Placing Data at the Center of the Industry

Q: OSIsoft has a global reach, but what is the company’s focus in the Mexican market?

A: OSIsoft has contracts with every major oil and gas company around the world, including BP, Shell and Marathon Oil. While most of these contracts are based with the company’s country headquarters, they have a global reach, and therefore we also provide our data management services to these companies in Mexico. We also have a contract with PEMEX and are present across the company’s entire value chain, from upstream to downstream. Until last year, most of our work was centered on PEMEX Industrial Transformation. We helped to improve the efficiency of its refineries and the production maintenance of its critical assets. Via the organization and management of data derived from the assets, we were identifying potential threats to the smooth function of the refineries to reduce downtime. We applied machine learning models to understand when and where in those refineries PEMEX should work on preventative maintenance. We also worked with PEMEX Logistics, optimizing the mass balance of the hydrocarbons that would be transported via its pipeline network. Anomalies, vibrations in critical assets and drops in pressure were other concerns that we would help identify via data analysis. Since the beginning of 2019, demand for OSIsoft services has come from the upstream, including real-time drilling and the monitoring of production.

Q: How can the adoption of OSIsoft’s PI System help offshore operators become more efficient?

A: OSIsoft helps operators verify their geophysical models during the drilling phase to evaluate their strategy going forward. We apply our knowledge to the analysis of real-time drilling data. This allows us to compare the operator’s model against the real situation and to review production outputs they are expecting so that decisions on the oil field can be made with the correct information. Over the course of the last two to three decades, operators have learned that the model of a reservoir is not in itself sufficient for setting a course for the long run. Exact information is required. Because oil and gas operators hire different drilling companies to carry out services on their blocks, there can be trouble in amalgamating the information coming from these different companies. Each drilling company will use their own data systems, but no two systems are the same nor do they share the same language. By implementing our flagship software, the PI System, OSIsoft organizes and harmonizes data so that the production process from different systems can be interpreted and understood at a central point. Within the construction of data models that the PI System carries out, there are two separate but interwoven levels. The first receives the data to be organized. The second level organizes and interprets that data, which allows the analytics to be defined. Users can then receive and read the information on their cellphones or tablets to understand what is happening with their assets.

Q: How has the adoption of technology in the oil and gas industry changed and where will the challenges come from?

A: Twenty years ago, the oil and gas industry did not have the culture it does today of protecting assets, controlling information and using data. There was minimal integration or exchange of data between the engineers at the wellhead and those at the refinery. Little attention was given to the mass balance of hydrocarbons or the way the product changes as it moves through pipelines or is otherwise transported. Today, there is an emphasis on understanding this change because it has a direct economic effect. Controlling the environment of the hydrocarbon transport to deliver the right oil blend to a refinery will maximize the economic return for the operator. Modern data management can deliver this control. However, the problem major companies like PEMEX have is the cohesion of data collected from differently-aged assets that employ different technologies.

OSIsoft is the global provider of the patented PI System, enabling companies across industries to reduce their downtime, manage assets and mitigate risks by bringing together disparate data sources to present a comprehensive picture of assets.