeline incident lead to safety issues and environmental damage.

Most economical and safest mode of transportation

In today’s rapidly evolving world, the midstream pipeline industry continues to retain its position as a primary mode of transportation for crude oil, natural gas and refined products. Comparing to rail or trucking, pipelines are still the safest and economical way to transport oil and gas.  However, companies are increasingly finding it difficult to maintain the safety and efficiency of their pipeline operations due to the demand volatility in the wake of Covid-19.  With digitalization expecting to gain pace in the post-pandemic era, the volume of data and information in oil and gas will continue to grow exponentially.  Adding to the challenge, oil and gas pipelines are vast infrastructure running across large areas where efficient use of data is crucial to maintain a safe and efficient operations. 

SCADA is the Foundation of Digitalization

Lacking a robust Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to acquire and process huge volume of data in real time will incur significant waste on maintenance and operations budgets, and resources to keep the vast network of pipelines running safely and efficiently. Therefore, the key to achieving the next level of efficiency and safety performance is a comprehensive SCADA system that combines pipeline management tools with enterprise-wide information access and visualisation; one that allows users to have complete control of their asset information throughout the entire asset life.

When evaluating a SCADA system for a green field or brown field pipeline projects, these are 3 features that you can look for to find the best platform for your application needs.

Top 3 features of a robust SCADA system

1. A flexible and scalable SCADA platform that enables seamless connectivity to advanced liquid and gas pipeline applications and leak detection analytics to improve pipeline performance and integrity.
2. Allow a more seamless upgrade cycle with minimal operational impact to reduce total cost of ownership across the lifecycle
3. Flexible subscription models that allows companies to maximize ROI with options to implement solutions from the broader AVEVA portfolio including Engineering, Unified Operations Center, Predictive Analytics, Insights and many more. 

An Oil Major deploys AVEVA Enterprise SCADA to digitalize 400 Oil Wells

An oil major chose AVEVA Enterprise SCADA to monitor and control 400 wells in the Permian Basin as part of its digital initiatives. With improved data acquisition, visualization and integration, AVEVA delivers clear benefits to the company by enabling users with the next level of situation awareness. In addition, the flexible commercial arrangement allows the company to maximize ROI with options to implement other software packages to support its digital transformation plan when needed.

Are you ready to take the first steps to learn more about AVEVA Enterprise SCADA to gain a competitive advantage today?  Register for this On-Demand Webinar today.

Join Darin Quest for this On-Demand Webinar ”Leverage world's most trusted Pipeline Management System as your Digital Transformational Platform”.  In this webinar, Darin Quest highlights the approach to Digital Transformation that enables companies to significantly maximize safety and business performance from operations to maintenance through informed decision making, improved asset utilization, detection of abnormal operating conditions, and improved operator situational awareness. 

Want to learn more?

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The most trusted SCADA for oil and gas pipeline operations

Reference:

https://www.pipeline-journal.net/news/ongc-oil-pipeline-springs-leak-tamil-nadu-southern-india