Digital oilfield

A Digital Edge for Wireline Logging

Edge—or, in-field, device-level—computing is being driven by the need for data from individual wells to be analyzed and processed at the wellsite instead of in data centers for early and accurate decision making.

Edge—or, in-field, device-level—computing is being driven by the need for data from individual wells to be analyzed and processed at the wellsite instead of in data centers for early and accurate decision making. Enabled by a hybrid model of the industrial internet of things (IIoT), edge computing puts relatively small central processing units and disks into devices that sit “at the edge,” or where data are generated (i.e., the field). The devices are connected to computers that communicate, either wirelessly or through wires, with an enterprise site someplace else. Analyzing data at the edge enables significant decreases in the overall volume of data (upward of 2TB/day at some wellsites).

Schlumberger is among companies taking edge computing seriously. The company is developing Ora, an intelligent wireline formation platform that is based on a digital hardware platform with sensors that monitor “everything that moves on the tool,” and has data protocols built in, according to David Seabrook, the company’s digital strategy manager.

According to Seabrook, the smart hardware has been used in 40 jobs in the North Sea, United States, Middle East, and Mexico, among others. The next phase is the interface between the hardware and the operator. The final product will leverage real-time contextual insight to enable entire logging programs to be simulated in advance to help operators see where potential problems exist and where they want to focus, then replan on the fly and make decisions to alter operations, if necessary, before the tool leaves the well.

“The data we get goes directly into a reservoir model in real time, and the operator can look at it in 3D because it’s on the cloud. So, we can see how it’s changing their understanding of the subsurface, and they can tell us if they need more data while they are still in the field with the equipment in the well. This will move control from the service provider to the client,” said Seabrook.